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.
