 A TV adaptation was made in 2015 by Ruby Entertainment with support from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen Australia; and was aired in June of that year by ABC TV as a two-part miniseries.The early life of William Thornhill is one of Dickensian poverty, depredation and criminality.After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced to death for stealing wood, however, in 1806 his sentence is commuted to transportation to New South Wales for the term of his natural life.