Hamish Macbeth Season Three

Having set itself up as the best show on TV and with Robert Carlyle's star very much in the ascendant it was always obvious that we would be lucky to get more than three seasons out of this quirky production.

This third and final season ramps up the brilliance factor even more and actually gives us two more episodes than the previous two seasons (8 spread over 2 discs); Carlyle plays decidedly laid back policeman PC Hamish MacBeth in the sleepy Scottish Highlands coastal village of Lochdubh (in reality Plockton where classic 70's movie The Wicker Man was also filmed), being a crime based series there is a crime of the week type scenario but a bit like Alexander McCall Smith's No1 Ladies Detective Agency series these are generally small scale and play second fiddle to the lives of the characters who inhabit Lochdobh, all of whom are just as important as Hamish himself although

Shirley Henderson as Hamish's love interest, reporter Isobel and Ralph Riach as TV John McPhee (so called because he was the first person in Lochdubh to own a television set) probably have the most prominent roles - in fact the thrilling two part finale hangs on TV John and the arrival of his crooked brother (also played by Riach) and sees most of the male members of the cast embarking on a quest to restore the fabled stone of Scone to its rightful resting place.

A brilliantly enjoyable series al round and season three builds on the pluses of the first two seasons to bring proceedings to a natural and thrilling conclusion. Don't miss it.