From the raw Australia of the 1900s...
comes a turbulent saga that spans the decades...
in Colleen McCullough's best-selling novel:
The Thorn Birds.
I'll never have what I want.
The story of a priest driven by ambition.
Never be what I want!
Tormented by desire.
And I don't know how to stop...
wanting.
And a beautiful young girl obsessed with a man she could never have.
You can marry me. You love me.
But I love God more.
It's Mrs. Carson, Father. She's dead.
Probably did herself in.
Unless it was the devil doing us all a favor.
"...Father Ralph de Bricassart...
"serve as the chief authority in charge of my estate."
£13 million of it.
Go on to that God of yours.
You'll come back to me because I'm the one who loves you.
And tonight, the story continues.
Fire. Fire on Drogheda.
You've come back.
What have you done to me?
All right, lads!
God, you are beautiful.
Help me get free of this.
Starring Richard Kiley, Jean Simmons, Ken Howard, Mare Winningham...
Philip Anglim, Christopher Plummer, Bryan Brown...
Rachel Ward, and Richard Chamberlain.
A love unattainable...
forbidden forever: The Thorn Birds.
Vittorio Scarbanza di Contini-Verchese.
Excellent. I'm very happy.
So few outside the Vatican can pronounce my name.
Will you take tea, Father?
I confess I have adopted the custom.
I believe you've been in Sydney for some time, Archbishop?
Yes, as a papal legate...
it is my task to provide a link...
between the Australian church hierarchy and the Vatican.
A rich country, Australia.
She supports the Church well despite the Depression.
One day...
the Holy Father will have to reward her...
by selecting an Australian cardinal.
No doubt that will be many years away.
Still, it is a very important part of my job to study likely men...
of your age.
Oh, Sheba, must you be so selfish. You make my legs numb.
De Bricassart...
I'm descended from Ranulf de Bricassart...
who came to England with William the Conqueror.
Since Henry Vlll's time, the family has fallen into obscurity.
In fact, I'm the last of the de Bricassarts.
But you yourself appear to have found ways...
of dealing with obscurity.
- Your Grace? - I refer to your penchant...
for attracting the notice of the Holy Father.
The Carson bequest.
Rather an achievement.
Mrs. Carson was also faithful to the Church.
Quite.
Sheba, must you always dig in your claws when you're happy?
How do you do that?
A cat will never go to anyone, especially Sheba.
Yet she goes to you as if you gave her caviar!
So, you will administer the Carson estate.
Given the current economic conditions...
I suppose we must expect some losses.
No. I've just been over everything with the auditors...
and I think the investments will hold firm.
I'm sure the Clearys will continue to manage Drogheda...
as if it were their own.
- You're fond of these Clearys. - Yes, very.
Do you love them all equally...
or do you love some more than others?
I feel closest to the girl, Meggie.
I've watched her grow up...
and I've always felt that she was my special responsibility.
She's the only daughter and the parents sometimes tend to forget she exists.
I see.
Meggie!
- What on earth are you doing? - Managing the stock horses.
Are you now? And who decided that, may I ask?
I did, since nobody else seemed to have plans for me.
I see.
I don't know if I can think of anything wrong with that.
If you're going to manage stock horses...
I don't believe I'd use a thoroughbred to do it.
He needs the exercise, Daddy. You wouldn't want Father Ralph...
to come back and find his horse fat and out of shape.
Father Ralph?
I don't think you'll be seeing him again.
No, Drogheda's part of his past now.
Meggie, you've kept your secret pretty well.
I doubt if anyone else knows how you feel about Father Ralph.
But it's no good for you to keep dreaming about him.
You know he's a priest.
He can stop being a priest, Stuie.
And he will someday, Stuie.
I just know he will.
He can never stop being a priest. Why can't you understand that?
The vows he took are sacred. They can't be broken, ever.
And he never will break them, Meggie. Not even for you.
You have been disobedient.
Your promise of celibacy was neither made, nor broken lightly...
but it was broken.
And, most unfortunately, that fact has now become public knowledge.
We have no choice but to act.
The Archbishop has left instructions for you to be sent to Darwin...
in the Northern Territory.
There's a small frontier parish there.
You'll be leaving immediately.
Father John is waiting now to accompany you on your journey.
And, of course, the young woman...
must never know where you've gone.
Yes, Father.
Goodbye.
Father...
I think I know something of the pain you're feeling.
