Benedict Cumberbatch ("Tipping the Velvet") stars in a three-part adaptation of William Golding's ripping sea yarn about a young aristocrat's nine-month voyage from England to Australia at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The cast includes Sam Neill ("Doctor Zhivago") as a political rabble-rouser, Jared Harris (son of Richard, The Notorious Betty Paige) as the captain and Victoria Hamilton ("King Lear") as a proto-feminist governess. The gripping tale of survival in increasingly desperate straits recalls another of Golding's books, The Lord of the Flies. Golding knew a thing or two about seafaring: he served on British ships throughout World War II, participating in the sinking of the Bismarck.