The Honourable Policeman

The laird comes home from holiday with a glamorous fiancée, and Lochdubh does what Lochdubh does: it talks. Major Roddy Maclean's Serena St Claire is either genuinely taken with the man or very taken with his Highland estate, and the village has opinions on which. Serena St Claire is the kind of name that arrives with its own perfume advert, and the village takes to her accordingly. Hamish, asked to be best man, has doubts of his own about the bride's motives.

But the bigger problem is WPC Anne Patterson, the overzealous trainee posted to Lochdubh, whose interest in Hamish runs well past the professional. His performance as the model policeman, adopted purely to keep her at arm's length, has the opposite effect and sweeps her off her feet. Anne is convinced he is the finest policeman she has ever met, which is flattering and awkward in equal measure. Hamish is left juggling a wedding he does not quite trust and an admirer he cannot quite manage, which is a lot of woman trouble even for him.

Daniel Boyle wrote it, Jonas Grimås directed, and it aired in March 1997. Sally Dexter's Serena is polished and unknowable, exactly as the part needs, and Sharon Small makes Anne Patterson's enthusiasm both comic and touching. David Ashton's Maclean is suitably charmed by it all, Robert Carlyle does his best man duties with visible dread, and Ralph Riach, Stuart Davids, Mona Bruce, Stuart McGugan, Barbara Rafferty and Billy Riddoch keep the village spinning around them. The ceremony, when it comes, gives the village something to dress up for.

The question of who Serena really is hangs over the whole episode, and the answer, when it comes, is quietly satisfying. It opened the third series, and it is a confident return for a show that knows exactly what its audience came back for. Hamish survives the wedding, which is more than he expected.