Escape To Danger No.18

Recently, I've been thinking about beards.

This is probably understandable, as I seem to find myself in the midst of growing one. I can't recall any conscious decision to do so, other than it would be something new to do that required a bare minimum of effort on my part.

 

I was hoping that the amount of grey on display would give me some much-needed gravitas, but yesterday I was informed by Ms Monoid that I merely bore a resemblance to Chris Moyles. After a few months, I fear I will instead grow to resemble Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein.

 

Again, none of which is really relevant to the matter in hand, which is "The Highlanders", the second and final of what are sometimes known as The Davis Historicals. (The ones he had most input into, rather than the ones he inherited).

 

Sadly, neither of them appear to be very highly regarded, which is a great shame. While both are entirely missing from the archives (which could be a contributing factor), for some the main problem appears to be that they both based more on adventure yarns concerning the period than any hard historical facts.

 

 

As objections go, this is pretty lame. Even by the standards of the distant 1990's, when fan writers continually strove to find new things to say about old stories, having no new ones of their own to criticise.

 

 

Actually, all that stuff about beards was meant to have some relevance, as I do think that Jamie McCrimmon should have sported a fine bushy beard. Maybe that's why not many people seem to rate Serial FF very highly. Or maybe it's because Angus Lennie isn't in a story set in Scotland, thereby probably causing the BBC to contravene part of its Charter.

 

 

We did get Hannah Gordon, though. She didn't sport a beard either, and this shot was another that was often trotted out in the sort of DWM articles mentioned a while back, when scribe J. Jeremy Bentham featured actors your parents might have heard of in an attempt to make Who look like proper drama that could be mentioned in polite company.

 

 

"I would like a hat like that!"

 

Many years ago, I insisted on a trip to Culloden Moor during a family holiday, and visited the battlefield and even the nearby clootie well. (It must have been in 1986, as the Target novel "Galaxy Four" had just been published, which I was reading on the journey).

It's a shame that the BBC never went there, as Frensham Common in Surrey was deemed a more suitable location. That Frensham also was judged a dead ringer for the Plains of Troy is another story for another day.

 

Incidentally, film locations for the other Davis Historical are right on the doorstep of the site of this autumn's Disappointing Family Holiday.

 

More news on that if I am allowed a chance to see them...