Swashbuckled Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of TV in Scotland

We first got television in Scotland in 1952. 1952!

That's the year the Queen became, well, Queen,

Prime Minister Winston Churchill scrapped identity cards,

the first ever passenger jet flew across the Atlantic

and Hibs beat Manchester United 7-3.

7-3? It really was another era.

Swashbuckling!

The sound of swords clashing, hooves galloping,

of bodices ripping.

The action heroes,

the bloody battles for Queen and King and country.

Aye, the epic period drama was one of Scotland's proudest

television moments.

It fair gets the heart racing.

Hey, ya!

Forward!

Come on, Buttercup.

The inspiration for the Scottish swashbuckler were the Hollywood

films of the '20s, '30s and '40s - Robin Hood, Ivanhoe,

the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro and The Three Musketeers, starring

classic Hollywood heartthrobs like Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn.

Then TV makers in the '50s from Scotland decided

they wanted in on the act.

WHINNIES

Nice.

They might not have had big Hollywood budgets,

but they had ambition and claymores aplenty.

At the heart of these dramas are the riotous, rebellious

stories of Scotland's past, and it made for some great action telly.

Look at this title sequence from 1976 - it's got everything -

costumes, wigs, dangerous horses, authentic Scottish landscapes

and deft swordsmanship.

Programme makers had an incredible resource at their disposal,

just waiting to be turned into epic television - the novels

of Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott.

Stevenson had a cinematic style before film was even invented.

Just think of Jekyll And Hyde and Treasure Island.

Here's two of Stevenson's greatest heroes -

Alan Breck and David Balfour from Kidnapped.

Run, lads, run!

Kidnapped is the tale of a young man who, while trying to

claim his inheritance, is abducted and set on a boat for Jamaica.

He's then rescued by a swarthy, handsome Jacobite only to find

himself mixed up in murder charges and hounded across Scotland by

the redcoats,

taking refuge in a wide variety of hand-painted studio sets.

The troop is collecting, they're building a fire.

I reckon they're going to camp for the night.

Well, then the danger's passed. Can we not go down and sleep?

There'll be no sleep the night.

When day comes, it shall find you and me in a safe place on Ben Alder.

Alan, it's not the want or will, it's the strength.

And who's playing the bawdy Jacobite rebel, Alan Breck?

None other than the second Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton.

A great, passionate performance,

and he tried hard with his Scots accent, and even with the Gaelic.

HE SPEAKS GAELIC

"Lift your dirk," he says or maybe it's kilt.

Stevenson's Kidnapped is perfect mixture of different types of stories. It's a coming of age tale,

and it's a buddy story. It's also a romance.

Alan Breck is a compelling character.

Although he's a Jacobite rebel, he's full of flaws and vanity -

a ladies man, a gambler, a boaster and foolhardy.

Breck's charisma has proven attractive to other famous male leads,

including The Man From Uncle, Scots-born David McCallum,

playing Breck in 1979.

Your Highness, Stewart implores you to order the charge.

They're cutting us to pieces.

Here he's arguing with Bonnie Prince Charlie,

played by none other than regular panto dame Christopher Biggins.

More military tactics to oblige him.

We cannae hold the clan chiefs much longer.

Oh, yes, we can!

Clan Hatton are moving forward.

Damn Prince Charlie's orders.

Claymore!

Other international stars

and heartthrobs have also played the rebellious but vain Alan Breck.

In 2005, the BBC did a big-budget version

and the star was Game of Thrones hero, Iain Glen.

Come to my arms, Davie.

I love you like a brother.

'He was a great Scottish hero, you know,'

but had this wonderful duality of being, erm,

comedic and tragic at the same time.

His motives for everything he did were profound and deeply felt.

Come on, Davie, you had no choice.

'I think he is this irresistible force of nature. He's very,

'very difficult to refuse and, I don't know,

'He's one of these people, you meet them in life.'

They are richer in personality than the rest of us.

-Come on.

-I can't run any more.

Oh, we're just warming up, lad.

Believe it or not, this epic Scottish swashbuckling drama

was actually shot in New Zealand.

Why? Apparently it's got something to do with these.

