People came from as far afield as Lewis and, according to reports at the time, few if any regarded what they were doing as stealing; the foundering of the ship made its cargo theirs to save under the ‘rules of salvage’. Possibly the highlight is Lyzzie Dell’s monstrous Mrs Campbell. Anyone who has ever spent any time in Scotland will find her Holy Wilhelmina act horribly familiar as well as hugely funny. good humour and craft On 26 April at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court a group of men from Barra pleaded guilty to theft and were charged between three and five pounds. Mr McColl was furious at the leniency of the men’s sentences, but the police, being mainly locals themselves, were tired of the bothering the locals who had not, in their minds, done such a bad thing. However, Mr McColl continued his crusade against these illegal salvagers and some of the men were sentenced to up to six weeks in prison in Inverness and Peterhead.

Clark, Gregory (2018). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 30 January 2018. Whisky Galore! was produced at the same time as Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets; all three comedies were released in UK cinemas over two months. [4] Brian McFarlane, writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, states that although it was not an aim of releasing the three films together, together they "established the brand name of 'Ealing comedy'"; [86] Duguid writes that the three films "forever linked 'Ealing' and 'comedy' in the public imagination". [9] The film historians Duguid, Lee Freeman, Keith Johnston and Melanie Williams consider 1949 was one of two "pinnacle" years for Ealing, the other being 1951, when The Man in the White Suit and The Lavender Hill Mob were both released. [87] Seventy-five years ago today, on the morning of 5 February, 1941, the SS Politician was heading north past the Outer Hebrides, having cast off from Liverpool two days earlier. Its final destinations? Kingston, Jamaica, and New Orleans.

something special, too, about this fascinating book ... All in all, this is the real thing - a single malt of a book - a lovely and loving read' The adaptation juggles the huge cast of characters with real skill, making good use of a narrator figure in Duncan Ban Macroon, played with an inviting twinkle and real comic nous by Ronnie Millar. And it is a huge cast – nineteen-strong, with three doubling up in second roles – to the extent that they hardly fit on stage for the closing bows. beautifully paced Murray describes Kailyard as "images of Scotland that portrayed it as parochial, cut off from the modern world, small-town, hapless lads, winsome lassies. They certainly weren't something you could recognise yourself in". [52] By June 1941, four months after the SS Politician’s demise, branches of the Barclays and Midland Banks in Liverpool began reporting the presentation of water-damaged Jamaican 10-shilling notes.

On the morning of 5th February a young man was combing a beach in South Uist when he saw the ship in trouble and beginning to list. After a valiant struggle by the Captain, Beaconsfield Worthington, to keep his ship on course, the SS Politician eventually ran aground in the storm onto sandbanks off the Isle of Eriskay where she began to flood. Unfortunately as the ship had veered off course an incorrect location was given to the lifeboat crew on Barra. Local islanders were roused and they set forth in a sailing boat to offer assistance to the crew. The lifeboat finally reached the ship and all the crew were rescued. The film is set on the fictional Hebridean island of Todday during the Second World War. The pompous Captain Waggett commands the local Home Guard unit, assisted by Sergeant Odd, an experienced soldier. Odd is engaged to Peggy, the daughter of Joseph Macroon, the local postmaster. Macroon's other daughter, Catriona, would like to marry George Campbell, the mild-mannered local school teacher, but he lives under the thumb of his domineering mother who opposes the match. Ronnie Millar, David McBeath, John Webster and Jaeden Reppert in EPT’s Whisky Galore. PIc: Terry RailleySome may baulk at the Scottish clichés on display, but fun is poked equally – even at the English. In the end the good humour and craft win the day in what is a thoroughly enjoyable production.