OUTLANDER
AYES AND YEARS
Despite being set and fi lmed in Scotland, Outlander remained conspicuously absent from our small screens: until now. Henry Northmore
fi nds out more about the latest TV blockbuster-in-waiting
O utlander is a time-travelling historical romance spanning 200 years in which our heroine, Claire Randall, i nds herself thrown back through history from 1945 to the Scottish Highlands of 1743. It’s already a huge hit in the States but has only just arrived on these shores courtesy of Amazon Prime. British actor Tobias Menzies plays Claire’s husband Frank Randall in the 1940s and his ancestor, the villainous ‘Black Jack’ Randall in the 18th century. He gives us the lowdown on the show.
What is Outlander all about? It’s a 16-part series based on a set of books written by Diana Gabaldon. The books start in 1945 just after the end of World War II and a couple who have been separated by the war go to Scotland to renew their marriage. One evening our heroine, Claire [played in the show by Caitriona Balfe], goes to these standing stones and, through their magic, is transported 200 years back in time to Jacobite Scotland. Most of the series is her adventures in Jacobite Scotland trying to get back to her own time. That’s a broad overview: it’s a historical adventure, historical romance with a bit of time travel at the beginning. So in terms of genre it’s a bit of a mongrel. The books have had a huge following for some 20 years and have sold a lot of copies. The response in the US has been really good and generally the fans have been very excited by what we’ve made. Outlander has been described as ‘fantasy’ but a lot of it is based around historical events. It’s not very accurate to describe it as a ‘fantasy’. It obviously has this one piece of time travel as the inciting incident, but the root is in real history. The Jacobite rebellion forms the backdrop to the majority of the story.
Did you enjoy filming in Scotland? We were all staying in Glasgow and the studios were in Cumbernauld. We were shooting all over Scotland as a lot of the story is set in the Highlands. Scotland is a huge part of the show and we had a great time up there. I’m a big fan of Glasgow: it’s a great city, great people and great crews to work with. It’s been a very happy experience. How long did it take to shoot? The i rst season was 16 episodes and they were a full hour, so we started in September and i nished the following November, so just over a year. Season two will be more like nine months because we’re making slightly less, 13 episodes, for the second book. It’s a big undertaking but
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the storylines in the books require that level of attention.
Why do you think Outlander has such a loyal passionate following? I think Gabaldon’s books are quite unusual. In terms of genre, they are quite a mixture of themes and, narratively, really bold. She’s also very good with her characters. She’s written very strong characters with a really good female heroine at the heart of it. I think Jack is one of the really great villains. There are some really strong archetypes; she’s given the story a classic structure but with her own particular twist. They seem to have really sparked people’s imaginations.
How did working on Outlander compare to playing Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones? I hugely enjoyed diving into the third season of Game of Thrones. They’re very different shows but it’s similar in production values and the ambition in making the show. The funding levels and the quality of the production on both of them are second to none. The Americans are making TV on a scale that British television can’t really compete with in terms of budget so it’s very exciting to work on. You also starred in Rome. Do you see a link between the three? Rome was a very different beast, but in some ways you could argue it was a forerunner to a lot of this genre. You can see the seeds of Game of Thrones in Rome. Outlander has a slightly more classic aesthetic: there is sex and violence, but it’s less graphic than either Thrones or Rome. What does bind them all is that they are all great stories. And, of course, Martin and Gabaldon are close friends.
Why do you think these big productions have started coming over to the UK to film? I think the landscapes of Northern Ireland really inform and infuse the world of Game of Thrones and I think the same is true of Outlander and Scotland. It’s an extra character in the piece. We are also blessed with a strong cadre of actors over here and people appreciate that. What does the future hold for Outlander? We start i lming season two in May. No word has come out of the writer’s room; I think they are all locked away in LA furiously tapping away at their keyboards, so it’ll be exciting to start reading scripts when they come out. There are eight books so there’s a long road ahead of us.
The i rst eight episodes of Outlander are on Amazon Prime Instant Video now, with new episodes from Sun 5 Apr.