There was a little bit of a dispute at the time

because it was not shot in Scotland, but for my money I think wrongly.

And the reason it was shot in New Zealand -

and ideally it would have been filmed in Scotland

and that's where initially the producers wanted it to shoot but

when they offered me the role,

they had already got to the point where they realised

that to make the programme that they wanted to make, they would

have much more production value, sadly, by shooting it in New Zealand.

'For me, New Zealand is Scotland in Technicolor.

'Everything's slightly bigger and slightly brighter.

'I think when you watch it,'

if you know Scotland, I think you can tell it's not Scotland.

Davie,

I'm sorry about all the troubles you've been through.

Truly, I am.

But at least you had a chance to see this.

'New Zealand's a lot more rich and vibrant.

'It made total sense to film there because it's so easy

'to get to the hills in New Zealand and look out and just see

'nothing at all. Just mountain after mountain after mountain.

'Not a single telegraph pole or road or house or anything like that.'

Another controversial adaptation of Stevenson was Weir Of Hermiston.

Although some consider it his masterpiece,

the novel was left unfinished at his sudden death in 1894.

You'll have to tell me what the Elliots want with me.

It's a tale of love, treachery and revenge.

It's the Weaver's Cairn. Why have you brought me here?

-They're bound to find us here.

-No need to fear the Elliots now.

'It is incredibly fraught scene.'

The man has raped the woman I love.

She's gone mad and committed suicide. I am having my revenge.

I challenge him to a duel. He won't accept.

I'll never fight with you, Archie.

And certainly not over a rustic whore.

Then I shall kill you.

What?

Because the milkmaid, the bitch, the rustic whore is dead.

I kill him. I mean, it's an incredibly passionate situation.

Although Archie shoots Innes in the book, the poor wench survives.

Stevenson left notes for a happy ending with Archie escaping

with his sweetheart whereas in the TV version he is sentenced to death.

There's nothing more we can do to him.

You'd best go home and leave this to me.

-Home?

-Aye, to Hermiston.

'I'd no idea that Stevenson intended'

a happy ending for Hermiston.

You'd better be on your way.

'I think it works much better with the tragic ending'

because that's the way the novel's rolling.

That seems, to me, the inevitable outcome and I think

'had he written a happy ending, it would have come across as a copout.'

The other classic author whose works were fashioned to make epic TV

was Sir Walter Scott.

The world's most famous writer at the time and the man behind Ivanhoe.

Scott's novel Rob Roy was based on a real-life Scottish folk hero

that many saw as our very own Robin Hood.

It was adapted for television three times. Once by Disney.

Come on, man, do I have to wear this stuff? I mean, seriously.

This faithful adaptation from 1976 sees Rob Roy appearing

only occasionally as a background character

whose actions nonetheless shape the life of the hero.

The story is a coming-of-age tale of a young Englishman

drawn into a world of skulduggery, backstabbing, highwaymen

and ultimately the Jacobite uprising of 1715.

What's your name?

-Why should I trust you?

-Because you must.

Look at the way they portray Rob Roy -

lurking in the shadows to create a sense of foreboding and danger.

For what reason?

Or maybe they just ran out of camera lights.

I'm in more danger here than you will ever be.

This makes a stark contrast with the 1995 Hollywood movie of

Rob Roy in which Rob, played by Liam Neeson,

is in almost every shot.

This is because the movie was based on the historical

figure of Rob Roy, not the book by Sir Walter.

-McGregor!

-Set them free!

The Walter Scott adaptation that rips my bodice

and gets my blood pumping is a TV series about an entirely

fictional third Jacobite rebellion.

The fabulous, the incredible, the infamous Redgauntlet!

Look above you.

Redgauntlet is the story

of one man's duty to his family and country.

The head of the family wears a gauntlet. And it's red.

When he dies, he passes it on to the next of kin to continue

the struggle against the evil redcoats...

And look to my children. There will now be no-one to protect them.

Only you.

The redgauntlet.

HE MOUTHS

Redgauntlet!

Redgauntlet is nail-biting or maybe fist-biting stuff.

