Robert Louis Stevenson

The BBC has recently announced that it is to dramatise Kidnapped, the classic Scottish novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Kidnapped is an essentially Scottish tale. Apart from the frequent mentions of specific Scottish locations (Balquidder, South Queensferry, Appin, Limekilns and the Isle of Mull all feature), it is a novel which at its heart explores the relationship between the peoples of the North and South of Scotland: The Lowlander views the Highlander as an uncivilised barbarian and the Highlander views the Lowlander as a conservative prig.

The BBC has announced that all the filming will be done in New Zealand.

FirstFoot applauds this far-sighted thinking which will do wonders for the travelling expense accounts of many TV executives. We look forward to more sensitive location specific dramas from the Beeb and suggest that they consider remaking some of the following classical English films:

Film	Original Location	BBC Location
Wuthering Heights	Yorkshire	Nairobi
Brighton Rock	Brighton	Himalayas
Get Carter	Newcastle	Baghdad
The Full Monty	Sheffield	Venice
Zulu	South Africa	London

Of course it is absolutely absurd to suggest that Zulu would be shot in London. The expense claims wouldn't be nearly large enough.