The Narrow Road to the Deep North came out on April 18 on Prime Video. This Australian limited series is based on the same-named novel by Richard Flanagan, winner of the Booker Prize. The show is about surviving, love, loss, and the horrible things that happen in war. At the center of this emotional journey is Lieutenant-Colonel Dorrigo Evans, played by Jacob Elordi. Evans is a doctor who gets caught up in the hellish world of Japanese prisons while the “Death Railway” between Burma and Thailand is being built.
Fans of historical dramas and epics set during World War II are likely to be drawn to this moving story. But a lot of people may be left wondering: Is The Narrow Road to the Deep North’s main character, Dorrigo Evans, based on a real person? We’ll look at the character’s history and find out what real-life people inspired this unforgettable figure in this article. But first, let’s look more closely at the show’s plot.
The Narrow Road to the Deep Story
Before, during, and after World War II are the three interconnected timelines that make up The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Each one shows a different part of Dorrigo Evans’ complicated life. As a young medical officer in the Australian Army, played by Elordi, Dorrigo is thrown into the terrifying world of the Burma-Thailand Railway, which is also known as the “Death Railway.” When the Japanese capture him, he is made a prisoner of war and has to keep his fellow soldiers alive in the worst conditions possible. They have to deal with hunger, disease, and hard work all the time. The cruel guards and harsh jungle conditions test their strength. Dorrigo’s leadership and medical knowledge become a source of hope, but the cruelty he sees and the moral choices he has to make break his own spirit.
While everything is going crazy, Dorrigo can’t get his mind off of Amy Mulvaney (Essie Davis), a woman he met before the war when he was engaged to Ella (Olivia DeJonge). This relationship, which is both sweet and troubled— becomes his mental safe haven, a short escape from the horrible things going on in the camp. The show mixes these struggles during the war with scenes from Dorrigo’s life before the war, when his charm and drive hide a restless soul and his later years, when he has to deal with survivor’s guilt and the weight of being hailed as a war hero as an older man played by Ciarán Hinds. He is haunted by his past and wonders what it costs to survive and what makes him who he is.
Is Dorrigo Evans Inspired by a Real Person?
The short answer is yes—Dorrigo Evans was influenced by real people, but he is not a direct copy of any one person. His character draws from a combination of real-life heroes, particularly those involved in the brutal experiences of prisoners of war during World War II, and the personal experiences of the author Richard Flanagan.
The famous Australian surgeon and war hero Colonel Sir Ernest Edward “Weary” Dunlop is one of the main sources of ideas for Dorrigo Evans. Many of the qualities that Dunlop showed as a medical officer while he was a prisoner of war in Japan, especially in his work with other prisoners who had to work on the Burma-Thailand railway, can also be seen in Dorrigo Evans. In the movies, both Dunlop and Evans are shown as caring leaders who struggled to stay human in the face of huge problems.
Edward “Weary” Dunlop: The Hero Behind the Hero
Colonel Sir Ernest Edward “Weary” Dunlop (1907–1993) was a famous Australian soldier and surgeon. Dorrigo Evans’ story as a prisoner of war has a lot in common with his life. Dunlop was born in Wangaratta, Victoria, and his path to becoming a hero began with great grades and athletic success. After getting honors degrees in medicine and pharmacy from the University of Melbourne, he became a great rugby union player and played for the Wallabies in international games. His nickname, “Weary,” was a playful play on his last name, which sounds like the durability of a Dunlop tire.
When World War II broke out, Dunlop’s medical knowledge and ability to lead made him very useful. He worked in the Middle East to make mobile surgical units, and then he went to Greece and Tobruk to do more work. In 1942, he had a bad ending when the Japanese captured him while he was in charge of a hospital in Bandung, Java. Like Dorrigo, Dunlop was sent to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway, where he had to deal with the same horrible conditions: not getting enough food, getting tropical diseases and having to work nonstop. As a medical officer, he saved the lives of many other prisoners by making do with simple tools to treat the sick and negotiating with Japanese officers to get better conditions
.
Dunlop was known for being very brave. He defied his captors to protect his men, even though it put him in great danger, and he kept the morale up in camps where hopelessness was common. His skill at dealing with the cruel nature of some guards while seeing the good in others is similar to how Dorrigo deals with Major Nakamura in the series. Dunlop’s life after the war was full of honors and quiet reflection on what he had been through, just like Dorrigo’s struggle with fame and trauma. Someone in the prison called Dunlop “a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering.” Dorrigo’s character was definitely shaped by Dunlop’s legacy as a beacon of hope.
However, Dorrigo is not an exact copy of Dunlop. Dunlop was a responsible and selfless leader. Dorrigo, on the other hand, has flaws that make him very human, such as being selfish, impulsive, and fond of risky relationships. These qualities that Dunlop didn’t have in real life suggest that Flanagan gave Dorrigo a wider range of emotions by drawing on other sources to create a complex main character.
To make Dorrigo Evans for TV, a careful balance of historical accuracy and dramatic license had to be struck. Jacob Elordi trained hard, including a medically supervised boot camp where he and the other actors really got to know each other. “We were all in it together,” Elordi said, describing the friendship that showed how united the prisoners were.
The project was important to both Flanagan and director Justin Kurzel and screenwriter Shaun Grant, who are both from Tasmania. Grant’s grandfather lived through the Death Railway and Kurzel’s grandfather was a Rat of Tobruk. This gave them a personal connection to the story.
There is more to Dorrigo Evans than just a character. He is a link between history and fiction, a man shaped by the bravery of Edward “Weary” Dunlop and the quiet struggles of Richard Flanagan’s father. With the help of Jacob Elordi and Ciarán Hinds, he becomes a flawed, unforgettable hero who carries the weight of war and the fragility of love. People who read The Narrow Road to the Deep North are invited to walk this path with him, to face the ghosts of the past, and to think about what it means to live when so much has been lost.
We tend to look for heroes in the past, but Dorrigo Evans shows us that the heroes who deal with the worst situations and find ways to keep going are sometimes the ones who have been through the most.
Is The Narrow Road to the Deep North Based on a True Story?
