Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun (ITV 1988, Stefanie Powers, Claire Bloom)

Based on the memoir ‘West with the Night,’ Stefanie Powers plays Beryl Markham, a courageous Brit who moved to Kenya with her family in 1902. Her mother and brother fail to adapt to the new culture and move back to England. Beryl, however, stays with her father and learns how to break the rules in the male-dominated culture. She becomes the first woman in Africa to train horses professionally, and, in 1936, is the first aviatrix to fly from Britain to the U.S. The film also traces Beryl’s love life, from her first abusive husband to her second husband and all the steamy affairs that followed.

Tony Richardson, director of the adventure film Beryl Markham: Shadow of the Sun, won an Oscar for his direction of the surprise hit film Tom Jones in 1963.

production details
UK | ITV / 120 minutes / 1988

Director: Tony Richardson
Producers: Tamara Asseyev, Stefanie Powers
Original Story: James Fox
Director of Photography: Steve Yaconelli
Editing: Robert K. Lambert, David A. Simmons
Music: John Addison
Script: Allan Scott
Production Design: Timian Alsaker

cast
Claire Bloom as Lady Delamere
Niamh Cusack as
Stefanie Powers as Beryl Markham
Peter Bowles as Lord Jack Carberry
Brian Cox as Jock Purves
Trevor Eve as Denys Finch Hatton
Frederic Forrest as Raoul Schumacher
James Fox as Mansfield Markham
Rupert Frazer as Duke of Gloucester
Nicola Pagett as Emma Orchardson
Jack Thompson as Tom Campbell Black
Frederick Treves as Lord Delamere