Customer Reviews

Hamish Macbeth - Series One

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This little gem of a series is one of the most entertaining tv shows I've ever seen. It's funny, sad, quirky, dramatic and can make you laugh one moment and weep the next. Each of the characters is unique and brings their own brand of nuttiness to the Scottish village of Lochdubh. In the middle of it all is Constable Hamish Macbeth, solving crime while trying to stay low-key enough to not be promoted to a precinct in one of the big cities. The Scottish accents can be a bit overpowering at times but it shouldn't deter. Robert Carlyle stars as Hamish and he's wonderful (as he always is), but there are really two stars of this series that make it memorable: the incomparable scenery of Scotland and a little West Highland White Terrier by the name of Wee Jock. A warning to fans of the MC Beaton, HAMISH MACBETH mysteries...the television series bears no resemblance to the book series. The tv series and the books are entirely separate entities and should be enjoyed as such. Thank you BBC for giving the fans dvd's in the region 1 format. Please give us season 2 and 3 also. ADDED NOTE: I agree that it's a shame "West Coast Story" isn't included in this collection but you'd have to take your gripe to the US movie studio that holds the rights to the movie, "West Side Story". Because the Hamish Macbeth episode uses some of the music from the movie, the producers of the dvd either cannot afford to obtain the rights or the studio has refused to grant them permission to use this episode on the dvd. Nothing can be done and it's really too bad. However, the show is still worth having on DVD, because the five episodes you can see are brilliant.

While I am thrilled they are FINALLY putting Hamish out on DVD - WHY did they fail to include the FULL YEAR??? first six episodes were

1)The Great Lochdubh Salt Robbery
2) A Pillar of the Community
3) The Big Freeze
4) West Coast Story (MISSING FROM THIS COLLECTION)
5) Wee Jock's Lament
6) A Bit of an Epic

So while the series is wonderful and great to have they are cheating us out of #4 episode. Are they going to drop an episodes from 2 & 3? SO we end up missing 3 full episodes? Or do we pay for the "Lost Hamish Episodes". Just a tiny note that says "We regret Episode 4 "West Coast Story" could not be included in this collection." Och, that is mean!

This series is brilliant. The characters of zany Scots comes through loud and clear. It's one that bears repeat views.

Just don't cheat us!! TV John would not be amused!

246 minues on 2 discs. Closed Captioned

The Wife and I are big on British mysteries on TV and have been working our way through the whole Midsomer Murders series via Netflix. So when the Recommendations feature popped up the intriguing sounding Hamish MacBeth -- starring Robert Carlyle, who has a great star turn as a psychotic soccer fan in the original Cracker -- it seemed worth a try. (Of particular note is that several episodes are directed and/or written by Danny Boyle, with whom Carlyle later made Trainspotting.)

The series turns out to be a delightfully idiosyncratic concoction, sort of reminiscent of Local Hero, but with Carlyle playing a Scottish police constable who disguises his own ability from his superiors in order to avoid promotion and get to stay in the quirky seaside town of Lochdubh. There he watches over the oft-times larcenous doings of the inhabitants and tries to keep them out of trouble, protecting them from both the law and genuine evil-doers. Carlyle gives us a MacBeth of appealing emotional fragility -- especially where his dog, Wee Jock, and the not-always-requited love of his life, Alexandra MacLean, are concerned. It's very amusing, though the last two episodes of Season One took a darker turn and left us with an emotion-wrenching cliff-hanger.

The books, at least the first two (I found a British edition that contained both), feature a tougher and more devious MacBeth -- who poaches and conducts other schemes in order to send money home to his large family -- making them enjoyable in a different way. His sidekick, TV John, is also missing and rather than Alex he loves a Priscilla Halburton-Smythe.

Books or series, you won't be sorry either way.

Finally our favorite Constable Hamish Macbeth is making his way to the states!
This is one of my favorite programs. Not only is the scenery breath taking, but the characters of Lochdubh well developed and quirky, each in their own unique way.
The program aired for 3 seasons and I enjoyed every episode!
Thanks BBC for finally making this avalible for Region 1 viewing.
Cheers!

A long-time fan of both the BBC TV shows, and of the novels that provides their namesake, the TV show is distinctly different from typical fare. The best comparison I know is with Northern Exposure ... a character driven comedy based on the eccentricities of remote villagers. Any who have visited the town of Kyle of Lochalsh (where much of "Lochdubh" is shot) will recognize the similarity to Alaskan outback. And Hamish? Well, Robert Carlyle's performance is spot-on as a slightly worldlier-but-disdaining-of-big-city-life police constable who's main ambition is to NOT be transferred to "Sunny Inverness."

If the episode "West Coast Story" is not included in the set, it is likely wrapped up in the issue of musical rights, as it leaned heavily on Bernstein's work as integral to the plot. A shame, if so: it also introduces a great hippy character, "Zoot", who appears occasionally through the series.

My two daughters and I have just fallen in love with this series! The country side is gorgeous and the eccentric behavior of the scottish people is especially fun for us americans. Who wouldn't want to live in the little village, Lochdubh? Robert Carlyle does a great job as Hamish, but our favortie charactor is Lackey Jr. played by Stuart Davids. He is just delightful and fun. The BBC version doesn't follow the books too closely by M.C. Beaton, but the scripts are well written and interesting. Wee Jock is of course always darling. Highly recommended. There is a series II out now in England, can't wait for Amazon to make that available, we will buy it for sure.

OK, when I first saw the title of this series, I assumed it would be television shows based on the Hamish Macbeth books of M.C. Beaton (much like the recent Sherlock Holmes and Jane Marple series). I expected to find a tall, fiery red-haired Scottish constable solving murders, courting Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, and ambling through the Highlands with his lazy dog Towser. Let's just say that I was highly disappointed.

However, after having watched the shows through once, my wife and I decided to watch them again, and we are now on to our fourth viewing! Yes, these are not the murder mysteries of M.C. Beaton, but these are nonetheless a group of quite interesting stories, set in the modern Scottish Highlands, in an interesting town, filled with interesting people.

My wife and I both love the stories of these dramas, the screenwriters do an excellent job of catching the quirky spirit of M.C. Beaton's Lockdubh (pronounce Lock-do), where anything can happen and probably will. If you like a good (no great!) story, set in an interesting location, then you will like these show. It's not what I first expected, but it is great nonetheless!

There appear to be two sub-sets of reactions from Amazon reviewers in regard to this mystery series:

1. If a reviewer has never read any of the books on which it is supposedly based, he or she will probably find it lightly amusing, idiosyncratic and full of local color.

2. If a reviewer has actually read one, some or all of M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth novels, he or she will wonder how on earth the bone-headed producers and scriptwriters managed to get EVERYTHING so totally wrong.

As a matter of fact, there is a third possible reaction. Shortly after the run of this series, Beaton wrote a book in which the producer/writer of a TV series was fiendishly slaughtered.

The previous reviews have all mentioned the missing episode - I agree - what a shame. However this did not stop me from buying this DVD. The actors are super, scenery fabulous and you'll find yourself watching both DVDs in one sitting!
As with Monaarch of the Glen (also a 5 star series) the big question is when will the next series be available! Come on BBC don't keep us waiting.

I love M.C. Beaton's Character Hamish Macbeth and so was thrilled to hear that there was a BBC series that featured his character. I did enjoy watching the series and would order another season if it was available. But I was disappointed that these stories seemed to be more superficial than those in the book and the characters seemed more stereotypical and less interesting. I am hopeful that it is just taking some time to develop this series and by the time the 2nd season is available, I'll recognize all those characters that make Beaton's books so fun to read!