I vividly remember watching this enthralling mini series in December 1988, when it was first aired on the continent. When it was aired again, I watched again and it hadn't lost any of its charm. The storyline is captivating, more or less accurately based on the life and journeys of James Cook. It has a nice pace, but not the breathtaking and head-spinning fast cuts of more "modern", video-clip like productions. There are real characters and no cardboard figures. The production values are good for a TV movie of the eighties, and the acting is superb. Very often, if you have such a motley crew of actors of all the countries which have (financially) contributed to the film, the result is not always satisfactory, the actors, due for example to language difficulties, not forming a team. This is decidedly not the case here: British, Australian, French, German and Spanish actors do a marvellous job, especially Keith Michell as James Cook and the German actor Erich Hallhuber, who plays Lieutenant John Gore. Why don't TV stations air such gems more often?
Review of Captain James Cook
