Culloden

Peter Watkins revolutionised the historical drama with this harrowing, fiercely modern account of the Battle of Culloden.

  • Director

    Peter Watkins

  • With

    George McBean, Tony Cosgrove, Robert Oates, Olivier Espitalier-Noel

  • BBC 1964. 69min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    12A

+ The Making of Culloden

UK 2006. Director Linda Sands. 30min. Video

Total running time 99min

Watkins’ strikingly original reconstruction of the 1746 Battle of Culloden strips away any sense of noble pageantry to confront the brutality inflicted on Highland soldiers and civilians by the British Army. Dynamically filmed with handheld cameras and adopting the style of television reportage, the film collapses the distance between past and present with visceral immediacy. It’s one of the defining works of British television. It is accompanied here by a BBC documentary examining the production and enduring influence of this landmark film.

James Bell