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.

The final two series focused on new Laird Paul Bowman trying to modernise the estate, primarily starring Lloyd Owen, Tom Baker, Alexander Morton and Susan Hampshire.

The 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 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.

[1] While trying to carve a living out of the London restaurant he runs with his girlfriend Justine, Archie MacDonald is called back to his Highland home, as his father Hector is dying.

Hector and Molly face problems as their daughter Lizzie comes, apparently pregnant, to Glenbogle with her healer boyfriend and his acolytes.

Fergal falls for Katrina but is offered a job in New Zealand when his work establishing the trails at Glenbogle ends.

Glenbogle's debts are mounting, and the bank, Lascelles, sends Stella Moon to take over the estate as financial controller.

The hard and stubborn Stella proves difficult to handle, though she has her eye on Archie, now unattached again, as Katrina has taken up the offer of a career in national politics following her success on the local Council.

The bank's chair returns control of the estate to Archie, who realises he's in love with Lexie, and proposes to her in the kitchen.

When Archie hires a new cook, Lexie becomes upset and jealous, and insists on a cook-off, using an old, relatively unknown Scottish recipe.

A compromise is eventually found when Lexie suggests they offer first turn at the new activity centre to local youth.

Lexie wonders whether she has what it takes to be Laird after Archie leaves Glenbogle to go mountain climbing in Nepal with his sister Lizzie in honour of their late father.

When Molly discovers that Andrew has proposed to many women and painted them all wearing his mother's engagement ring, she realises she cannot trust him.

He forms a friendship with Archie's and Paul's uncle Donald, who comes back to his childhood home under a curfew order.

It later emerges that he had propositioned her whilst she was married and when she refused to run off with him, he left the estate - and his brother - never to speak to Hector again.

Molly becomes a mother-like figure to Golly's new son, Cameron, after the death of Meg (who never regained consciousness after giving birth).

Glenbogle is threatened with closure after Paul realises that the financial problems that once plagued the estate are slowly returning.

The village community buys Glenbogle allowing the MacDonalds to remain in the house Paul marries Iona At the end of the show, the main characters each have a romantic partner and they take a photograph: Paul and Iona; Molly and Golly; Jess and Duncan; Ewan and Amy; Donald and a woman from the retirement home; and Kilwillie and the female minister.

The following is a list, in order of appearance, of actors who were in three or more episodes of Monarch of the Glen as the same character but who were not credited as a regular in the opening titles of the show.

British ratings in the first five series were high, but lowered after the departure of several of the main characters (Archie, Hector, Lexie, Duncan and Katrina).

The seventh and final series saw the return of Richard Briers, Hamish Clark and Julian Fellowes[6] as promised by the BBC, but the reunion did not include Archie or Lexie.