Castaway is a 1986 film starring Amanda Donohoe

Amanda Donohoe

Amanda Donohoe is an English film and television actress. She is known for her 1980s relationship with popstar Adam Ant and her later work on television — including L.A. Law and Emmerdale — and her roles in successful movies including Liar, Liar.-Early life:Donohoe was born in London, the daughter...

 and Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...

, and directed by Nicolas Roeg

Nicolas Roeg

Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...

. It was adapted

Film adaptation

Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...

 from the 1984 book of the same name

Castaway (book)

Castaway, a 1983 autobiographical book by Lucy Irvine about her year on the Australian tropical island of , having answered a want ad from writer Gerald Kingsland seeking a "wife" for a year in 1982. It was published by Victor Gollancz Ltd.. Irvine stated she longed for a “major personal challenge”...

 by Lucy Irvine

Lucy Irvine

Lucy Irvine is a British adventurer and author. Born in Whitton, London, after a tumultuous and free spirited adolescence, in which she replaced formal education with travel and adventure, she joined forces with writer Gerald Kingsland and, as an experiment in isolation, became self imposed...

, telling of her experiences of staying for a year with writer Gerald Kingsland

Gerald Kingsland

Gerald W. Kingsland was a journalist, adventurer and writer, born and raised in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England. He was five times married. He had five sons and two daughters from the total marriages...

 on the isolated island of Tuin, between New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Background

In 1981, Irvine responded to a "Writer seeks 'Spouse' for year on tropical island" advertisement placed by Kingsland in the London magazine Time Out. Chosen by Kingsland from over fifty applicants, Irvine agreed to marry him in order to satisfy immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 restrictions before they travelled to Tuin. She was twenty-five and Kingsland forty-nine.

After a year on the island she returned to England and wrote her memoirs.

Soundtrack

The film features a song by British artist Kate Bush

Kate Bush

Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...

, "Be Kind to My Mistakes", that later appeared on the 1997 re-release of her album Hounds of Love

Hounds of Love

Hounds of Love is a 1985 album by the British singer Kate Bush. It was Bush's fifth studio album, and her second no. 1. It has since been certified Double Platinum in the UK...

.

Cast

Actor	Role
Oliver Reed Oliver Reed Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...	Gerald Kingsland Gerald Kingsland Gerald W. Kingsland was a journalist, adventurer and writer, born and raised in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England. He was five times married. He had five sons and two daughters from the total marriages...
Amanda Donohoe Amanda Donohoe Amanda Donohoe is an English film and television actress. She is known for her 1980s relationship with popstar Adam Ant and her later work on television — including L.A. Law and Emmerdale — and her roles in successful movies including Liar, Liar.-Early life:Donohoe was born in London, the daughter...	Lucy Irvine Lucy Irvine Lucy Irvine is a British adventurer and author. Born in Whitton, London, after a tumultuous and free spirited adolescence, in which she replaced formal education with travel and adventure, she joined forces with writer Gerald Kingsland and, as an experiment in isolation, became self imposed...
Georgina Hale Georgina Hale Georgina Hale is an award-winning English actress notable for many stage, film and television appearances; often in the works of director Ken Russell and writer Simon Gray...	Sister Saint Margaret
Frances Barber Frances Barber Frances Barber is an Olivier Award-nominated English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also appeared in numerous television productions...	Sister Saint Winifred
Tony Rickards	Jason
Todd Rippon Todd Rippon Todd Rippon is a film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Brandon Cardiff on the TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street...	Rod
John Sessions John Sessions John Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...	Man in Pub
Virginia Hey Virginia Hey Virginia Hey is an Australian actress, known for her role as Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan on the science fiction TV series Farscape....	Janice
Sorel Johnson	Lara
Len Pheihopa	Ronald
Paul Reynolds Paul Reynolds (actor) Paul Reynolds is an English actor. He attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, made his start as a child actor in a variety of small parts, but is perhaps most recognised for his role as Thatcherite Colin Mathews in Press Gang, "Kevin" in Ghostbusters of East Finchley and as Sammy Dobbs the...	Mike Kingsland
Sean Hamilton	Geoffrey Kingsland
Sarah Harper Sarah Harper Sarah Harper is a British gerontologist. She achieved particular acclaim when she established Oxford's Institute of Ageing, and became the University of Oxford's first Professor of Gerontology. She holds the first Professorship of Gerontology at the University of Oxford...	Swimming Teacher
Stephen Jenn	Shop Manager
Joseph Blatchley	Register
Simon Dormandy Simon Dormandy Simon Dormandy is an English actor and director, who as an actor has worked primarily with the Royal Shakespeare Company , perhaps best known on screen for his performances in Vanity Fair and Castaway...	Jackson
Ruth Hudson	Receptionist
Gordon Honeycombe Gordon Honeycombe Ronald Gordon Honeycombe is an author, playwright and stage actor, well known in the United Kingdom as a national television newscaster....	TV Newscaster