Flight of the Heron, The (BBC One 1976, David Rintoul, Tom Chadbon)

Period drama serial The Flight of the Heron was based on a 1925 novel by D.K. Broster, aka Dorothy Kathleen Broster. It’s setting was the Jacobite Rebellion of the 1740’s and the Battle of Culloden (the same real life time period as the first couple of seasons of Outlander). Ewen Cameron and Keith Windham are soldiers on opposing sides but eventually come to a respect for one another.

The title comes from the fact that a seer predicts that Cameron will meet Windham five times by water, each time signaled by the flight of a heron.

Scottish TV had made their own 8 part version for ITV in 1968 starring Ian McCulloch as Cameron. The BBC also adapted the book twice for radio, in 1944 and again in 1959.

production details
UK / BBC One / 6×30 minute episodes / Broadcast Sunday 29 February – Sunday 4 April 1976

Writer: Tom Wright / Book: D.K. Broster / Producer: Pharic Maclaren / Director: Alastair Reid

cast
David Rintoul as Ewen Cameron
Tom Chadbon as Keith Windham
John Phillips as Cameron of Lochiel
Estelle Kohler as Alison Grant
Joseph Blatchley as Lachlan
Eileen McCallum as Aunt Margaret
James McKenzie as Old Angus MacMartin
Bill Henderson as Neil MacMartin
Michael Elder as Doctor Archie Cameron
John Young as Grant
Alexei Jawdokimov as Prince Charles
Patrick Malahide as Colonel O’Sullivan
Gerard Slevin as Sergeant Mackay