Overview

In the autumn of 1773, the English writer Samuel Johnson visits the Hebrides, or Western Isles, off the North-West coast of Scotland. With him are his friend, the Scotsman James Boswell, and his black servant Francis Barber. Staying with a series of hosts, including elderly Jacobite heroine Flora McDonald, Johnson and Boswell encounter traditional Scottish hospitality at first-hand, all the time arguing about politics (and in Boswell's case losing his head over every pretty woman he meets). Meanwhile, Francis and another black servant they encounter provide evidence of the new consciousness emerging in Britain's soon-to-be-independent American colonies.

Top Cast

Robbie Coltrane

Dr Samuel Johnson

John Sessions

James Boswell

Celia Imrie

Lady MacDonald

Ruth McGhie

Flora McDonald

P

Penelope McGhie

Miss Campbell

N

Nicola Esson

Elizabeth McQuarrie

M

Mark Anstee

Captain MacLeod

Alan David

Sir Aeneas MacPherson

Ian Dury

Dr Reid

T

Tony Halfpenny

Coll

D

Donald MacNeill

McLeod of Raasay

Carol MacReady

Lady MacPherson