FINALLY, the Donald Crowhurst film has a release date.

The premier of The Mercy has been confirmed for October 17 in London.

Few other details have yet been given, but it is good news for Teignmouth, which will benefit from world-wide publicity.

A film crew spent some time in the resort two years ago to shoot scenes for the story of Crowhurst’s ill-fated single handed around the world voyage in his trimaran Teignmouth Electron.

There were fears that the film might be ditched or sent straight to video, but now it will be seen by millions around the globe when it goes on general release.

Teignmouth mayor Cllr Paul Burgess said: ‘This is great news – it has been a long wait, but now we are all looking forward to seeing the finished result.   

‘Teignmouth council at the time persuaded him to start the race from here for the publicity it would bring.

‘Although it ended in tragedy for the man and his family, the publicity has continued unabated over the last 50 years with books, documentaries and speculation as to what actually went wrong – and it is still continuing.

‘It is one of the great mysteries and legends of the sea.’

The film stars Colin Firth as Crowhurst and Rachel Weisz as his wife Clare.

Several other well known actors have leading roles, and many locals took part as extras, including the late councillor Geoff Bladon, playing his father, Cllr Arthur Bladon, who was instrumental in bringing Crowhurst to the town.

Crowhurst set sail in 1968 to take part in the Sunday Times Golden Globe lone sailor race and, after nothing was heard from him for some time, he suddenly made radio contact again.

At one stage he was in the lead and Teignmouth was preparing to welcome him back as a hero, with live television coverage.

But there was shock and despair when the RMV Picardy radioed it had found Teignmouth Electron abandoned in the Western Approaches.

It later transpired that Crowhurst had faked his logs and never left the Atlantic.

The theory is that realising he would be rumbled if he was first home, he suffered a mental breakdown and jumped into the ocean.   When his logs were eventually examined the truth came out.

The title of the film comes from rambling poems found in his logs, which ended: ‘It is finished – IT IS THE MERCY’.

The definitive account of the whole drama is in the book The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, written by journalists Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall and published in 1970. It can still be found in some bookshops.