CREATOR’S STATEMENT

I first read a biography of Francis Drake in 1997 and was so struck by his personality as a leader of men, his adventures and achievements, that I recall telling my friends and buying them all a copy of the book. In recent years, when I re-read the book, I came to believe that this is possibly the greatest "unknown" story in history. I subsequently read almost every book ever written on Drake, immersing myself in his world and the geo-politics of the Sixteenth century. Certain images from that intense research moved me so deeply and compelled me to envision Drake’s story as a television drama.  

Some of those images were:

• Drake cresting a hill with escaped slaves after weeks of trekking through the Panamanian jungle and seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and realizing that this was the Spanish Achille's Heel.

• Drake reluctantly hanging mutineers on the same gallows in southern Argentina where Magellan hanged his own mutineers, with a backdrop of black cliffs.

• Drake and his crew seeing their sister ship getting swamped by a huge wave in the Southern Ocean and disappearing in a second, never to be seen again.

• Natives of California, covered in grey ash, welcoming Drake, believing him to be a God, and being distraught, weeks later, when he departed.

These moments only scratch the surface of this man’s incredible and contradictory life which contains within it such a variety of adventure, emotion, conflict, politics and, above all, courage.

When you read my script, I hope you will be moved as much as I was when I first encountered Drake’s incredible story.