Summary: | As this companion docudrama to Kidnapped reveals, the true-life adventures of author Robert Louis Stevenson often outdid the escapades of his famous fictional creations. A sickly provincial middle-class boy, destined to follow in his family's engineering dynasty, Stevenson somehow managed to break free to live a life of travel and unbridled imagination. For much of his twenties he rebelled, living a Bohemian life across the world with a fascinating band of misfits and troubadours, in search of the adventures that would provide the inspiration for his stories. He died in Samoa aged just 44, leaving behind three of the world's most memorable classics: Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dramatizations of Stevenson's extraordinary life form the narrative backbone of the film, backed up by photographs, interviews with experts and, of course, his enduring literary legacy. A BBC Production.
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