DURING all his years of television broadcasting, John Morrison says he has never been involved in a programme with an opening set of shots quite as beautiful.
The former Scotland correspondent for BBC Network news this evening presents a documentary on the extraordinary tale of the son of a South Uist man who might have been the emperor of France instead of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Says Morrison: “The opening sequence was shot on the stunning white beach at Howbeg, South Uist, in the early evening, as the sun was setting in the west. A ball of fire falling into the Atlantic. Sunlight dancing on the waves. Filming took place in the first week in April. The weather was glorious – not a cloud in the sky.”
It’s something of a return to the TV screen for Morrison, who has set up a media consultancy with the former political editor of the Sunday Mail newspaper, Lindsay McGarvie.
The MacDonalds of France has been made by Scottish independent TV production company, Caledonia TV. Les Wilson is the director. Lewis-based freelance, Ged Yeates, was the cameraperson in the Western Isles section. Stuart Nimmo, a freelance based in Paris, shot the French end of the programme.
It is on at 7pm, on BBC Two.
