Setting his new series in 18th century Australia might seem like a departure for Jimmy McGovern - the BAFTA-winning writer renowned for using drama to address issues plaguing contemporary Britain.

But when asked what's inherently special about a McGovern script, regardless of setting, both Russell Tovey and MyAnna Buring give the same answer: "Character."

Both star in McGovern's new BBC Two series Banished - a seven-part serial about the first settlers in Oz, many of whom were convicts shipped halfway across the world against their will.

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"Jimmy adores the people he writes and he knows intrinsically who each of these people are, and the way that those characters interweave is inherent to him," Tovey suggests.

Buring - speaking to DS a few days later - is similarly effusive about McGovern: "He just gets straight down to the nitty-gritty of what it means to be human.

"You can be in the future, the past or the present - that's still relevant and I think that's what makes Jimmy's writing. He writes characters who have flaws and strengths - and it doesn't seem to matter whether they're male or female. He's just able to write human beings."

Cracker star Robbie Coltrane once said of McGovern: "Basically we wait around until Jimmy has got really angry about something, then he writes" - but Tovey believes that Banished is perhaps less overtly political than the writer's previous work.

"I don't think he set out to do anything political with this. It's just something which he has been fascinated by - the history of Australia. It was fascinating to him - how these minor criminals, some of them innocent, are shipped off to the other side of the world and how they survive.

"My character James is a pickpocket - nowadays he would get a fine or community service, but to be shipped off to the other side of the world to start again is just... terrifying."


Buring adds: "On the one hand, this is a story about survival and what you need to survive, but also - possibly more crucially - it's about why you want to live. I think that's what Jimmy explores here."

Banished charts the very early days of the first settlement and sees convicts James Freeman (Tovey), Elizabeth Quinn (Buring) and Tommy (Julian Rhind-Tutt) face starvation, subjugation and often quite shocking violence.

On one occasion, Tovey was even accidentally exposed to some real violence - while shooting a scene with imposing actor Rory McGann, best known for playing the terrifying Hound on Game of Thrones.

"In real life, Rory is an absolute sweetheart and incredibly sensitive - but he's also a massive man with hands the size of my torso," Tovey laughs. "There was a scene where he's slapping me and one of them slaps actually hit me…

"The noise rippled across the water and everybody took an intake of breath... I said, 'Have you got that on f**king camera, I can't hear at the moment, but I bet it looked great!'

"Rory was so apologetic and if it was a rehearsal, I might've been annoyed, but the fact that we got it on camera... I'm so method I didn't mind that he'd actually hit me!"


All in all, Tovey calls the shoot for Banished in Manly, New South Wales "gruelling, but so rewarding", adding: "These scenes are written to be tough, and when you shoot it, it's tough - but worth it."

He and Buring would both be more than game for a second series, something that Jimmy McGovern has stated is a possibility, voicing his desire to focus more on Australia's indigenous population.

"The natives have got to be introduced - they don't feature in this series, because Jimmy didn't want to just make them tokenistic, he wanted them to have their own characters," Tovey explains.

"But that's something I think he would absolutely be tempted to explore if it goes again. So this show can just grow and grow and grow - there's no limit to where the story can go."

Buring once more echoes her co-star's enthusiasm: "I think all of us would love to rejoin this story and be a part of it again - some stories that you tell, they become very close to your heart - and this is one of those."

Banished begins on Thursday (March 5) at 9pm on BBC Two.