The Blood is Strong Documentary

[Carlo]

Only favoured areas of Aberdeen had TV at Coronation time (1953) - the third city of Scotland and now the oil capital of Europe. Highland hills tend to get in the way of mobile phone signals to this day!
Alan

Not only the Highlands, I'd guess that 60 years ago not too many families had a tele. I remember that 25 years ago we only had one small tv and one PersonalComputer. It's not even 10 years since HD-TVs with 36"+ diagonals became affordable.
I'd guess that the point of no mobile phone signals has a lot to do with the theme of the above mentioned TV-production. There are not enough people to pay for what it costs to build the network and antenna. It's not only the hills that are in the way when you don't get signal in Portree.

[creagdhubh]

Thanks for posting the links Nathan. Makes you think of how lucky most of us are today, and how internally strong those of yesteryear must have been.

Indeed!

[creagdhubh]

Music by Capercaillie

Aye, "Alasdair Mhic Cholla." Superb tune.

[frank_a]

We now have the ability to watch YouTube videos on our big wall mounted 55" tele. That is how I watched these two videos, and must say, for being as old as they are, the video was 1/2 way decent on our big TV. I've read a good deal about Culloden, and enjoy history as much for its entertainment value as for its grounding in reality. I found these two videos very entertaining! Thanks for posting them.

Frank

[BCAC]

Rex, 60 years ago...no tele in the Highlands?!

Frank, I'm not THAT old and even I can remember going out as a family to watch some big event on the tele which was situated in a big room on top of the televison shop in town. There was tele, but not yet at home. However we did watch the moon landings on this new fangled device (in the middle of the night) at home albeit on a black and white set. We didn't have colour TV at home when I left to join up in 1971!

[frank_a]

While my dad was Scottish in manner VERY "thrifty"), TV was something special to him. I was born in '52, and can remember the big black and white console we had when I first started remembering things. Then by the early 60's we had a big Zenith console color TV, and I grew up with color for the most part. Now, thanks to modern tech, I only watch a few shows I record on our DVR, and once in a while YouTube stuff. With satellite TV, mostly I just use it for listening to alternative rock on an audio-only channel that features NO commercials. My wee lass is the tele woman, she loves a number of shows that I mostly have no interest in. Which is okay, because I am usually too busy to watch!

Frank

[Nathan]

I suppose the arrival of TVs has changed the accent of many in the Highlands and Islands. I remember as a child being so confused about why the Scottish accents you mostly see on television and film were so different from the rural Cape Bretoners who spoke Scottish Gaidlig as a first language.

Someone told me it was a Highland accent, but when I met people from the Highlands, they either had a posh English accent or one more closely aligned with Scottish Standard English.

The man in the documentary is obviously a Gaidlig speaking Scot who has the same accent as the old timers from back home and this made me smile. In Cape Breton my generation's accent has an accent closer to standard Maritime Canadian English (which has elements more commonly associated with Ireland) so it stands to reason that in the Highlands and Islands, the accents would be moving closer toward other UK accents given that many Gaidhlig speakers are now also native speakers of English.

Interesting comments about the TV

[Madpiper1130]

Thank you for posting the links. It was very interesting.

[creagdhubh]

Calum MacLeod's story will be brought to the fore with a major film release that is presently in production. Can't wait to see it!

http://www.ukmadefilms.com/projects.html

[Nathan]

Calum MacLeod's story will be brought to the fore with a major film release that is presently in production. Can't wait to see it!

http://www.ukmadefilms.com/projects.html

Looks good!