In 1971 BBC Scotland adapted for television "Sunset Song", the first part of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's trilogy "A Scots Quair". ("Quair" is a dialect word for "book"). At the time "Sunset song" was probably intended as a one-off project, but in the early eighties the BBC eventually filmed the two other parts, "Cloud Howe" and "Grey Granite".
All three parts of the trilogy are set in the north-east of Scotland and have as their main character a young woman, Christine "Chris" Guthrie, the daughter of farmer from the (fictional) rural village of Kinraddie, in Gibbon's native Kincardineshire. "Sunset Song" was set during the 1910s and deals with Chris's relationship with her overbearing, autocratic father, John, and her marriage to another farmer named named Ewan Tavendale, who dies in the First World War.
"Cloud Howe" is set during the 1920s. Chris is now married to married to Robert Colquohoun, an idealistic young clergyman in the Church of Scotland. Robert is originally the minister of Kinraddie church, but he later moves to the small industrial town of Segget, dominated by the jute industry. Scotland (in common with the whole of the United Kingdom, and most of Europe) is a very different place to what it was before the war. Robert hopes to inspire people with the love of God, but he finds that the Kirk no longer holds the dominant position in Scottish society that it once did. Church attendances have fallen, as people begin to question how God could have allowed the horrors of war. Chris herself, despite her marriage to a minister, is quite openly an unbeliever.
The other consequence of war is a growing radicalisation of society. Men who fought in the trenches hoping to come home to a "land fit for heroes" find their hopes disappointed in the depressed economic climate of the twenties, and begin to turn against the Establishment. (They may have been the prosperous "roaring twenties" in America, but less so in Britain). Many turn towards socialism, a few towards its bitter rival fascism, although the latter ideology had little mass appeal during the twenties. Like Gibbon himself, Robert has sympathies with the socialist cause, and makes his position clear, especially during the General Strike of 1926, something which does not endear him to many of his flock, especially the wealthier members.
Other significant characters include Chris and Robert's maid Else Queen, who becomes involved with the disreputable farmer Dalziel of Meiklebogs, and Stephen Mowat, the owner of one of Segget's jute mills. Although Mowat is ostensibly a pillar of society, he is in reality just as disreputable as Dalziel, a Fascist sympathiser who treats his workers harshly. He eventually disappears with the proceeds of a financial fraud; he represents Gibbon's critical view of the capitalist system. Although Mowat is Scottish, he was educated in England and affects what he believes is an upper-class English accent.
Gibbon's view of his fellow-countrymen, in fact, was often a negative one. Mowat is far from being the only unsympathetic character. The townspeople of Segget can be narrow-minded, censorious, hard-drinking and backbiting. They take a particular delight in spreading malicious gossip; when Else becomes pregnant, popular opinion holds (quite falsely) that Robert is the father of her child.
At first I did not enjoy "Cloud Howe" as much as its predecessor "Sunset Song", one of the BBC's most powerful dramas of the seventies. The first two episodes struck me as rather dull and slow-moving. The pace and power of the story began to improve, however, in the latter two episodes, with the ending being particularly gripping and moving. There is a fine performance from Vivien Heilbron as Chris, reprising the role she had played in "Sunset Song", and perhaps an even finer one from Hugh Fraser as Robert. (He reminded me strongly of a close friend of mine, another idealistic Christian socialist). I have also recorded "Grey Granite" and look forward to watching it. 8/10.
