JESSICA

At the turn of the century, cast against the harsh landscape of the Australian outback, the resilience of the human spirit is about to be tested as never before. Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Australia’s best-selling author Bryce Courtenay (The Power of One), Jessica is the incredible true story of one woman’s remarkable fight for justice against enormous odds.

The Bergman sisters could not be more different. The unconventional Jessica (Leeanna Walsman, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones) is a feisty tomboy who loves to help her father work their farmland. Her beautiful, pampered sister, Meg, is eagerly being groomed by their mother, Hester, to be the perfect wife so that she can be married out of poverty and enjoy the life her mother feels she so richly deserves. Consequently, when the handsome man whom Meg has set her sights on falls in love with Jessica, Hester schemes to wrench the couple apart. She pitilessly claims Jessica’s son for Meg and commits the helpless Jessica to a mental asylum.

Then, as the threat of World War II strikes close to home, Jessica receives news of Meg’s husband and her one-time lover’s death and almost loses hope. In desperation, she enlists the help of Mr. Runche (Sam Neill, Jurassic Park), a down and out lawyer battling alcoholism whose determination to prove himself is rewarded with Jessica’s eventual release. But for Jessica and the newly reformed Mr. Runche, the battle has only just begun. Together they must gather the courage to confront Jessica’s family and fight for the return of the child so cruelly taken from her. What unfolds is an extraordinary saga of the resilience of the human spirit as a young woman faces life’s most daunting challenges.

Jessica, the captivating and poignant story that has remained one of Australia’s top ten bestsellers since it was first published in 1998, is now a spellbinding new miniseries for television.