General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Castaways

The Castaways is a five-part British thriller miniseries that premiered on Paramount+ UK on December 26, 2023, adapted from Lucy Clarke's 2021 novel of the same name. It stars Sheridan Smith and Céline Buckens as sisters whose holiday to Fiji ends when the plane carrying one of them disappears, and it was produced by Clapperboard Studios and BlackBox Multimedia.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Format	Five-part miniseries, average runtime about 49 minutes, one season¹^•⁴
Premiere	December 26, 2023, Paramount+ UK; all five episodes released together²
Source	Lucy Clarke's novel The Castaways, published 2021⁵
Lead cast	Sheridan Smith as Lori Holme, Céline Buckens as Erin Holme, Brendan Cowell as Mike Brass²
Writers and directors	Ben Harris (lead writer and executive producer) with Polly Buckle and Jesse O'Mahoney; directed by Andy Tohill and Ryan Tohill¹^•³
Filming	Greece and Fiji from May 2023; Greek locations included Athens, Pelion, and Marathonas³^•⁶
Later broadcasts	Channel 5 in the UK from January 2025; Stan in Australia; TV Globo in Brazil as The Castaways – Isolados⁵^•⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise

Sisters Lori and Erin are on a holiday of a lifetime in Fiji. After a huge fight, Erin never boards the island-hopping flight to their tropical resort, and the plane carrying Lori never arrives at its destination. Months later, with no wreckage found and no survivors discovered, Lori's credit card is suddenly used in a corner shop in a remote Fijian village, and Erin recognizes the plane's pilot on CCTV. She travels to Fiji to find him and learn what happened to her sister.¹^•⁴

The story runs on two tracks. In the present, Erin investigates the disappearance and uncovers dark secrets about the crash; in the past, Lori and the other passengers fight to survive after crash-landing on a remote island. The series alternates between the two sisters' perspectives across multiple timelines.⁹^•⁵

Cast and characters

Sheridan Smith, known for Cilla, Cleaning Up, and The Teacher, plays Lori Holme, the sister aboard the doomed flight. Céline Buckens, previously in Showtrial and The Ex-Wife, plays Erin Holme. The supporting cast includes Australian actor Brendan Cowell as Mike Brass, Lasarus Ratuere as Felix Vatubua, Dominic Tighe as Daniel Eldridge, and Charlotte Vega as Amber Gordon.³^•²^•⁵

Production

Paramount+ commissioned the five-part adaptation from Clapperboard Studios and BlackBox Multimedia in May 2023, as part of its plan to commission 150 international originals by 2025. Ben Harris (Young Wallander, Devils, Marcella) served as executive producer and lead writer, sharing episode writing with Polly Buckle and Jesse O'Mahoney. Andy Tohill and Ryan Tohill directed, with Myf Hopkins producing; Mike Benson executive produced for Clapperboard and Giuliano Papadia and Chiara Cardoso for BlackBox Multimedia. BBC Studios distributed the series globally.³

Filming began in May 2023, scheduled from London, with location shooting in Greece and Fiji. The Anglo-Cypriot production used Pelion and its beaches to stand in for the tropical Fijian islands, with additional filming in Athens and Marathonas.¹⁰^•⁶

It was the second adaptation of Clarke's work commissioned for Paramount+ UK, alongside No Escape.³

Broadcast and reception

All five episodes were released on Paramount+ UK on December 26, 2023. The series later reached free-to-air television on Channel 5 in January 2025, aired nightly with the finale on January 30, and streamed on My5. In Australia it streamed on Stan, and in Brazil TV Globo broadcast it in January 2026 under the title The Castaways – Isolados, airing Friday nights after Big Brother Brasil 26.²^•⁵^•⁷^•⁸

Critical response was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 14% Tomatometer from three reviews. The Guardian's Phil Harrison called it "a darkly plotted and sunnily staged piece of escapism," and the London Evening Standard gave it four stars, calling it "deliciously twisty." Ben Dowell of The Times gave it three of five, finding it "shlocky and risible at times" but praising the believable sibling bond carried by Smith and Buckens. On IMDb the series holds a 5.8/10 rating from about 1,700 users, with episode scores declining from 6.7 for the premiere to 6.2 for the finale.²^•¹^•¹¹^•¹²

Relationship to the novel

The television ending differs from Clarke's book. In the novel, Erin never learns exactly what happened to her sister; the plane is never found and Lori's fate remains unclear, with the reader left to piece the story together from clues. The series instead resolves the mystery: the finale reveals that Daniel Eldridge plotted the plane's downfall to cover up an affair, and Erin reaches the island for a reunion with Lori and a final confrontation.¹³

No second series has been confirmed, and with the story adapted from a single standalone novel that has no sequel, a continuation is considered unlikely, though Harris has not ruled one out.¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Adapted and franchise screen series › Literary and classic serial adaptations › Thriller and crime adaptations › Premiered 1962 to 2023

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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