You know, many in your situation might have given up the Church.
But you have chosen to remain. That takes a great deal of courage.
May God bless you for it.
Such incidents are regrettable, my dear Ralph...
but I'm afraid even we priests...
are weak, and all too human.
Still, one has to pity him.
And Gillanbone is a paradise in comparison to the place he's being sent.
But the best of us find strength...
in such adversity...
as you know.
Yes, Your Grace.
Now, what on earth can this be?
Happy Christmas, Fee.
They're beautiful, simply beautiful.
They may not be "the" finest in all of Australia...
but they're the real thing, all right. There we go.
They are lovely.
I must say, it's a nice surprise to find you all so brave and cheerful...
in spite of everything.
- Isn't it, Angus? - Indeed, it is.
Paddy, I want you to know I look on you as friends.
And if there's ever anything I can do for you...
- I hope you'll let me. - Thank you, Angus.
We're just pleased that you could be with us today.
We should've got around to pay some calls before this...
but it's been a busy time, as you can imagine.
I suppose it's as dry out your way as it is here, Mr. MacQueen.
Terrible.
I've never seen such mobs of kangas in so close.
They were practically at the house, trying to get at the water.
And you said you saw several grassfires on the way up from Melbourne...
- didn't you, Aunt Sarah? - Yes.
I hate to start in slaughtering...
but the sheep are starving so bad already...
I'm afraid the wool will be too weak to bring any kind of price.
Pete tells a good one on Aunty Mary.
She was in Sydney once in a drought, and Pete sends a wire:
"Half the sheep are starved. Please advise."
And Aunty Mary sends a wire right back:
"Shoot the rest."
That's all you care about, isn't it, the profit?
The price of the wool.
Never mind that the poor sheep are suffering unspeakably.
Well, ma'am...
out here, it's got to be the wool a man cares about, isn't it?
It's not as if the sheep were people, you know.
Quite right.
I've seen city people dote on animals...
and yet, completely ignore a cry of help from a human being.
Perhaps it's natural to have contempt for whatever there's too many of.
How dare you?
How dare you, when we come here in friendship?
- Sarah! - No!
You lecture me on the value of human life...
when your own son sits in the Melbourne prison for murder?
Damn, Sarah!
Paddy, I'm so sorry.
I thought you knew.
It was months ago.
My son?
Frank?
He was in a fight...
in a pub there, in Melbourne.
The other fellow died later.
They called it murder because Frank is a professional boxer.
- They gave him a life sentence. - Oh, my God.
Oh, God.
- Fee. - My Frank...
Fee, dear, pack your things, we'll go to him.
No. I can't.
It would kill him to see me.
I'm going to Frank.
Stuie is taking me.
But you mustn't. Your mom doesn't want you to.
If we could only take back the things we say and do.
Daddy, I know about Frank.
I came to understand it a long time ago.
And you're not to blame for anything.
I tried so hard to treat him like one of my own.
But he was a thorn in my side from the first.
He always stood between us. Always.
And he will now until the day I die.
I know she can't help the way she loves him...
no more than I can help my love for her.
But we are to blame.
We've let it take our hearts away from our own children.
Meggie, I think...
I think of how much we've both held back from you.
From you, most of all.
It's all right, Daddy.
- Meggie... - No, don't.
Hello, Frank.
You've grown up.
You're beautiful.
What have they done to you?
It's all been my own doing.
All of it. From the first.
Listen, Frank...
I want to try and help you.
I've talked to Harry Gough.
He knows how to get an appeal started for you.
No.
Listen to me.
I want to get you out of here.
I want you to come home.
Frank, darling, if there's any way...
No.
When I was growing up...
there was only one thing that I really wanted in the whole world:
To see mom happy.
Then I realized...
that no matter how hard I tried...
that I couldn't make her happy.
And that it was me...
all along. I ruined her life...
just by being born.
- I've never found a way to pay for that. - No, Frank.
If mom's life is ruined, it's because she let it.
Meggie, listen to me.
You want to help me?
Then you must forget about me.
Promise me that you'll never come here again.
Promise me that you'll never let her come either.
Don't worry.
She wouldn't come, Frank.
I don't understand you...
either of you.
I don't understand that kind of love.
Poor little Meggie.
You still think love can save us?
It's more killing than hate.
Hate is so clean, so simple.
Like being in the ring.
With hate, you just keep hitting.
