Destiny (1)

TV John's long-lost brother Kenneth turns up in the most elaborate way possible: sprung from a South American gaol by Torquil Farquar McFarquar, an expatriate millionaire with a passion for all things Scottish. McFarquar has heard that the one-eyed Kenneth knows where the real Stone of Destiny is hidden, the coronation stone of the ancient Scottish kings, and he wants it. Kenneth, scenting a fortune, heads for Lochdubh with a mysterious hypnotist named Ava Grimm in tow. The Stone is the kind of prize that makes men reckless, and Kenneth is exactly the man to gamble on it.

But John would rather not see his brother again, and the visit brings him something worse than family feeling. He is seized by premonitions that someone very close to him is going to die, and no amount of reassurance from the village shifts the certainty. The premonitions are the sort of thing the show usually treats gently, but here they carry real weight, and the village's attempts to talk John out of them only make the dread worse. The two threads, the treasure hunt and the dread, wind around each other for the whole episode.

Daniel Boyle wrote it, Nicholas Renton directed, and it aired in April 1997 as the first half of the season's two-part finale. Sean Scanlan's Kenneth is a proper rogue, all scars and schemes, while Caroline Loncq's Ava Grimm watches everyone with unsettling calm. Kenny Ireland plays McFarquar, Richard Marsella appears as the Commandante, and the regulars double up nicely: Ralph Riach plays both Euan and TV John McIver, Brian Pettifer both Hector and Rory Campbell, David Ashton both Fergusson and Major Maclean, Billy Riddoch both Angus and Lachlan McCrae. Robert Carlyle anchors it all as Hamish, and Stuart Davids is Lachie McCrae Jnr.

The Stone of Destiny is a grand prize for a village mystery, and the first part sets the board with care. The cliffhanger lands hard, and the second part has a lot to deliver.