Boswell & Johnson's Scottish Road Trip

Comedian Frank Skinner is in his fanboy element. He’s written dissertations on the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, and now he’s retracing the journey Johnson took round Scotland with James Boswell, in 1773. Both wrote celebrated accounts of their trip. Taking Boswell’s place on the trip now is novelist Denise Mina, and she and Skinner make a fabulous double act, clutching their respective tomes and giggling at Boswell’s attempts to feed Johnson with some Scottish delicacies (he refused), or seriously discussing ideas about Scottish independence.

In the first episode, they leave Edinburgh and head up the east coast. Johnson wasn’t impressed by much until they got to Macbeth country near Forres, at which point he became quite ecstatic – as does Skinner.