Genre | Comedy drama |
---|---|
Created by | Michael Chaplin |
Starring |
Alastair Mackenzie Dawn Steele Susan Hampshire Lloyd Owen Richard Briers Alexander Morton Hamish Clark Julian Fellowes Lorraine Pilkington Martin Compston Rae Hendrie Tom Baker |
Theme music composer | Simon Brint with Kenny G |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of series | 7 |
No. of episodes | 64 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Barbara McKissack Douglas Rae Victoria Evans Robert Bernstein Gaynor Holmes |
Running time | 50 mins. (series 1–3) 60 mins. (series 4–7) |
Release | |
Original network | BBC One |
Original release | 27 February 2000 | – 23 October 2005
External links | |
Website |
Monarch of the Glen is a British drama television series produced by Ecosse Films for BBC Scotland and broadcast on BBC One for seven series between 2000 and 2005.
The Monarch of the Glen television series is loosely based on Sir Compton Mackenzie's Highland Novels, which are set in the same location but in the 1930s and 1940s. The first book in that series is called The Monarch of the Glen, which was a reference to the famous painting of the same name by Landseer. The first five series of Monarch of the Glen told the story of young restaurateur, Archie MacDonald, trying to restore his childhood home in the Scottish Highlands, starring Alastair Mackenzie, Richard Briers, Susan Hampshire, and Dawn Steele, whilst the final two series of the show focused on new Laird Paul Bowman trying to modernise the estate, primarily starring Lloyd Owen, Tom Baker, Alexander Morton, and Susan Hampshire.
The series was created by Michael Chaplin and produced by Nick Pitt, Paddy Higson, Jeremy Gwilt, Stephen Garwood, and Rob Bullock. The show saw many directors, most notably Edward Bennett, Richard Signy, Rick Stroud, and Robert Knights; and many writers including Chaplin, Niall Leonard, John Martin Johnson, Leslie Stewart, and Jeremy Front. The series premiered in February 2000, and its seventh and final series was broadcast from September 2005 until October 2005 with 64 episodes in total.
Monarch of the Glen was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sunday evenings on BBC One, usually at 20.00 GMT. Filming took between six and eight months per series in the Badenoch and Strathspey area of the Scottish Highlands. Seven series were filmed, totaling 64 episodes (including a Hogmanay Special). The show's mixture of comedy and drama, its location, and its cast appealed to countries all over the world, including the USA (BBC America and PBS), Australia (ABC), Canada (BBC Canada), Norway, Sweden, Hong Kong, New Zealand, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Vietnam, and Dubai. The series is shown to more than 100 countries on BBC Entertainment (formerly BBC Prime), the BBC's 24-hour global entertainment channel, broadcast to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Publicity in the United States included front-page coverage in the Chicago Tribune.Monarch of the Glen was Australia's most popular BBC drama in 2002 and 2003.