The Vital Spark is a British television comedy set in the western isles of 1930s Scotland, based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. Starring Roddy McMillan as Peter 'Para Handy' MacFarlane, captain of the puffer Vital Spark, the series followed its adventures around the coastal waters of west Scotland and the various schemes that Para Handy would get himself and his crew involved in. The programme first broadcast in August 1965 as an episode of Comedy Playhouse. Two series, of six and seven episodes respectively, were commissioned by BBC Scotland and transmitted in early 1966, and autumn 1967, in black-and-white. In March 1973, an hour-long TV special was made, in colour, featuring the same cast. After the success of this, a further six episodes (essentially remakes of previous scripts but in a more contemporary setting) were commissioned, broadcast in the autumn of 1974.