A decade ago, when BBC America was new, it showed the best British programs, like Hamish MacBeth and snooker. Now it seems to be a different network entirely, alas. It was Hamish MacBeth that led my wife and I to schedule a week in Scotland when we had to go to London for a dear friend's wedding in the year aught, and we've been going back almost annually since. You wouldn't think Edinburgh would win "Scotland or Maui" vacation discussions more than half the time, especially when we're usually traveling in winter!

Anyway, the DVD release is long overdue, but be warned that an important episode, "West Coast Story," is missing from the first-season DVD because of music-rights issues. Well worth setting up TiVo if you've got it to automatically record anything with the word "Hamish" just in case BBC America ever re-airs the show.