If there is one role that epitomised the quirky charm of the actor Ralph Riach, it was John James McIver in Hamish Macbeth. Riach, who has died aged 86, played the character known as “TV John” in the whimsical mid-1990s BBC Scotland series with a winning air of innocence and wisdom.
Those qualities were a perfect match for John, the clairvoyant colleague of Robert Carlyle’s rural police officer in the fictional town of Lochdubh. In his black beret and buttoned-up shirt, he had a seriousness of purpose offset by an edge of eccentricity.
