Diana Gabaldon: I helped Outlander stay true to Scotland

Diana Gabaldon only began writing to see if she could write a book Picture: Greg Macvean

OUTLANDER author Diana Gabaldon says she had to stop showrunners from making the hit TV show completely unrealistic.

Hired as a consultant on the Starz TV series, Gabaldon, whose original Outlander novel about 18th century Scotland has an army of dedicated fans, says she had to stop writers from taking too many artistic liberties with history.

The show, which stars Scottish actor Sam Heughan as 18th century Jacobite Jamie Fraser opposite English time-traveller Claire Randall, is now in its second season.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Gabaldon said: “They show me the script and invite comment - and sure sometimes it’s ‘Oh this is great’, or sometimes it’s ‘My god, don’t any of your writers know the difference between lie and lay’ - they don’t. Neither do the actors.

Caitriona Balfe as Claire Randall and Sam Heughan as Jamie Frasier in Season 2 of Outlander Picture: Sony

“In the first season, the fifth episode Claire goes off because she’s fed up with all these silly men being mean to her and falls in with some village women. The scene was originally written in the script with Claire in a village with cobbled streets, plastered houses, shops and things like that.

“She sees a vase in the window of one of the houses and having a thing about vases she stops and looks at it. The woman of the house comes out, they get in a conversation and she invites her in and they end up playing bridge and drinking tea.

“I looked at it and said no - it’s the 18th century, in the remote highlands in Scotland. I see what you’re trying to do here emotionally and want to introduce her to the female side of life temporarily and the contrast of what she’s been doing. I said that’s great and works fine in the script but I don’t think you want to do it this way.