Words courtesy of Zenith Productions
The beautiful village of Plockton on the North West Coast of Scotland is set to find television fame as the fictional village of Lochdubh (pronounced Lochdoo), home and beat of PC Hamish Macbeth. In the search for their village of Lochdubh, the programme makers toured twelve hundred miles of the West Coast of Scotland. "As soon as we saw Plockton we knew it was perfect for us,' says Deirdre. 'It's extraordinarily beautiful, it's not on a main road and it has the same kind of tight-knit community as Lochdubh.'
Although remote, picturesque Plockton just over the sea from Skye attracts visitors from all over the world. Lying in a sheltered inlet, surrounded by heather-clad mountains and with views across Loch Carron, the village is a miniature paradise. The gulf stream climate accounts for unexpected palm trees which fringe its pretty harbour and seals are a common sight in its calm waters.
Visitors come and go but fife goes on unchanged for the two hundred or so villagers of Plockton. Until the arrival of the 70-strong Hamish Macbeth film crew, that is.
'Plockton has attracted film crews before,' says producer Deirdre Keir. "But only for a few days at a time. We had to five and work in the village for a good three months, so it was essential that we all got on."
The first step was to call a meeting with Charlie McRae, Chairman of the Community Council, and the village elders. 'We spelt out the disadvantages as well as the advantages," says Deirdre. "We explained that it would be good for business but that a certain amount of disruption was inevitable. Luckily the villagers voted for the filming to go ahead.'
Soon subtle transformations were taking place. Plockton's newsagent, Edmund McKenzie, kindly agreed to move his shop into the sailing club next door for three months, while his premises were converted into the Lochdubh general store. Visitors to Plockton were constantly surprised to find that the village shop was fake and stocked only with props.
The white-washed house chosen to be Hamish’s home-cum-police station, is a holiday home owned by a doctor in Glasgow. A family from London who had pre-booked for a week's holiday were astonished to find their cottage adorned with a blue lamp and bars at the window, and a police cell where a bedroom used to be.
Bed and breakfast businesses boomed with the influx of cast and crew and the pub extended its meal times to fit in with the film schedule. Local people from miles around took part as extras and children from the local school auditioned for small parts.
'We became part of the community,' says Deirdre. 'We had to understand and respect village life in the same way that Hamish Macbeth does. After all, the village could do without us but we couldn't do without our village.'
The production was happy to make a contribution towards Plockton's current fund-raising project, the restoration of the village hall. 'The village hall is heavily featured in our series," says Deirdre, So it's nice to see that it will benefit directly from our presence. We used it to film a fictional ceilidh which most of the village took part in and it's also the scene of rehearsals for Lochdubh's own version of West Side Story.'
The same reasons which made Plockton a perfect choice artistically gave the producers some headaches on the practical side. The village is two hours away from the nearest airport and shopping centre, and Glasgow, home of many of the cast and crew, is a five-hour drive in good weather.
Roads in the area are single-track and more suited to sheep than to large film trucks and buses. Plockton is not on a main road so there is very little conventional traffic, but a herd of highland cattle has right of way through the village and filming was frequently delayed while the cows took an unhurried stroll along the high street.
Mobile phones and walky-talkeys, prerequisites of modern film production, don't work 'In Plockton where life proceeds at a leisurely pace. For an industry where every minute counts, the lack of easy communication was a constant problem.
"When we first arrived the villagers thought we were mad, living our lives at such breakneck speed," says Deirdre. "After a while we realised that they were right! Things went a lot smoother when we adjusted to local time."
At the end of the three month shoot, the production team threw the traditional wrap party for cast and crew, and invited the whole village. It was a huge ceilidh with music by the local Incredible Fling Band, who feature in the series and perform at every social event in the area. Fact and fiction began to blur as the villagers of Plockton danced the night away with the villagers of Lochdubh.
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