As Susan Hampshire admits in the short interview which accompanies this set, the scenery is the star of the show.
Monarch of the Glen was - still is - a long-running BBC series based loosely on the Highland novels by early 20th century writer Compton Mackenzie, whose claims to fame also included being the founder-editor of the venerable Gramophone magazine.
Those novels were full of charm and whimsy. Something got lost in the translation to the screen.
The series is concerned with young Archie MacDonald (Alastair Mackenzie), who has come home to find himself Laird of the crumbling Glenbogle Estate. The old home is a beautiful but almost bankrupt estate, which he must try to rescue despite the constant destructive efforts of his father, played by Richard Briers, and compulsive-gambler mother, played by Susan Hampshire.
Throw in the handyman Duncan (Hamish Clark) and gamekeeper Golly (Sandy Morton) and the two vying love-interests, school teacher Katrina (Lorraine Pilkington) and cook Lexie (Dawn Steele) and there's plenty of characters on hand to weave a mean tale around.
But the weaving is fairly dull. Richard Briers, who is usually daft but charming, is totally wasted in his part of the old Laird who has reluctantly had to hand over control to his son. There's no humour here; he's a boring old curmudgeon with no saving graces whatsoever. He has no interest in anyone outside of himself, and we have no interest in him.
This first series is probably the strongest of the five series' to date, if only because it's enlivened by the character of the socialist-inclined school teacher, Katrina, played with verve and sparkle by Lorraine Pilkington. Soon after this series, she suddenly disappeared for no good reason. The series could well have disappeared as well, since it never really recovered from her departure.
Susan Hampshire, as Archie's mother, graces the show with her usual slightly vague dignity, and she is one of the series' saving graces. And so is the wonderful scenery. Trouble is, the same scenery was on show throughout Hamish Macbeth. And that show was able to boast great stories as well.
The back-jacket boasts that this is a widescreen 16.9 ratio presentation. In fact, it is shown in standard Academy-ratio full screen mode. I've marked the video-quality down for that wrong description, which will definitely mislead many intending buyers.
Once you've recovered from the full-screen shock, the picture is sharp and clear, with well-delineated colour and tone. But it seems incredible that this would not have been filmed originally in widescreen, to maximise the series' future life after its initial television showings.
