Well I think the whole homo-erotic thing that that genre taps into is a great part of the magic. Its part of the whole adolecscent male experience, that we can never quite fess up to, later in life. Haggard, Stevenson , Baden Powell - they all understood it implicitly. They didn't need Freud to dot the i's and cross the t's.

Kidnapped is on TV today. Once more Alan Breck Stewart and Davy Balfour traipse over Rannoch Moor - squabbling, huddling together in the heather, and making up firmer friends than ever. The older man guiding the younger to attain his birthright of manhood and a place in society.

And when you think about it? What is always wrong with every screen Alan Breck Stewart...?

They are never good looking enough - they never have quite enough feminine beauty to live up to the gold buttons and lace. Michael Caine certainly didn't. The one today has a face like a dog's bum.