Sgeir
Well-known member
Missed the Panorama prog on Scottish sectarianism - but did sit through, with an increasingly uncomfortable feeling, the BBC's latest interpretations of RLS's Kidnapped. (Oddly enough, some of the early roots of sectarianism are connected with Jacobite/Hanoverian politics of the period and described in the book - see the onboard dialogue between Captain Hoseason, a Whig from Dysart in Fife, and Alan Breck, the Jacobite).
Perhaps those forumites who know about these things, can tell us whether the BBC has something in its Charter that allows it to bowdlerise a fine novel into a cheap-looking Hollywood-style pastiche. The real story is great - why turn it in to rubbish? Why change the settings and the background of the characters? Why is Queenferry set as a Highland port - although I believe it was actually filmed in South Island New Zealand?
Many years ago (the 70s?), the BBC made a fine version of RLS's much underrated Master of Ballantrae. It had decent standards, decent acting, actually set in right continent, and explained the social background to the events in the novel. As does the novel Kidnapped - not that any of it was recognisable in the toe-curling BBC version.
Why, oh why, oh why?
Perhaps those forumites who know about these things, can tell us whether the BBC has something in its Charter that allows it to bowdlerise a fine novel into a cheap-looking Hollywood-style pastiche. The real story is great - why turn it in to rubbish? Why change the settings and the background of the characters? Why is Queenferry set as a Highland port - although I believe it was actually filmed in South Island New Zealand?
Many years ago (the 70s?), the BBC made a fine version of RLS's much underrated Master of Ballantrae. It had decent standards, decent acting, actually set in right continent, and explained the social background to the events in the novel. As does the novel Kidnapped - not that any of it was recognisable in the toe-curling BBC version.
Why, oh why, oh why?