Raising a glass to Lawrence MacEwen

JUST a week or so ago I touched on the world of coincidence. How tractorgate had turned the nation into fans of combine harvesters, and that by sheer chance, BBC2’s My Unique B&B featured an old combine harvester being converted into a quirky and eye-catching holiday let.

This week, have I, by an extraordinary and coincidental turn of events, just watched the first televisual obituary?

Last Wednesday evening, May 18, and compliments of “Critics’ choice” in The Sunday Times, I watched on BBC4 the Prince of Muck, a documentary charting the efforts of farmer Lawrence MacEwen, the laird of the Isle of Muck, to preserve the fragile society on the island and pass it on to future generations.

The stooped and locomotively challenged laird gave us, helped by his diaries, a guided “This is my life” tour of his struggles with the future of his cherished isle. And he talked about his own death and those of his animals bred for the food chain: “We all must die; we mustn’t get too sentimental about animals. Many feel a good life and a quick death is what we would aspire to. That’s what most farmers give their animals, a good life and a quick death.”

At the end of the programme, we were told this: “In memory of Lawrence MacEwen. Born July 24, 1941, died May 16, 2022.” Clearly the BBC had been given permission by the family to broadcast the programme, just a couple of days after his death.

The TV critic Helen Stewart had concluded her preview thus: “Slow television, best watched beside a peat fire and nursing a dram.” I’ll certainly raise a glass to the memory of Lawrence MacEwen, a memorable character.

Huw Beynon Llandeilo