This Scottish Television production was based on Sir Walter Scott’s 1824 novel and concerned itself with the fortunes of Mr Darsie Latimer (James Grant), who was given an allowance by a mother he had never seen and ordered not to set foot on English soil until he was 25.
The lack of any explanation only fuels his curiosity until it eventually gets the better of him and he sets off for the Solway Firth and Cumberland.
Fearing for Darsie’s safety, Greenmantle (Isobel Black) leaves for Edinburgh secretly and warns Alan Fairford (Andrew Robertson) that his friend is in danger.
Darsie, meanwhile, has sensed the interest he has provoked and has persuaded Wandering Willie (James Gibson), a blind itinerant fiddler, to let him accompany him to a fisherman’s dance where he might get more information.
But he reckons without Cristal Nixon (Roddy McMillan) and his henchmen, who kidnap him on the orders of Redgauntlet (Jack Watson), a fanatical Jacobite leader who is also known as Herries of Birrenswork.
Alan Fairford sets out to rescue his friend and it is eventually revealed that Darsie is the son of the previous Laird of Redgauntlet, who was killed at the battle of Culloden, and he is, therefore, the rightful heir to the Redgauntlet fortune, which his uncle had usurped in order to fund another Jacobite uprising.
Scott’s story – which had previously been adapted by the BBC in 1959 – was filmed extensively in many of the genuine locations from the book. Ian Stuart Black (whose daughter played the mysterious Greenmantle) adapted this version.
Scottish Television sold the eight-part series to Canada, Sweden, Germany and Australia.
Redgauntlet
Jack Watson Cristal Nixon
Roddy McMillan Darsie Latimer
James Grant Greenmantle
Isobel Black Alan Fairford
Andrew Robertson Peter Peebles
John Laurie Alexander Fairford
Leonard Maguire Wandering Willie
James Gibson Dame Martin
Anna Kidd Jan
Roy Hanlon Nanty Ewart
Calum Mill Provost Crosbie
Douglas Murchie Tam
Malcolm Douglas Tam’s fellow
Roy Street Rab
Brian Pettifer Greenmantle’s Maid
Anne Buchanan
Episodes
The Man with the Sword | Warning from a Lady | Race Against the Tide | Held Prisoner | The Trial | The Storm | The Rebels | Death of a Traitor
Fearing for Darsie’s safety, Greenmantle (Isobel Black) leaves for Edinburgh secretly and warns Alan Fairford (Andrew Robertson) that his friend is in danger.
