TV review Ridiculous Highland fling through a script of porridge

Scotland, 1714, and the air is heavy with script. Scowling laird Red Jacob MacKenzie (Peter Mullan) has snuffed it and the task of spelling out the significance of the tragedy has fallen, from no little height, on his eldest daughter.

- Sarah Dempster

Scotland, 1714, and the air is heavy with script. Scowling laird Red Jacob MacKenzie (Peter Mullan) has snuffed it and the task of spelling out the significance of the tragedy has fallen, from no little height, on his eldest daughter. "Clan MacKenzie is vulnerable," wails Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater). "No successor has been named. Someone else, not of our blood, could come in and take charge of the clan; of our home; of our money; of our reputation; of everything we have!"

Agreement comes from the shadows, where a maid is hiding from the soundtrack's bagpipes. "Your father's untimely death has shaken us all, lass," she whispers, tremulously. "What's to come will be a trial... [pause]... for all of us."