Airing on: BBC Two###Episodes viewed: 5 of 5###For all the snowy white on reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue in The North Water, Andrew Haigh’s five-part adaptation of Ian McGuire’s novel has a black heart. Filmed within the Arctic Circle, reputedly further north than any other production, it details the exploits of an 1850s whaling ship with a mixture of high-end spectacle, powerful perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances and eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous filmmaking craft. But this isn’t ‘boy’s own’ expedition stuff. Instead, it’s a piercing look at the darkness inside men.###At the heart of The North Water is a battle of opposites, a claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate er versus a doer. The claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate er is Patrick Sumner (Jack O’Connell), an educated ex-army surgeon running away from a traumatic past in India. The doer is Henry Drax (Colin Farrell), a feral master harpooner who lives in the moment — the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue opens with him rutting in a barn — and shares something of the hulking evil of Great Expectations’ Magwitch. The pair find themselves on board Yorkshire whaling ship The Volunteer, bound in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the icy waters between Greenland and Canada in search of seal pelts and whale blubber. But the bottom has fallen out of the arctic mammal market and skullduggery is afoot. The Volunteer’s Captain Brownlee (Stephen Graham, excellent as ever), in cahoots with the ship’s owner Baxter (Tom Courtenay, excellent as ever) has a devious plan: to sink the ship and cash in the insurance.###Working in a utterly different register to Weekend, 45 Years and Lean On Pete, Haigh mounts stunning set-pieces, drone shots perfectly conveying the fragilities of man against the unin/with regard to’concerning’regarding giving landscape. Episode 1 ends with a brilliantly orchestrated seal hunt (warning: the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue doesn’t stint on depicting animal cruelty) as the greenhorn Sumner joins the undergo d hunters shooting and clubbing seals; Episode 2’s whale-chase is far more exciting than anything in Ron Howard’s much enormous’vast’massive’tremendous ger-budacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ed In The Heart Of The Sea, ending when Drax mounts the whale and stabs it, blood spurting out of the blowhole. But Haigh’s filmmaking is debatably more interesting inside the ship, going in/with regard to’concerning’regarding broke in dark-lit interiors, using tight close-ups at odd angles to disorientate. This, along with numerous C-bombs, puts eliminate’remove water between Haigh’s handiwork and standard BBC period-drama fare.###A piercing look at the darkness inside men.###Beyond the seafaring narrative, the story smuggles in other genres, too. The first half is an investigation into who sodomised the cabin boy (Stephen McMillan), with Sumner refusing to believe the obvious culprit — a scene where he examines a suspect's in/with regard to’concerning’regarding eskin is tense in the extreme. But as the story evolves, it develops into a survivalist drama, with the whalers bartering with Inuits, the harsh elements and a bear who must possess’own’nurse taken notes watching The Revenant.###If the final two episodes don’t match the intensity of previous ones, the uniin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mly intense’fierce’exquisite cast keep you engaged, peculiar ly a bulked-up, sparingly used Farrell burning a hole in the screen as a man with no concept of morality, and O’Connell, who gives Sumner, potentially a bland surrogate in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the audience, depths and complexity. Toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her, they help this sea shanty to lost souls land.