Distracted at first by the sound on the video dropping out every 15 seconds, as well as by the this time disturbingly eccentric opening (not to mention that awful song), it takes awhile to realize that this is another unique great Archers film, first of all with the casting of Hiller as the beauty (correct, but not the usual skin-deep kind), then the amusing dream sequence through the tartan hills acknowledging the romanticization to come, to be parodied in the fairly withering portrayal of the English (presumably including the film crew), and embraced through the idealized figure of Livesy/Torquil, but it’s Romance with a purpose, and the atmosphere’s bracing, the leads superb, the beams in the ceilings and stones in the castle palpable, the stunts (whirlpools) exhilerating and nervy enough to blow aside any resistance, the ceilidh’s properly celebrated, and it’s full of lovely things like when the old lady recalls high heady days at Oban and the majestic men there, and we cut to Joan looking at Torquil who’s burning his tongue on the coffee and then smiling sweetly, there’s the great truth of the idealized version of British cinema, which is that majesty is quite within reach of any darned person, the close, when the couple comes back together, is a properly exhilerating conclusion to one of the loveliest screen romances I can think of.