The Lochdubh Assassin

A Glasgow gang arrives in Lochdubh looking for young Frankie Bryce and his aunt Jean, and Isobel Sutherland, who knows Jean from her Glasgow days, does the only thing she can think of. She hides them in Lachie McCrae Jr.'s funeral parlour, where Lachie is happy to oblige, especially once he gets a look at Jean. It is not the obvious hiding place, but it is the only one Lachie is likely to offer free of charge.

But Hamish's problem is the law's problem: he knows Tam Flood and his men are dangerous, but he can do nothing until they actually do something. Forbes Masson gives Flood the right low menace, all patience and threat. TV John, ignoring every warning, decides to take pre-emptive action of his own, the villagers start closing ranks, and somewhere in the middle of it the old legend of Wee MacPhee raises its head again. The villagers close ranks around the newcomers, which is the one thing the gang did not plan for.

Daniel Boyle wrote it, Nicholas Renton directed, and it aired in March 1997. Stephen Henderson's Frankie is a proper tearaway, Sandy McDade's Jean is the heart of the episode, and Shirley Henderson's Isobel is caught between friendship and sense. David McKay, Stewart Porter and James Ryland make up the rest of the crew, with Robert Carlyle, Billy Riddoch and Stuart Davids holding the village side. Robert Carlyle spends much of the episode trying to keep everyone alive and legal at the same time, which is not how the village usually works.

The episode manages to be both tense and funny, which is the house style. The gangsters are real enough to matter, but they have walked into a village that has its own ways of dealing with trouble, and Wee MacPhee's legend has not finished with them. The legend gives the whole thing a folk-tale edge, and the episode leans into it without losing the plot.