Deferred Sentence takes place entirely away from Lockdubh and we are without our colorful cast of villagers, and missing the fun they bring to an episode as a result. All is not lost for this installment of Hamish Macbeth as with the unfamiliar (and more low key) townsfolk, the episode really focuses on the fact that Hamish really is a terrific investigator (even though this fact is often minimalized in a typical story outing) and quick on his feet. A quiet episode where the resolution is telegraphed by the episode title.
6 Reviews
Confused
dunnbob-4904921 June 2022
As the previous reviewer said "names and events fly past, and one was left wondering what the heck was supposed to have happened and why." Four viewings still does not answer the key questions. Exactly what was Barbara being protected from?
One Big Plot Flaw
marimiller-820758 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Okay after reading movie chat I understand this complicated plot. Enoch's wife was having affair w Duncan Scott & wanted him to run away w her. She stole Enoch's gold watch to sell to have money for their new life. Duncan refused, they either struggled & she fell, or he pushed her. Claire was on the beach & saw what happened. Enoch & Claire coverd it up to spare Barbara who was Enoch's sister & married to Duncan. Enoch explains he lost one person he loved & didn't want to lose his sister too (she was too frail to learn her husband was unfaithful & a murderer?). But I guess losing his daughter was ok? And causing the priest to lise his flick was ok? Another BIG plot flaw: both the watch & $50 were on Enoch's wife's dead body. How could that be if she sold the watch? I love this series but this episode has a lot of plot flaws.
Another hilarious episode
holyfool-4607715 March 2021
Here's What Really Happened
aweebitdaft2 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I love this woefully short-lived series. It's better than most other cop programs, e.g. Vera, Lewis, Morse, Shetland, etc., that go on far too long and become so tired, so stretched beyond credibility and believability, so repetitive and full of tropes that they end up ultimately forgettable and downright silly and yawn-worthy.
Hamish Macbeth is ultimate cosy 90s TV before everyone and everything became mean, gory, heartless and all about wealth, fame and youth!
But that's just my 10p.
This episode was an odd one; what was Hamish's impetus for being in this remote seaside village at all? I missed the villagers, and wasn't overly fond of the daughter's character. Being Carlyle's real-life GF at the time, I can't help but picture them perpetually drunk, loud and coarse and reeking of cigarettes! Apart from this, she was irrational, annoying, self-pitying and bitter; HM has terrible taste in women. I certainly did not miss Isobel, as I never do when she's absent-the screeching, over-acting, the put-on baby voice-the hardly subtle moustache (mean, I know, but seriously, stop trying to push how gorgeous she is! She's like a hirsute 10 year-old boy. Just sayin'...) Not a fan of the newly-shoehorned-in character of Jean, the 10-foot freak (Lachie Jr. Needed a match, I guess. Can't have him spending all his time with corpses), Isobel the strong, independent, big city girl 'journo' with her big-girl make-over, and Alex-the-nag, with her tiny body and huge head, affected chubby-tongued, breathless posh-speak: 'what'= a whispery 'hhhoowaht'. Trying too hard to be alluring and soft. Gimme Esme, Esme and more Esme, and I love Agnes too. Shirley Henderson drives me bats anyway, but her character is beyond annoying here, always looking like she's just had another good cry, and the affected passion between them is so unbelievably cringe, I always fast-forward. HM needed a funny, ballsy, independent, feisty but kind woman who wouldn't try to mould him or control him, or cling to him.
Anyway, Enoch's emotionally battered wife was attempting to leave him-and her daughter! Nice mothering there, lady! Oh, but she was so 'young' and 'beautiful' (aren't they ALWAYS pure angel, the victims of controlling spouses? Ugh.)
Do you get the feeling I haven't had a great time of it with women? Downright transparent, here.
So, I guess Enoch's very devoted, but mentally unhinged sister Barbara found out about his wife's plans to leave him, and surmising that he'd be better off a widower than a humiliated, jilted man, dumped by his much younger wife, Barbara pushed the wife to her death. She left the watch and cash on her, which somehow ended up with Claire, possibly kept as proof and protection, along with her witness statement, so that all would be revealed in the event of her untimely death. She was wary of Barbara's drunken husband Duncan, who also happened to be the local constable, because he perjured himself in order to protect her from incarceration. With Duncan's help, Enoch was kept clear of any allegations, but somewhat accepted the locals' suspicions of him, and along with Claire's and Duncan's silence, Barbara was kept out of the picture altogether.
Everyone went to great lengths to protect Barbara, which was a bit OTT, but writers will often add the trope of a bereft mother in order to gain sympathy for an otherwise nasty female character. In this instance, she went off of the rails due to multiple miscarriages coupled with the dread of a childless future. We may feel less sympathetic with the murder victim in this case due to her abandoning her daughter as well as her husband.
For as much focus as was put on the pocket watch, we're neither informed of its significance, nor how or why it came to be in Claire's possession, nor why Duncan was so desperate to get his hands on it.
I'm guessing that he was made aware of the fact that it was in Claire's or Enoch's possession to be used as proof; what did it prove, though? That Claire was there at the time of the murder, and she took it off of the body, so no one could question the validity of her being there when the victim was killed?
