Hamish Macbeth is a Scottish mystery comedy-drama television series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 26 March 1995 to 4 May 1997. It is loosely based on a series of mystery novels by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney). The series concerns a local police officer, Constable Hamish Macbeth, in the fictitious town of Lochdubh on the west coast of Scotland. The title character was played by Robert Carlyle. It consisted of three series, with the first two series containing six episodes and the third containing eight. The series was released on DVD in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2005 and 2006, respectively, with the exception of the first series episode "West Coast Story". This was due to rights issues surrounding the episode's extensive use of excerpts from the 1961 film West Side Story. Synopsis Hamish Macbeth, a police constable in the Northern Constabulary, accompanied by his dog, a West Highland Terrier named Wee Jock (later another West Highland Terrier called Jock following Wee Jock's death), keeps the peace in the small town of Lochdubh (pronounced with the guttural 'ch' sound, LoCH-DOO). Macbeth does this in his own way, without undue reliance on the letter of the law and with every intention of avoiding being promoted out of what is his ideal job. He strongly dislikes involvement from Inverness police, and sometimes his main work doesn't seem to be the capture of local very petty criminals, but to keep them away from prison and penalties. The major running theme of the series is the tension caused by Hamish's attraction to both the journalist of the local newspaper, Isobel Sutherland and the aristocratic author Alexandra Maclean. Other themes include the clairvoyance of Hamish's friend and co-worker "TV John", John McIver, the not-so-secret romance between the school-teacher Esme Murray and the shopkeeper Rory Campbell, the volatile marriage of the publican Barney Meldrum and his wife Agnes, the schemes of the two Lachie MacCraes, father and son, the laid-back, pipe smoking Doc Brown, and Major Peregrine Maclean, father of Alexandra and aristocratic penniless widower. The series was accompanied by the Gaelic music of John Lunn. Production The series was filmed on location in the village of Plockton, the town of Kyle of Lochalsh and the surrounding area. A map of the Lochdubh area shown in the episode "In Search of a Rose" places Lochdubh close to Toscaig, just to the