Masterpiece Theatre "Kidnapped" October 30 and November 6
at 9 p.m.
Barbara Peters
The Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale and Phoenix
The romance of the Highlands, the bloody realities of Scotland post-Culloden when the English, having chased Prince Charles Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") back to France and put paid to the Stuart claim to the throne, set about systematically to destroy future rebellions by clamping down on the clans and their ancient customs. It was forbidden to wear the tartan (some or all of the plaids, I can't quite recall), for example.
Robert Louis Stevenson, himself a Scot, lived a short life, 1850-1894, but produced an astounding body of work. He was a true storyteller, drawing inspiration from life and from history. What more natural for him than to mine the years after 1745 with a rousing tale of lost heirs, wicked uncles, abduction, sale into slavery, (deliberate) shipwreck, and then a wild ride across Scotland by the survivors, young Davy Balfour and the legendary rebel Alan Breck (who had collided with the ship taking Davy off to be sold as an indentured servant at a tidy profit to the captain in America).
Breck, a flawed hero, is nevertheless a proud man unwilling to settle for the English yoke. He's just the man for young Davy, orphaned in trying circumstances—his dying father reveals that he had quarreled with his younger brother and left the family estate behind, the estate to which Davy is now the heir—and betrayed (no surprise, it's a serious weakness in the logic of the plot for Davy to believe he'd be welcomed by the uncle he's come to dispossess, especially after he announces his intention to call upon a lawyer in the nearby port)—to admire. And also, for Davy is an adolescent mixture of naiveté and shrewdness, to regard with a critical eye. So the story is a coming of age tale for Davy as well as a stirring adventure given extra impetus by the murder of the notorious English officer the Red Fox and the manhunt that follows.
The casting is great, whether Davy, Uncle Ebenezer, the captain who buys the boy for resale, Breck, the Highlanders, and young Catriona, a crack shot. And a large number of supporting players. While I thought the bounty hunters who fan across the hills in search of Davy and Breck look more like characters from a Clint Eastwood movie than 18th Century trackers, the long chase scenes display some magnificent scenery. I am not sure if this production was actually filmed in the Highlands but wherever…it's very convincing.
I am told that the identity of the person who really pulled the trigger and slew the Red Fox is still a closely guarded secret in the Highlands (or maybe a forgotten one).
Did you know that Stevenson wrote a sequel to Kidnapped? It's Catriona, published in 1893 in London by Cassells and in NY by Scribners, the same team who had published Kidnapped in 1886. Perhaps Masterpiece Theatre could be convinced to bring it to us.
Masterpiece Theatre "Kidnapped" airs Sundays, October 30 and November 6 at 9 p.m. on Channel 8.