When we look at it now though, what we see isn't

so much the 18th century but 1970,

with fast action,

dead fish,

gunfights,

smouldering looks,

stunning women with '60s hairdos

and not only that, it's got some fine, fine acting.

He went bravely, my lady.

Aye, persuaded by his hothead brother.

Aye, it's a tricky business getting the balance of history

and of the contemporary exactly right.

Once our scriptwriters had finished squeezing the juice

out of Walter Scott and Louis Stevenson,

they started making adaptations of books from the 20th century.

Flight Of The Heron was a romantic historical novel

written in 1925 by DK Broster.

It was adapted into two TV series - one by STV in 1968

and a completely different version by the BBC in 1976.

Although this drama was set in the 18th century,

the opening scene has elements of 1970s sexual liberation.

It also includes some handy tips on the correct wearing of the plaid.

This is definitely one for the ladies.

Now, why are you lurking here like a beast of prey?

Hold on, is that guy wearing a miniskirt?

All the more reason to tell me quickly and hear my judgement.

I want the truth, mind.

'Swashbuckling Scottish hero. I did corner the market a bit in them'

back in the '70s and it was delightful to do.

'I enjoyed the physicality of it.

'I enjoyed the, kind of, romanticism of it as well.

'Well, great Roddy McMillan had a wonderful phrase.'

He said, "I think this character's a wee bit off the ground."

And the idea of it being off the ground, that kind of drama.

SHOUTING

On the author's death it was revealed the DK Broster was

not only a woman but English.

Lochiel has sent this to you. By a man on a horse.

It'll be our contract.

So, you don't even have to be Scottish to write a historical Scottish epic.

Well, of course you don't.

Even Queen Victoria herself played her part in romanticising Scotland.

Bad news?

No.

It's great news.

The Prince has landed at Borrowdale in Arisaig.

Lochiel has asked me to go to Achnacarry at once.

So, is the STV version from a decade earlier any more authentic?

Great God, he's landed in Scotland!

Calm down, man, you haven't won the Lotto.

Where?

At Borrowdale in Arisaig. Lochiel wants to see me at once.

He has come at last.

Everything in this version is slightly over the top -

the acting, the accents, the costumes.

When Scottishness is taken this seriously, you can't help

but giggle just a little.

..the support we've been promised.

Lochiel's sword won't stay in the scabbard.

Lochiel will do what is right and honourable.

Nice tartan tights, by the way.

Clan Cameron will ride.

HE SPEAKS GAELIC

Not a doubt of it.

What about these strange behaviours?

Well, in the novel, this scene was about the Jacobites trying to

make a lot of noise to sound like a large, threatening army.

But this is, well, it's just, well, a little odd.

SHOUTING

Though charming in parts,

this large-scale series was seen as a failure.

It was overambitious and shooting in black and white was seen

as out of date for the sophisticated Technicolor audiences of 1968.

The fashion for all things Jacobite was so great that once they'd

used up all the classic romantic novels, scriptwriters had to

come up with entirely new stories based on historical fact.

Here's The Borderers written by Bill Craig.

It ran from 1968 to 1970.

It was called brave and original.

A kind of north-eastern wild western.

It's a gutsy, fast-paced tale

of cattle rustlers and bloody

feuds along the conflicted Scottish English border of the 16th century.

Here, Michael Gambon as Gavin Ker finds his father hanged.

'We must have though of it as being a bit of a Western,

'the way we dress and ride horses.

'I was taught to get off although I learnt after a

'while to take both my feet out the stirrups like a cowboy

'and throw my legs backwards and get straight off the horse.

'So that was very American, isn't it? Cowboys.'

'From the first day I got to Scotland to start rehearsing and shooting,

'I had a grey horse called Winston'

and he immediately fell in love

with me, Winston, and I had him for the whole two series - two years.

'I wanted to buy him from the farmer who owned him but he died,

'unfortunately.'

Not because of me, I don't think. But he went.

Send word that I need more men.

I'll burn their farms and kill their men.

I'll leave blackened fields and empty byres.

If it's bloodshed you are after, you won't have long to wait.

'I remember Winston the horse's name, my horse,'

more than I do anyone else in the whole series.

