Scotland is celebrated as a crucible of the modern age in this profile of a "strange, restless, enquiring country"

Use the telephone, take a train or travel by road, and you are indebted to some of the Scottish greats profiled in this film. Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt and John Macadam are just some of the figures birthed by this "strange, restless, enquiring country". Mixing highlands, lowlands and the bustling cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the film doesn't manage to put its finger on the reasons behind this extraordinary ingenuity, but is happy to celebrate it nonetheless.

Scotland has produced many inventors; Macadam - creator of the modern road; Watt - developer of the steam engine; Murdoch - creator of gas lighting; Nasmyth - maker of the steam hammer; Graham Bell - father of the 'phone; Telford - builder of the Caledonian canel; Simpson - discoverer of chloroform.