大象传媒

Episode synopses

Episode one

The year is 1751 and Scotland is coming to terms with bloody defeat and occupation by the English.

Meanwhile, in a tiny Scottish Lowland village, Davie Balfour is orphaned when his father Alexander is crushed by a tree.

Just before he dies, Alexander gives him a dagger and tells him that he must claim his rightful inheritance of a great landed estate from an uncle he never even knew he had.

After a perilous journey, Davie arrives and introduces himself to his reclusive and eccentric uncle Ebenezer.

At first he seems friendly enough but as soon as Davie mentions his inheritance, Ebenezer tries to send him to his death.

When that fails, he has Davie kidnapped and taken away on a ship headed for slavery in the New World.

Amidst a crew of cut-throats and villainous slave traders, Davie feels that all is utterly hopeless and he despairs of his future alone in the world with no hope of return to his beloved homeland.

Then the slave ship runs down a boat containing the notorious swashbuckling Highland hero, Alan Breck.

Despite being hopelessly outnumbered, Alan and Davie quickly form a pact and agree to fight their way off the ship - except that Davie has never fought before in his life...

Episode two

Against extraordinary odds Davie and Alan fight their way out of their ship's cabin - and in a moment of desperation Alan recklessly scuppers the ship when he ignites a barrel of gunpowder in the hold.

The next thing Davie knows is when he wakes alone on a Scottish beach - he's back in his own country, but now he is in the Highlands, a place so different from the calm and prosperous surroundings of his Lowland upbringing that it feels like an alien land.

All alone once again, Davie travels through the moors and forests, encountering some of the strange, disturbed, refugee people that have wandered the Highlands since they were dispossessed by the land-grab that followed the Highland clearances.

Davie finally meets up with Alan again, but his joy is quickly extinguished when they are both accused of the murder of a tax collector for King George and are forced on a wild flight through the Scottish Highlands pursued by ruthless English bounty hunters under the icy command of Colonel MacNab.

Alan and Davie seek refuge with the clan of James of the Glens.

James, bound by duty to Alan, is civil but it is clear that he feels Alan is trouble he cannot afford.

Alan, shocked and hurt, tries to shame James into joining him to no avail.

As a warning that the Redcoats are on their way is sounded, Alan and Davie disappear into the hills leaving James to be charged with treason in their place...

Davie cannot understand why Alan would do this to a man who was once a friend and comrade; and Davie also feels guilt that he has abandoned the villagers who showed him such kindness - especially James's daughter, the beautiful but wilful Catriona.

Alan and Davie flee to the mountains, hotly pursued by MacNab's bounty hunters.

They outrun and outsmart the hunters - but just as they think they have found safety, they are captured by a group of unknown, silent, wild-looking men dressed in animal skins...

Have they escaped the English, only to die at the hands of cannibals?

Episode three

Our heroes discover that they have fallen into the hands of Cluny - a famous Highland hero and old friend of Alan's.

Once a Highland Chief with a fine castle, Cluny and his men now live off the land, moving from place to place in hiding, carrying out a guerrilla struggle against the occupying Redcoats.

News arrives with Cluny that James of the Glens has been arrested and is to be hanged.

Davie tries to convince Alan to save him, but Alan is still too hurt and stubborn to aid a man he views as a collaborator.

However, Catriona has also been tracking Alan and convinces him with a musket that he should help her father.

The bounty hunters catch up with our party of heroes once again, and the three of them are chased through the land until they can sneak back into Queensferry where Davie seeks out his old family lawyer, Mr Rankeillor - a man with a high regard for the law and a realistic view of Scottish and English politics.

As James is led to the gallows, Rankeillor stops the hanging and does a deal with MacNab: if he lets James go free, MacNab can have the notorious rebel Alan Breck... it's too good for MacNab to say no.

But before Alan will sacrifice himself, he insists that he must help Davie claim his rightful inheritance from his treacherous uncle...

Together they fool Ebenezer into giving away his transgressions in front of lawyer Rankeillor and Alan leaves Davie and Catriona together in the great house...

Alan is led away and James is freed. But as Alan is marched off under guard, there is an attack from the hills orchestrated by Davie and Catriona.

Alan breaks free and Davie and Catriona wave him off as he sails for France, exile and the hope of a glorious return to a free Scotland - one day.