Banished is a British period drama television serial created by Jimmy McGovern. The seven-part serial first aired on BBC Two from 5 March to 16 April 2015. It received mixed reviews, with most of the criticism for its perceived inaccuracies to the depicted events. Though set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.