I am not usually a watcher of soaps, yet I look forward to this delightful series every week. The backdrop of island scenery lends a sense of naturalness to each episode. There's no shortage of outdoor shots of coastal Hebrides. Unlike most soaps there is no real outrage or malevolence permeating the plot. Nothing majorly disastrous ever happens, and misunderstandings are generally peacefully resolved. Shot in low resolution format with a clunky script and less than totally professional cast gives the whole effect a seemingly more realistic appearance than the many polished productions on offer. There is a kind of naivety in the characters that is really charming. For example unlike modern productions where the characters need to be violent and abusive, Machair offers us an antidote, whereby emotional outbursts are expressed as petulantly meaningful looks and a fair amount of pouting, rather than gratuitous amounts of stabbing and beating. So far there has been one slightly bloodied nose and one rather school boyish tussle. We are also treated to a fair amount of island mentality as local characters emerge in the plot, magic
