Monarch of the Glen

The series is loosely based on Compton Mackenzie's Highland Novels, which are set in the same Scottish location but during the 1930s and 1940s.

The title 'The Monarch of the Glen', from the first book in Compton Mackenzie's novel series, is itself a reference to Landseer's famous painting of the same name.

While Compton Mackenzie's novels place the fictional Glenbogle estate near Ben Nevis, the TV series relocated filming to the Cairngorms and Badenoch and Strathspey area, inventing the fictional mountain 'Ben Bogle' instead.

Filming took between six and eight months per series, largely on the Ardverikie Estate on the south-east bank of Loch Laggan, with Ardverikie House itself standing in for the fictional Glenbogle Castle.

Glenbogle Station was filmed at Broomhill railway station near Nethy Bridge, the terminus of the restored Strathspey steam railway, while Glenbogle Church was actually Cille Choirille Church near Roy Bridge and Lord Kilwillie's Castle was Balavil House near Kingussie.

Monarch of the Glen was Australia's most popular BBC drama in both 2002 and 2003, and its US publicity even included front-page coverage in the Chicago Tribune.

A fan named Emma Richards, a 21-year-old known as a 'Boglie', started a petition to keep lead character Archie on the show, but it failed when actor Alastair Mackenzie left midway through the fifth series.

After ratings hit an all-time low in 2004 and the BBC axed the show, producers brought back original cast members Richard Briers, Hamish Clark and Julian Fellowes for the seventh and final series as promised, though Archie and Lexie did not return.

In 2002, the sketch show French and Saunders parodied the series as 'Monarch of the Glum' for a Celebrity Christmas Puddings special, with Alastair Mackenzie reprising his role as Archie alongside Dawn French as Lexie and Jennifer Saunders as Molly.