Seventh Row

A place to think deeply about movies

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Ep. 117: The North Water

This episode focuses on site favourite Andrew Haigh’s newest project, The North Water, starring Jack O’Connell and Colin Farrell. We discuss how this on-the-surface unusual work fits into Haigh’s thematic interests.

This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.

Jack O’Connell and Stephen Graham in The North Water

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and special guest Fiona Underhill. It also features an excerpt from Alex’s interview with Andrew Haigh.

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The North Water

Patrick Sumner (Jack O’Connell), an ex-army surgeon desperate for work signs aboard a whaling expedition. The expedition is not what it seems and it leads Patrick into a fight for survival in both the isolated North and the power brokers in Hull. The North Water co-stars Colin Farrell, Stephen Graham, Tom Courtenay, and Sam Spruell.

The five episodes of The North Water are available to stream on Prime and AMC in the US and BBC iPlayer in the UK.

On this episode

  • Intro (1:05)
  • Why did Andrew Haigh do this series? (16:42)
  • Andrew Haigh on upending expectations in his work (28:11)
  • Who is the real evil? Drax (Colin Farrell), Cavendish (Sam Spruell), and Baxter (Tom Courtenay) (35:01)
  • What does it mean to be civilized (45:12)
  • Sumner and Drax as mirrors (51:51)
  • The episodic structure (1:00:03)
  • The Inuit characters (1:20:01)
  • The lack of promotion for the series (1:27:27)
  • Conclusion (1:32:55)

Show notes

  • Visit our Directors We Love page on Andrew Haigh, collecting all of our articles and podcasts about his film and television work
  • Check out MovieJawn magazine for Fiona’s article on The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, starring a young Tom Courtenay
  • Purchase our ebook on Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete
  • Purchase our ebook on Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir

Related episodes

  • Ep. 110: Brief encounters: Weekend and End of the Century
  • Ep. 94: Looking
  • Ep. 91: AIDS on screen, featuring It’s a Sin
  • Ep. 69: Paddington and Paddington 2
  • Ep. 53: Boys State and First Stripes
  • Ep. 32: Sorry We Missed You and Peterloo
  • Ep. 7: Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete