No plain sailing for Colin Firth as yachtsman in new film The Mercy

THERE are people who will stop at nothing to see their dreams come true, and that sentiment very much applied to Donald Crowhurst.

For those of you unfamiliar with his name, Donald was a yachtsman who entered the 1968 Golden Globe Race with disastrous results.

The Mercy, out in cinemas this week, is the tale of how Donald, played by Colin Firth, ended up travelling the world alone by sea and ultimately disappearing, never to be seen again.

The 36-year-old father-of-four was an inventor who simply had dreams beyond his capabilities.

He had genuinely hoped to complete the 30,000-mile journey, but was faced with a string of complications, from bad weather and his boat not being up to standard, to injury and loneliness.

As his problems mounted, it is believed that he began to lose his grip on reality, and tried to avoid disgrace and financial ruin by faking his logbooks and missing out vital places on his route.

Donald ended his radio transmissions on June 29, 1969, and his boat — Teignmouth Electron — was later found adrift.

While Colin can’t deny that his character tried to deceive people, he does feel a certain degree of sympathy for him.

“I think this film is asking: ‘Who are you to judge?’” says the 57-year-old, who will be back on screens again soon with the sequel to Mamma Mia!.

“There is a side to us that is no better than a playground bully.

“It’s a way of distancing ourselves from the spectacle of someone who’s been humiliated or who’s fallen short. It’s a very, very ugly phenomenon.

“Incredibly facile and unfair judgments have been applied to the Crowhurst story. My hope is that by telling it on a personal level — revealing some of the nuances — people won’t be able to do that any more.

“I think people will realise what it feels like to go further than you are truly able, to take on something risky and ambitious. To dare to do something.

“They’ll also recognise the idea of random events conspiring against them.

“This happens to the heroes we all celebrate,” Colin points out.

“The guy who reached the top of Everest, went into space, crossed a desert or sailed an ocean. They have all had their challenges.

“The narrative is interpreted completely differently if it ends happily than if it doesn’t. But sometimes, there’s a hair’s breadth between it going one way or the other.”

For Donald, sadly, it wasn’t a happy ending, but a tragic end to his life — whether it came by suicide or death by accident while on his boat.

We will never really know what exactly happened to him.

What we do know is that he realised he was about to be found out.

“It is finished, it is finished,” he wrote in a diary entry nine days before his boat was found adrift.

“It is the mercy. It is the end of my game. The truth has been revealed.”

The Mercy is in cinemas from Friday, February 9.