Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles
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.
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Cast
Robbie Coltrane
Dr Samuel Johnson
John Sessions
James Boswell
Celia Imrie
Lady MacDonald
Ruth McGhie
Flora McDonald
Penelope McGhie
Miss Campbell
Nicola Esson
Elizabeth McQuarrie
Mark Anstee
Captain MacLeod
Alan David
Sir Aeneas MacPherson
Ian Dury
Dr Reid
Tony Halfpenny
Coll
Donald MacNeill
McLeod of Raasay
Carol MacReady
Lady MacPherson
Richard D. Sharp
Benjamin
Leo Sho-Silva
Joseph
Joanne Thirsk
Caroline MacPherson