The producer, the director,

the BBC people.

The horse was, to me, The Borderers.

Terrible admission.

One of our best Scottish period dramas was originally neither

set in Scotland or written by or even about Scots.

The Miser was a play by the great 17th century French writer Moliere.

It was then reset for TV in mean, old Scotland.

And who better to play the tragic, comic,

penny-pinching old Scrooge than Rikki Fulton?

I'll shut up what I like and stand sentinel as it suits me.

Somehow, Scots dialect

fits perfectly with this farcical tale of greed.

My God, I hope he's no' suspicious aboot my silver.

-Your father's treasure chest.

-Aye?

-I've nabbed it.

Oh, michty me!

Stop, thief!

Murder, massacre, is there justice in heaven?

I'm lost, I'm dead, they've cut my throat, they've taken away my silver.

Who could it be?

When it comes to rewriting history,

the less known about the facts, the better.

Then you can just make things up.

So, Mary Queen of Scots

and her third husband Bothwell were perfect material.

I'm James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell.

Duke of Orkney.

I'm Lord High Admiral of Scotland.

I'm lawful husband of

Mary Stewart Queen of France, England and Scotland...

Brian Cox's Bothwell is a haggard, beaten, dark antihero

consumed by regret and failure. His performance is outstanding.

Apart from when he has to deal with a horse.

'Well, I had several incidents in Bothwell, actually.

'There was one where we filmed on this little promontory'

where I rode up and there was my entourage

and there was all these pennants flying

'and horses and so on.

'I had this horse called Papa John which was a vicious beast.'

If any man here of common or nobility accuses me

of secret or open treason, let him step forward and I'll give him

single combat in that rightful cause

and in the defence of my sovereign lady wife Mary Queen of Scotland.

'It goes well and suddenly the wind changes.'

And this pennant which has been flapping out here suddenly flaps

round the horse's eyes like that and the horse goes bananas.

It rears up and, as I say, we are on this promontory.

So, the horse rears up and it turns that way,

and it throws me

off the promontory, on the ground here.

So I'm lying flat on the ground looking up at this horse rearing up,

but then the horse misses its foot and it falls.

The cameraman goes that way, the soundman goes that way but I'm there.

And the horse falls on top of me. And the whole thing just lands on me.

I just sort of...

And I'm embedded in the ground in full armour and it took them

two hours to dig me out.

I've still got the cut on my nose where I...

Cos I'm like that and I thought I was dead.

Cos I could see this animal fall on top of me. It was horrendous.

Falling off a horse either accidentally or on purpose

seems to be a recurring theme of the swashbuckler.

Here's a few examples of historical significance.

Hey!

Whoa! Get that man a paracetamol.

In fact, over the years, the swashbuckler developed

quite a few ticks and quirks which were repeated

from programme to programme until they became endearing trademarks.

So you have the not entirely convincing sword fight.

Watch out for that tree.

And was this actually a rehearsal?

Then there's the unusual, ever-changing accents.

Sometimes English, sometimes Scottish, sometimes French.

Sometimes Eng-Freng-gosh-lish-tish...

You should have dried him off in the gibbet.

Have you ever seen the like of this before?

Then there's lots of porridge

and dangerously high levels of salt.

Grand, wholesome food, fine food is porridge.

Then there's larger than life characters

attacked by tiny, little model ships.

There she is!

CREAKING

SHOUTING

Then there were bad men with bad beards and bad teeth.

And bad laughter.

HE LAUGHS

You know that when a genre starts repeating itself that it's

coming to a close and after 30 thriving years

of swashbuckling TV,

the buckle stopped here.

The swash...the...the swash was all washed... It ended.

That's what I'm trying to say. It stopped.

There is one surprising reason for this - most of the swashbuckling

output from the BBC had one man behind it -

producer Pharic MacLaren.

Pharic was a TV genius who struggled with partial paralysis

throughout his long career.

He produced more than half of all drama for BBC Scotland up

until his death in 1980.

-What's the plan?

-That depends on the man.

These include The Miser, Rob Roy, Sunset Song, The New Road,

Doom Castle, The Haggard Road and Flight Of The Heron.

