Season 8 • Episode 6
LatestIn 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.
Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.
Acting
Coltrane's Johnson is magnificent, petty, unexpectedly moving.
Direction
John Byrne brings theatrical intimacy to windswept Hebrides.
Writing
Boswell's hero worship vs. Johnson's brutal honesty.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
John Byrne, who directed, was also a celebrated playwright and painter—his visual eye shapes every frame like a watercolor.
The real tour happened in 1773; Johnson published his account in 1775, and Boswell's more famous version came 10 years later—this episode captures their competing narratives beautifully.
GB
