Alex Salmond admits a soft spot for Tory's tartan thriller that irked SNP in the 70s

But that is exactly what happened yesterday when Alex Salmond met former foreign minister Douglas Hurd at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and conversation turned to a political thriller written by the Tory grandee.

With his tongue turning towards his cheek, Mr Salmond agreed to the Tory's request for him to write to the director general of the BBC to ask the Corporation to rescreen a gritty TV drama based on Mr Hurd's 1971 novel Scotch on the Rocks.

For an hour yesterday, Mr Salmond was able to forget the Lockerbie controversy when he engaged in some light-hearted verbal jousting with Mr Hurd.

Chairing an event to publicise Mr Hurd's latest book, Choose Your Weapons — a study of 11 British foreign secretaries, Mr Salmond cast his mind back to a previous publication written by the Old Etonian politician.

Long before he rose through the ranks of the Conservative Party, Mr Hurd created a stushie in Scotland when he published Scotch on the Rocks — a novel about separatist Scottish guerillas taking over Fort William as a prelude to independence.

The book was made into a television series and broadcast by the BBC — a move that at the time enraged the SNP, which objected to the book and the drama linking the SNP to the violent Scottish Liberation Army.

At a time when Northern Ireland was in the grip of the Troubles, Nationalists viewed the portrayal of SNP figures as inappropriate, given that the party always prided itself on espousing an entirely peaceful path to independence.

The SNP complained to the BBC that it was the victim of propaganda. The complaint was upheld and plans to repeat the TV drama were shelved.

Yesterday, however, Mr Salmond appeared to let bygones be bygones when he told Mr Hurd how much he had enjoyed the book.

That admission led to Mr Hurd asking why the SNP had objected to Scotch on the Rocks.

"There was one thing, First Minister, which you will be able to explain to us," Mr Hurd said. "There was a body of opinion here in Scotland, which objected strongly to the book about Scottish Nationalism and they prevented it from being repeated on the BBC. I wondered why it was that the SNP was so extraordinarily sensitive."

"I couldn't possibly imagine," was Mr Salmond's reply. "Maybe it had something to do with the guy on the front cover with a Kalashnikov."

Although the controversy was "a bit before my time", Mr Salmond pointed out that Scots had been "pursuing self-government for the best part of a century, and in all that time — amid all that passion — nobody has had so much as a nose bleed…it has been a totally democratic process."

But the book, which linked the Scottish Liberation Army's inner circle to the mainstream SNP by its depiction of a guerilla army courier working at party headquarters, was, Mr Salmond conceded, an "absolutely cracking" read. His admission led to Mr Hurd exhorting the First Minister to write to the Director General of the BBC to ensure a rescreening.

"I would, actually," said Mr Salmond, wistfully recalling the performance of Scottish actor John Cairney, cast as a secret agent. "He played it extremely well," Mr Salmond said. "I think I recognise him," he added, before expressing concern that the BBC might have scrubbed the tapes.

Last night the BBC declined to comment.

Armed uprising in highlands

Scotch on the Rocks is a thriller set in the fictional near future of the early 1970s Scotland depicting an armed uprising led by the Scottish Liberation Army in the Highlands.

In the novel, written in about 1968 by Douglas Hurd and journalist Andrew Osmond and released in 1971, the paramilitary group is linked to the SNP, which has come to prominence after a political crisis in Scotland.

In 1973, the book was adapted by Jim McTaggart into a five-part BBC drama starring John Cairney and Madeleine Christie. It was aired only once after bitter complaints from the SNP.