Not with a charge of small shot.

His passing marked the end of era for television.

And what the devil's this? Oh, aye, he's another of you.

He threw his absolute energy, enthusiasm

and joy into being...

working here in Scotland and we all

remember him with tremendous affection and a great respect.

He was a very handsome man. He had white hair and he was

a real Highlander, you know, he had that kind of Highland sensibility.

And he was a great one for going on location.

You know, famous stories of Pharic filming and deciding,

"I'm going to shoot up there."

And it would be a cliff top, you know.

Then they would literally pull him up in his wheelchair and put him

up there and he would shoot the scene

and he had that kind of audaciousness about him.

He was a very charismatic figure.

When we see the fabric of our national unity rent

and torn by divisions...

Before MacLaren died,

he caught the change in the air in Scottish TV and politics.

We still needed our heroes, our rebellions,

our Scottish nationalism and our knife and gun fights

but this is a period drama of a very different kind.

It wasn't set in the past but the future.

May I have your attention, please?

You're requested to return to your homes quietly

and to remain there until further notice.

Scotch On The Rocks was made in 1973.

The series is a fantasy about a civil war in Scotland in 1979

where the Scottish Liberation Army attempt to take over the country.

It was based on a book by Tory politician Douglas Hurd who

was trying to make independence look like a very bad idea indeed.

A Tory paranoid about the Scots?

Who'd have thought it?

If this is your new Scotland, I want no part of it.

The programme created such a political stooshie that the BBC

promised they'd never show it again.

Many people thought the original master tapes had been destroyed...

until now.

So, this is the first time it's been seen

since it was hidden away in the dark vaults of the BBC.

Regiment up!

The period costume drama was dead and buried for almost 30 years.

Television makers wanted to be ultra-modern.

Not that. Don't cover him with that.

Then...

Just when we thought we'd seen the last of that Victorian nostalgia

for the noble Hielan'man, in 1997 along comes a romance

between a noble Hielan'man and the most Victorian Victorian of all.

Mrs Brown tells the story about the love between Queen Victoria

and her Highland servant John Brown.

I would like to get down.

It was shot on location around Balmoral Castle and was originally

made just for television but when Harvey Weinstein saw a cut of it in

the edit suite, he snapped it up and cut a distribution deal for cinema.

Judi Dench was nominated for an Oscar

and she and Billy Connolly made Mrs Brown a great romantic two-hander.

I cannot allow it,

because I cannot live without you.

Without you, I cannot find the strength...

to be who I must be.

People were saying, "I didn't know you could act like that."

Well, quite frankly, neither did I.

Sean Connery gave me advice. He said, "Be shtill.

"There's a lot of power in shtillness."

So a lot of the time I'm standing still and it worked.

You know, when I'm standing with my horse, just, and won't go away.

"Just be shtill."

Plus, when Judi or anyone else in that cast,

you name any one of them, they're all masters,

and when they're acting with you, you can't respond by waving

your arms around, you know, like you're on some kind of sitcom.

You have to get into it.

You have to start believing that what you're doing is the truth.

There was one point where we were doing the eightsome reel

and Judi was across from me as Queen Victoria

and she's looking at me and I thought, "She fancies me.

"What am I going to do? My God, Judi Dench fancies me.

"What am I going to tell my wife?"

And it suddenly dawned on me what was happening.

It's all becoming real, you know.

It was Queen Victoria fancying John Brown.

So I started fancying her right back again and it just came to life.

Since Mrs Brown in 1997, there have still been very few period dramas

shot in Scotland.

Even Jimmy McGovern's series Gunpowder, Treason And Plot

was shot in Romania. Although with a Scottish crew.

-How many men can be raised by morning?

-Enough.

Although the period action adventure is making a comeback with fantasies

like Pirates Of The Caribbean and Game Of Thrones,

poor old Scotland has lost touch with its swashbuckling television heritage.

So, come on, you TV makers, get pitching. Writers, get writing.

I throw down my red gauntlet to you!

Charge!

Woo-hoo! Yeah!

The Scots are at your throats. Cut them down.

This time, let's hope for a better outcome.

Next guns.

Fire!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd