The Lochdubh Deluxe

A body goes missing from the Lochdubh burial ground, and the village is split between outrage and delight. The village does not do missing corpses by halves, and the rumours outpace the investigation from the first day. Lachie McCrae Jr. has just taken a job with the undertakers, which puts him at the heart of the fuss, and Hamish finds himself trying to convince his neighbours that space aliens are responsible. It is not an easy sell, but it is the story he has chosen to tell.

And underneath the alien talk sits a proper family feud at the funeral parlour. Murray and Christie McMurray are at each other's throats, and the missing corpse is only the latest chapter in a quarrel with deep local roots. The McMurrays' quarrel has been simmering for years, and the burial ground has become the battlefield. Andrew Keir and Jimmy Chisholm play the warring McMurrays with relish, and the undertaker's trade has rarely looked so lively.

Daniel Boyle wrote it, Nicholas Renton directed, and it aired in April 1996 as the second season's finale. Boyle also pops up on the other side of the camera as Mr. Fergusson, a bit of double duty worth noting. Ida Schuster is Mrs. Lewis, Robert Carr plays Harry Macleish, Anne Lacey's Esme Murray looks on, Laurie Ventry appears as Reverend Snow, Brian Pettifer as Rory Campbell, Sheila Keith as Auntie Ella and David Ashton as Major Maclean. Robert Carlyle is Hamish throughout, playing the straight man to a village that has collectively decided to believe in little green men. The funeral parlour scenes have a macabre charm that the show rarely indulges elsewhere.

The alien explanation is the sort of nonsense only a village could half-believe, and that is exactly the point. It is a confident finale, willing to gamble the season's last hour on a joke about aliens, and it lands. Some mysteries in Lochdubh are best left with a shrug and a story.