Duncan knew that if anything happened to his wife, Enoch and Claire would come forward to clear the former's name and divulge the truth, which would get him in trouble for obstructing justice, so when she died of natural causes, he kept her body in the freezer and told everyone that she'd gone out of town. He then proceeded to try to locate the watch and any other proof that Claire was harbouring.
The superfluous arc of Enoch's daughter returning to the village as an architect in order to rebuild the family home that she torched after her mother's murder, just added to the overall confusion and lack of cohesiveness in this episode. The constant Catholics vs Protestants bickering-Enoch was an ungrateful jerk!-, as well as Hamish lying about being Jewish, and the daughter's vandalising the church while calling her own father a murderer seemed like tacked on afterthoughts. Her character was totally unnecessary, but HM loves his messy women!
Tl/dr (as usual!): A mentally ill Barbara killed her beloved brother Enoch's fleeing wife 20 years prior, and everyone, including her constable husband, covers for her until her death during the episode opens old wounds and bares truths.
Hamish Macbeth is ultimate cosy 90s TV before everyone and everything became mean, gory, heartless and all about wealth, fame and youth!
But that's just my 10p.
This episode was an odd one; what was Hamish's impetus for being in this remote seaside village at all? I missed the villagers, and wasn't overly fond of the daughter's character. Being Carlyle's real-life GF at the time, I can't help but picture them perpetually drunk, loud and coarse and reeking of cigarettes! Apart from this, she was irrational, annoying, self-pitying and bitter; HM has terrible taste in women. I certainly did not miss Isobel, as I never do when she's absent-the screeching, over-acting, the put-on baby voice-the hardly subtle moustache (mean, I know, but seriously, stop trying to push how gorgeous she is! She's like a hirsute 10 year-old boy. Just sayin'...) Not a fan of the newly-shoehorned-in character of Jean, the 10-foot freak (Lachie Jr. Needed a match, I guess. Can't have him spending all his time with corpses), Isobel the strong, independent, big city girl 'journo' with her big-girl make-over, and Alex-the-nag, with her tiny body and huge head, affected chubby-tongued, breathless posh-speak: 'what'= a whispery 'hhhoowaht'. Trying too hard to be alluring and soft. Gimme Esme, Esme and more Esme, and I love Agnes too. Shirley Henderson drives me bats anyway, but her character is beyond annoying here, always looking like she's just had another good cry, and the affected passion between them is so unbelievably cringe, I always fast-forward. HM needed a funny, ballsy, independent, feisty but kind woman who wouldn't try to mould him or control him, or cling to him.
Anyway, Enoch's emotionally battered wife was attempting to leave him-and her daughter! Nice mothering there, lady! Oh, but she was so 'young' and 'beautiful' (aren't they ALWAYS pure angel, the victims of controlling spouses? Ugh.)
Do you get the feeling I haven't had a great time of it with women? Downright transparent, here.
So, I guess Enoch's very devoted, but mentally unhinged sister Barbara found out about his wife's plans to leave him, and surmising that he'd be better off a widower than a humiliated, jilted man, dumped by his much younger wife, Barbara pushed the wife to her death. She left the watch and cash on her, which somehow ended up with Claire, possibly kept as proof and protection, along with her witness statement, so that all would be revealed in the event of her untimely death. She was wary of Barbara's drunken husband Duncan, who also happened to be the local constable, because he perjured himself in order to protect her from incarceration. With Duncan's help, Enoch was kept clear of any allegations, but somewhat accepted the locals' suspicions of him, and along with Claire's and Duncan's silence, Barbara was kept out of the picture altogether.
Everyone went to great lengths to protect Barbara, which was a bit OTT, but writers will often add the trope of a bereft mother in order to gain sympathy for an otherwise nasty female character. In this instance, she went off of the rails due to multiple miscarriages coupled with the dread of a childless future. We may feel less sympathetic with the murder victim in this case due to her abandoning her daughter as well as her husband.
For as much focus as was put on the pocket watch, we're neither informed of its significance, nor how or why it came to be in Claire's possession, nor why Duncan was so desperate to get his hands on it.
I'm guessing that he was made aware of the fact that it was in Claire's or Enoch's possession to be used as proof; what did it prove, though? That Claire was there at the time of the murder, and she took it off of the body, so no one could question the validity of her being there when the victim was killed?
Duncan knew that if anything happened to his wife, Enoch and Claire would come forward to clear the former's name and divulge the truth, which would get him in trouble for obstructing justice, so when she died of natural causes, he kept her body in the freezer and told everyone that she'd gone out of town. He then proceeded to try to locate the watch and any other proof that Claire was harbouring.
The superfluous arc of Enoch's daughter returning to the village as an architect in order to rebuild the family home that she torched after her mother's murder, just added to the overall confusion and lack of cohesiveness in this episode. The constant Catholics vs Protestants bickering-Enoch was an ungrateful jerk!-, as well as Hamish lying about being Jewish, and the daughter's vandalising the church while calling her own father a murderer seemed like tacked on afterthoughts. Her character was totally unnecessary, but HM loves his messy women!
Tl/dr (as usual!): A mentally ill Barbara killed her beloved brother Enoch's fleeing wife 20 years prior, and everyone, including her constable husband, covers for her until her death during the episode opens old wounds and bares truths.
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