Hamish Clark plays Duncan

There are bound to be tears when Duncan finally leaves Glenbogle, but no-one is more emotional about it than Hamish Clark himself.

In fact his eyes begin to well up even as the hugely popular actor just talks about saying goodbye to his loveable alter-ego.

"Will I miss the wee lad? Of course I'll miss him. It makes me sad and I could cry now just thinking about it. Easily. I'll miss everything about him.

"I mean, could you imagine a better, more fun job? Spending six years staying the same age - which is much younger than you really are - wearing a kilt and a leather jacket, getting to be the hero running around all over the place, getting all the laughs and being cute?" enthuses Hamish.

"Duncan's charming, he's vulnerable, he's honest and he's a cute wee spirit and that's why everyone likes him. It's going to be a wrench not doing that anymore, but to keep it you've got to give it away and in order for Duncan to stay alive for me, I need to move on.

"If I stayed there and got too old that wouldn't be good for Duncan, that wouldn't be honouring him."

Duncan's ultimate decision to leave Glenbogle doesn't come about because he's fallen out of love with the place. Far from it.

Instead he's tapping into hidden talents and strengths and realises that in order to pursue his dreams he'll have to leave the home he loves.

"Duncan is happy, he loves Jess and he loves it in Glenbogle, but he also realises there is a potential in him that needs to be explored.

"Luckily, he has a chance encounter with a former school teacher and she nudges him in the right direction," explains Hamish.

"Obviously when he's weighing up his future and worrying about the affect it'll have on Jess, it makes his heart rise and sink all at the same time.

"It's a difficult decision, of course it is. But Jess is very clever, loving and understanding, and supports his decision. She wants the best for Duncan.

"Things get a bit sad and awkward, but it doesn't damage their relationship. She knows he has to do it for himself."

But the way Hamish tells it, leaving Monarch for him was even more traumatic than leaving Glenbogle is for Duncan.

He says: "It was difficult because we had a party, then the producers gave Dawn and I a leaving meal, then there was a cast dinner, then you have to film the leaving scenes all out of sequence and then there is your last day of filming. So that is at least half a dozen instances of heartbreak.

"It was a bit pummelling and on top of that you find yourself going, 'That's the last time I'll be driving down the driveway, that's the last time I'll buy sausages in the village shop'.

"So by the time it comes to actually go you are kind of ready for it. You just have to think of it as a new chapter in your life beginning.

"The worst for me was shooting a really special scene where Duncan says goodbye to Golly - that was so hard.

"The acting was difficult. Because it wasn't just Duncan saying goodbye to Golly, it was me saying goodbye to Sandy.

"We got through it but it was hard. As soon as they said, 'Cut', I burst out crying."

However, Duncan will always be with the London-based star wherever he goes: "They are giving me the kilt and the leather jacket and the sporran. And I definitely want them because they are Duncan.

"I was going to buy an old wooden dressmaker's dummy for them as those clothes are also part of my own history. But then I thought I would just look like a complete a**e having my own costume on a model in my front room."