But more than that, Jared also seems to have inherited Richard's stage presence. He has the innate capacity to grab your attention without even speaking, a trait he puts to good use in his latest role as the wily Captain Anderson in BBC2's epic new three-part adaptation of William Golding's seafaring trilogy To the Ends of the Earth. Anderson is commanding a ship undertaking an immense, and immensely perilous, nine-month voyage from England to Australia in the early 19th century. The trip is told through the eyes of an unworldly aristocrat, Edmund Talbot (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). Much of the work echoes the themes of Golding's celebrated The Lord of the Flies. Homing in on a febrile, enclosed community,To the Ends of the Earth underlines Golding's view that "man produces evil as a bee produces honey".Lying on the grass in a west-London park on a summer evening, Harris observes that To the Ends of the Earth gives a gritty, warts-and-all depiction of the true horror of such a journey.
"The director, David Attwood, wanted the drama to be an accurate representation of what it was like to pull off a trip on the sea in those days. By the end of the series, the ship is on its last legs; it is leaking, about to be decommissioned, and it is doubtful that it will even complete the voyage."Above all, David was eager to deglamorise the idea of the beautiful high seas. He wanted to make To the Ends of the Earth as frightening as it must have been. Even today, with all our technology and safety features and rescue teams, the most dangerous jobs in the world are at sea So, back then, it was lethal.
Everyone was taking a huge risk just by setting foot on a boat."In the course of their often hugely dangerous journey, Anderson and Talbot engage in a high-stakes power game. The captain's very first words in the drama are a booming rebuke to Talbot, who has broken the ship's rules by stepping uninvited on to the quarter-deck "Who the devil is this?" shouts Anderson. "By Christ, am I to be outfaced on my own deck by every ignorant bastard?"The actor is quick to emphasise: "Personally, I'm not at all like Anderson. In fact, the only thing I ever captained in my life was my football team - and that was on my birthday!"Harris brings to the role the same grizzled-mariner charisma that his father invested in the role of Seaman John Mills in the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty. A characteristic that the son does not share with the father, however, is Richard's reputation as a hell-raiser. Sipping nothing stronger than Lucozade, the 43-year-old says, chuckling: "My father is a hard act to follow, no question But that's it You can't follow You have to go your own way.