It has all the makings of a cutesy Hollywood tale - except, this time, another dash of celluloid glamour is at the root of the discord.

A tiny Scottish fishing village has found itself split over plans to film yet another TV series on its only street. In the majority camp lie those desperate to see a share of the £25m that is splashed into Scotland by deep-pocketed production companies each year, and in the other lie those who are fed up having to dodge boom microphones and coach loads of tourists on the way to the pub each weekend evening.

On the surface, at least, it is the familiar fable of the lure of Mammon versus the desire to protect a fragile rural lifestyle; and, in an irony hardly lost on the villagers, it is a big-screen depiction of this very tale that caused all the problems in the first place.

Before Burt Lancaster and his entourage flew in to film Local Hero, a movie about a Texan oil magnate trying to buy over a small village, Pennan was just another pretty fishing village in the north east of Scotland.

But the worldwide exposure given to the white-washed cottages and red phone box still brings thousands of tourists each year to its remote setting.

Although the volume of sightseers has dwindled over the past 18 years - they tend now to come in national clusters dictated by where the film is being revived - their number was replenished last year when the BBC filmed its All Along the Watchtower series there.

The corporation had wanted to exploit Pennan's charms once more in its new 2000 Acres on Skye drama, starring former EastEnder Michelle Collins. The village laird, Julia Watt, however, was having none of it.

As the villagers set about organising a public meeting to discuss the production company's proposals, Mrs Watt contacted the owners of all 37 homes. She said there was an overwhelming majority against more filming in Pennan, though she refuses to make the exact result public.

Brenda Kutchinsky, owner of the Pennan Inn and leader of the pro-faction, was not impressed with Mrs Watt's poll, so she organised a meeting in the village hall - it ended with a motion, passed 50-9, calling for the filming to go ahead.

Rather than resolve the question it has instead led to battle lines drawn.

Mrs Watt, who was not at the meeting, has refused to accept its result. Her husband bought the archaic feudal rights to Pennan in 1948 and, as feudal superior, she can make life very difficult for Zenith, the production company.

With both sides deadlocked, Ms Kutchinsky called in Alex Salmond, the local MP.

Mr Salmond suggested a referendum. "I think that's the only way to prevent ill-feeling from forming," he said. But resentment is already beginning to stain.

"The production company said they would bring £3.5m over three years, we can't turn that down," said Ms Kutchinsky. "But it's not just about money. There are only 18 year-round residents in Pennan.

"The place is dying. If people see how beautiful it is on the telly, they may think they want to give up the rat race and come here. We want to attract more people to live in Pennan."

Mrs Watt, however, believes filming will have the opposite effect. "It causes so much disruption, it is not good for the village," she said. "People do not like to live with all this chaos and they leave."

The referendum is still going ahead and will be supervised by an academic from Aberdeen University. Interested parties - from the harbour master to overseas owners in Oman - are all to be given a vote.

But, no matter the result, the pro-filming faction has two more problems to counter.

Mrs Watt told the Guardian yesterday that she was unsure if she would accept the results of the referendum and, even if she does, time is running out for the villagers: Zenith wants to begin filming in the summer and alternative locations are already being sought.