Scotland Videos

Clan Broonford has some good ones:

https://www.youtube.com/@ClanBroonford

Thanks, buddy. Or buddette.

We’ve been watching Grand Tours of Scotland on Amazon prime to prepare for our trip in March.

Scotland History Tours with the Perthshire comedian Bruce Fummey is a good one on history and he travels around Scotland and beyond to tell these stories. Of course comedy is personal taste, but I would recommend his videos.

Think some of Billy Connollys ,World Tour of Scotland is still on YouTube.
Might even be in BBC iPlayer if you have access

Hi Mike -

It’s kind of old now but Muriel Gray’s “The Munro Show” can be found on You Tube. It’s a guide, somewhat irreverent, to some of Scotland’s more prominent mountains, and although a keen Munro-bagger herself* Muriel doesn’t look like your typical mountaineer - she freely admits to not having a beard for starters!

*Her book ‘The First Fifty’, which covers is prose what The Munro Show does visually, is a hoot and a half if you can track it down.

Also check out ‘Scotland’s Mountains’ on the old You Tube to see Murray take on some of the biggies and some of the more obscure Scottish peaks. Always sensational to look at and continues the raging debate ‘what’s in your rucksack for lunch?’ (Murray favours the Tesco twin Scotch Egg combo, while sometime climbing partner Gerry likes an ‘artisan pork pie’).

If you can locate any of Jonathan Meades excellent documentaries - ‘Isle of Rust’ springs to mind - on or maybe via the BBC, they are always worth your time - learned, informative and often funny, they frequently offer a revised perspective on commonly held views in a dry, clipped, ‘double breasted dark suit and sunglasses at all times’ fashion.

Ian

These two films are among the best among cinematic tales of Scotland - The first , " Local Hero " ( 1983 ) This is a wry comedy about a Texas oil company attempting to buy a Scottish village on the North Coast , to build an oil refinery . With Peter Riegert , Burt Lancaster , and Denis Lawson . A clip here - https://youtu.be/uN-HMT4z7fY its worth getting your hands on this . And this one , above all - " Tunes of Glory " ( 1960 ) with John Mills , Alec Guinesst , Gordon Jackson , Dennis Price and a stellar cast . The tale of two Scottish Colonels at the end of the Second World War and their conflict over the hearts and minds of the soldiers in the battalion . Filmed on location at Stirling Castle , I was fourteen when I first saw this , and it has never left me . The complete film here - https://youtu.be/nS4HrDImcn4

The Secret Scotland programmes presented by Susan Calman are amusing and informative.

Martin Compston's Scottish Fling https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bvtq

Britain by Bike with Larry and George Lamb https://www.channel5.com/show/britain-by-bike-with-larry-george-lamb/season-1

The Grand Tours of Scotland presented by Paul Murton will be worth a watch. I think someone else has already mentioned these and they sound like programmes you can access. I'm not sure about the others.

Hi, Big Mike,

Any of the Scottish videos on YouTube produced by Steve Marsh. He's accompanied on many of them by the charming Alicja. Just go on YouTube and enter "Steve Marsh"..

Especially good is his solo trip around the NE250. It's in HD, and looks beautiful! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVZm-5-QEc8

Caution - you'll be hooked!

Best wishes,

Slightly Smaller Mike (Auchterless)

I left a copy of "First Fifty" up at Suileag bothy last summer, it's a funny read.
Bout time she got another fifth done as the first book was out in 1987 ish

Bothy Life documentary is still on Dailymotion website.
It's in English after the I tial start
Bothy are the free to use mountain huts in the UK

HI again, Big Mike,

If you can find it (it's on YouTube behind a paywall), check out the 1985 comedy Restless Natives. It has some of the best Scottish scenery and townscapes I've ever seen in a motion picture. Except maybe for the final scene of Sunshine on Leith, which is free on YouTube in HD.

Update - they've pulled Sunshine on Leith from free YouTube, and put it behind a paywall. Damn! However, the finale is still up on YouTube, and I have to say it's one of the best finales I've ever seen in a motion picture. Check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaVz5QodZv4

You're going to be seeing so many movies and reading so many books about Scotland that you'll want to extend your holiday!

Best wishes once again!

Slightly Smaller Mike (Auchterless)

Thank you, folks. You've provided me with plenty of good viewing options that I am looking forward to.

My lunch time will be productive!

Tagging along here. I've been wanting to watch Local Hero since I will be in the area where it was filmed, so I looked it up and it's on Amazon Prime (renting for $2.99). And thanks for all the other ideas - good question, BigMike!

Seconding The Secret Scotland shows with Susan Calman. I believe you can find most of them on YouTube.

S1E1 https://youtu.be/5YpQTdwCWO8

They may be geoblocked, if so a VPN may work, but STV has put some of its archive programmes including Weir's Way on its streaming service, STV Player.

STV is the main commercial TV company in Scotland, part of the ITV network, and has the archives of the companies that merged to create it, Scottish Television and Grampian Television.

We got a 10 part BBC DVD from our local library that dove deep into Scottish history before our trip there. Lots of clan clashes!

I was glad to know a bit of this history when I was on Maui recently and ended up having dinner with some strangers and the gentleman was from Scotland and I was happy I knew some of the history because his last name was McDonald and boy, did he have a few things to say "about those Campbells"!

I was checking on a few more movies and just realized that the Disney movie, "The Three Lives of Thomasina" was filmed in Inverary, Argyll. That was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, many many many years ago. :) It was about a little girl (she was also in Mary Poppins) and her cat.

If you like British crime drama, Shetland is a wonderful series filmed on .... (I'll let you guess). :) Beautiful scenery - currently on Prime. Also Guilt is a good show, with a pretty intense protagonist. I've only seen season 1 but season 2 is out now. It stars Mark Bonnar, one of my favorite Scottish actors (he co-starred on "Shetland". It's mostly filmed in Glasgow, but also Aberfoyle and East Kilbride and is streaming on PBS.

And lastly Annika (only 1 season so far) also on PBS, and starring Nicola Walker as the head of Glasgow's Marine Homicide Unit. Annika is filmed entirely on location from the Isle of Bute to Largs, Helensburgh and Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, and Luss and Balloch on Loch Lomond. Also Glasgow’s West End and City Centre. I'm looking forward to the next season and may wind up watching it in Scotland if the US doesn't have it by May. :)

I was checking on a few more movies and just realized that the Disney movie, "The Three Lives of Thomasina" was filmed in Inverary, Argyll. That was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, many many many years ago. :) It was about a little girl (she was also in Mary Poppins) and her cat.

Those Disney films of the 1960s were one of the things I was thinking of in the books thread about books, films, and television programmes being made where things are not quite right. I am not aware of the film in question, but I do remember the Disney adaptation of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, I loved the book at as a kid, having sponsored/product placement on the in film TV show. It was released in 1961, we would not get sponsorship on commercial TV for over thirty years, or product placement on commercial TV for almost fifty. Some bits of the UK still did not have commercial TV at that point.

Miriam (Margolyes) and Alan (Cumming) Lost in Scotland and Lost in Scotland and Beyond might be of interest and before that there was Alan Cumming's Edge of Scotland

Not sure where they can be found, maybe PBS or YouTube?

If you have a Starz subscription, check out "Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham" - funny, informative, and great scenery!

Also, a second for the "Clan Broonford" videos on YouTube. He's an Edinburgh resident and does 15-20 minute videos around the city, with segments on food, history, tourist spots, hiking areas, etc.