The Borderers was sadly a rather obscure BBC TV series which ran for only two seasons in the late 60’s. Running from 31st December 1968 to 31st March 1970 starring Sir Michael Gambon, Iain Cuthbertson, Edith McArthur MBE, Ross Campbell and Margaret Greig.
Although it flowed through the lives of a family living in the Middle March, it mirrored quite well the daily life and power struggles which went on and give us insight into what it must have been like for all families along the border, to include our own living in the Scottish West March at the time.
The Borderers was listed as a historical drama, set during the 16th century and chronicled the lives of the Ker(r) family, who lived in the ancient Scottish Middle March on the frontier between England and Scotland.
The Radio Times, the longest running British weekly listings magazine ,devoted to television and radio programme schedules offered this synopsis at the time;
“The border land of England and Scotland, about the year 1564. To the north Mary Queen of Scots, lately returned home from her beloved ‘doulee France’, reigns over a country made restless by misrule during her absence. Far to the south in London, Elizabeth is on the throne of an England still divided by the bitter consequences of the Reformation. The two kingdoms are nominally at peace, and the last full-scale battle between them has been fought more than twenty years ago.
But along the Marches, barren moor and forest, good for little except cattle raising, there is no true peace — and neither royal lady has much authority. The lords and lairds, great ones and petty ones, regard themselves very much as their own masters. From their strongholds, the bleak foursquare ‘Peel Towers’, they rule their cattle kingdoms, carry on private wars, and plunder their neighbours’ herds.
Along part of the frontier lie the ‘debatable lands’, claimed by both Scotland and England and hence ruled by neither, and it is here that the outlaws and the mosstroopers find sanctuary.
Such is the setting for The Borderers, a new thirteen-episode adventure series as turbulent and hard-riding as any Western.
At the centre of each story is the Ker family, the Kers of Slitrig — and their distant kinsman, Sir Walter Ker of Cessford. The Kers of Slit rig are an ancient line, but they are neither rich nor powerful; their domain consists of no more than Slitrig Tower, some hundreds of acres of scrubby hillside grazing, and a little arable land.
Cessford, however, is a magnate. He is Warden of the Middle March — a real-life Sir Walter Ker(r) held that office about this time — and as such he is empowered by the Government in Edinburgh to keep order in his area. By diplomacy if possible but by force if necessary. However, his official position makes Cessford no less a feudal intriguer; and since he has designs on the land of the Kers of Slitrig, he is their enemy as well as their kinsman”.
The setting for the series was as previously stated, during the reign of Elizabeth 1st and Mary, Queen of Scots, the angst of which was exacerbated and underpinned by religeon and the struggle between Protestants and Catholics in both kingdoms. The episodes of the show touch on the wider politics of the day but mostly as it affects their relative Sir Walter Ker(r), Warden of the Middle March.
This was a time where raid and feud were inevitable parts of daily life all along the Border lands. The wars between England and Scotland had destroyed the normal processes of law enforcement, as such the Borders fell between the judicial cracks replacing it with its own distinct legal system, the administration of which fell to the often-corrupt Wardens assigned, on the norm in Scotland from the local gentry. This of course led to favouritism towards friends and family and oft severe and grossly unfair bias towards enemies. In turn this simply fuelled the family and deep-seated feuds which already existed.
The late 15th and into the 16th centuries were seen as the most volatile and violent era of the Reivers, which made it a difficult time for all riding names to exist, but exist they did, Carruthers being one of them.
In 2007, two episodes were part of the BBC archive process with the series being described by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as “brave and original…a kind of north-eastern western” and shows an ordinary family trying to live normal lives during the time of the Border Reivers, accepting the tumultuous society they existed in.
Only 15 of the 26 episodes have survived today, mainly from series 1 and only 7 existing in their original colour format. The other 8 can only be viewed in black and white.
Although not the best production or sets in comparison to today’s tv series and not all can be currently found on YouTube in colour, the panoramic views are excellent. It also gives us an idea of the hard life that our ancestors had to experience in the Marches of the Anglo Scottish borders as reiving families of the time.
Please note, no tartan nor kilts can be seen anywhere in the series which is an accurate reflection of border attire at the time, as Borderers never wore kilts nor had family assigned tartan until the early 1820’s along with every other Scottish clan/family irrelevant to what some sites may make claim.
Episode one can be linked below.
