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.

• John ByrneWriter
• John ByrneDirector

• Robbie ColtraneDr Samuel Johnson
• John SessionsJames Boswell
• Celia ImrieLady MacDonald
• Ruth McGhieFlora McDonald
• Penelope McGhieMiss Campbell
• Nicola EssonElizabeth McQuarrie
• Mark AnsteeCaptain MacLeod
• Alan DavidSir Aeneas MacPherson
• Ian DuryDr Reid
• Tony HalfpennyColl
• Donald MacNeillMcLeod of Raasay
• Carol MacReadyLady MacPherson