You hit until they stop hitting back.
With love...
they never stop.
And you planned all this?
- Excellent. - Thank you, Your Grace.
We can now feed almost 300 people a day.
But it seems little enough, given the times.
Every day, more and more people thrown out of work.
Still, you have done very well in bringing this about.
In fact...
I have been very pleased with you...
in the year you have been here, Ralph.
And I gather the Vatican shares my assessment.
They have appointed you to be my secretary.
Which means they are considering you very seriously...
for further advancement...
in time, if you do well.
And, I think you will.
I'm very grateful, Your Grace.
It's an honor I never thought to attain.
You are too humble, Father de Bricassart.
But humility can be most useful to you, because as you advance...
you will increasingly find yourself in the position...
of having to use the enormous power of the Church.
And while you will be tested in many ways...
the greatest test will be...
in how you use that power.
No, it is humility...
that will help you to use it...
well.
Fire, Stuie! Look, Stuie, fire!
Quick, let's get back to the house!
Oh, God.
All right, you silly animal, I'll get you out.
There you go. Come on.
Whoa, boy. Come on.
Fire. Fire on Drogheda.
Yes. What? All you can spare.
Don't stand there. Get to the cookhouse to get some stew going, can't you?
Make it enough for 100.
They're coming, ma'am, from all the stations, Gilly as well.
I'll fetch the other women.
- Mom? - Meggie, go get changed.
Help with the horses. Stuie, come with me.
There you go. Come on!
Keep them together. Watch! Hurry.
Come on, get up.
- It's terrible. - Here you go. Yeah, go on!
Come on, get in.
God, Mom, it's getting away from us.
- Mom? - Keep working, Meggie.
Will you look at that?
Charlie, loose those dogs! Get the hose and bring it down here!
And you, you come with me!
- Meggie, you all right? - I'm okay.
- Did Paddy come in with you? - No, I haven't seen him.
- Daddy? Where's Daddy? - He's out on the range, Meggie.
We should telephone around, see if he came in anywhere.
No, the lines are down.
Maybe the boys know where he is.
Over here!
No, God, please!
The east water tower's run dry.
Mrs. Cleary, take some rest.
We're losing it! Judas Priest, we're losing it!
Off you go, lad.
How is it out there?
- Nothing will stop it. - Watch out!
- It's going to go! - Watch out!
Oh, Meggie, our old place.
Mom, look.
- It's up to the house! - Oh, Meggie.
- Boys, wet down the veranda! - There's no water!
Rain. Stuie!
It's raining!
We're saved!
Let him sleep. Poor old dear.
I know he'd want to help you look for Mr. Cleary.
Good luck.
Here's where we fan out.
And, remember, whoever finds Daddy, fire three shots.
Daddy!
I had no idea the fire was out this far.
Daddy?
Stu, where are you?
Must have been Stuie that signaled. He rode in this direction.
Don't go in, Mom.
Paddy?
And Stu.
Stu? What do you mean?
- No, not both of them! - You don't want to see it.
Not Stu!
You've come back.
Darling Meggie, don't cry.
The world hasn't come to an end because of a fire...
no matter how terrible it was.
You're safe. That's all that matters.
I was so worried.
Harry Gough called me and I flew right out. Imagine...
Then you don't know.
Father, Daddy and Stuie...
they're dead.
No.
Daddy died in the fire, and Stuie found him.
And then, there was a wild boar...
and it killed my Stuie.
What is it?
The plane bogged in the mud when we landed. I must have bruised my side.
Let me see it.
- You rode all the way from Gilly like this? - I hardly noticed it.
I was worried about the horse making it through all that mud.
I borrowed him in Gilly.
Oh, God.
Don't.
Meggie, don't.
No!
What have you done to me?
What might you do to me if I let you?
It was good of you to be here, Father.
It would have meant the world to Paddy...
and to Stuie.
It's curious, you know.
When it looked as though the fire might take everything...
I kept thinking of the most peculiar things.
I didn't think of dying or the children...
or this beautiful house in ruins.
All I could think about were my accounts...
the socks I was knitting for Paddy...
the heart-shaped cake tins...
Frank made me years ago.
How could I survive without them?
All the little things.
Things which can't be replaced.
It's too late, like all my life.
Too late for him, too late for me.
I can never take my Paddy in my arms now.
I can never say to him...
the only thing he ever wanted me to say, that I loved him.
I do love him, Father.