Meet The Buchanans

An off-beat documentary about the inauguration of the first Clan Buchanan Chief in over 300 years. When it comes to holding the ceremony, historical records can’t be found, and most of it is being invented.

Followed by a special Q&A with Glasgow-based producer Barbara Orton.

A documentary about the inauguration of the first Clan Buchanan Chief in over 300 years. When it comes to holding the ceremony, historical records can’t be found, and most of it is being invented. Historical fact and historical fiction collide as we join the Chief (millionaire Scottish landowner Mike Buchanan) his wife Lady Paula, and their teenage family, and tartan-mad enthusiasts from around the world descend on deepest Perthshire for the ceremony. Among them, two American sisters who wear the Buchanan tartan loud and proud, and Mexican Pedro Buchanan, the man with a passion for distilling. All of them drawn by kinship, connection, and the excitement of celebrating the Clan’s first chief in living memory. A three-day bonanza of ceremony and regalia is planned on their magnificent Highland estate. His wife Lady Paula, the driving force behind his claim to the title, is now the chief architect of his ‘coronation’. As she sets about commissioning a new set of clan Jewels (coronet, sword and rod), a stone throne…is she following in the footsteps of a famous past Buchanan house guest, the nineteenth-century Scottish writer Walter Scott?

A hidden world of British wealth and privilege unfolds as the family uncover and invent fresh entitlements of the new role: revealing not only whether they can pull off this massive event, but also how history is made (up). Meet the Buchanans takes a sideways look at raising important questions around identity,
historical values and traditions, belonging, and the place of Clans in the modern world.