My sleuths look different on screen – but I don’t mind, says the Shetland author

Every now and then a fan of my Shetland crime novels will say they love the books but can’t quite get their head around the fact that the onscreen version of my protagonist, in the TV drama currently showing on BBC1, looks so different to how I’ve described him.

Detective Jimmy Perez is descended from the survivor of a Spanish Armada shipwreck, and is swarthy with dark hair. Meanwhile, Douglas Henshall, who plays Jimmy in the TV adaptation, has blond hair and couldn’t look more Scottish!

I don’t care that the on-screen Jimmy looks nothing like how I imagined him. Douglas is a brilliant actor who captures the character – I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing Jimmy.

The colour of Jimmy’s hair is immaterial so I was very happy to overlook it in casting. It was much more important that whoever adapted my Shetland novels made a strong piece of television that was faithful to – and had the spirit of – the books, and I think it’s the same for every author.

I wanted Shetland filmed where it was set, and that wasn’t guaranteed, as it was more expensive to go to Shetland than it was to do it on the mainland. But character, landscape and setting were red lines for me and I wouldn’t compromise on them.

However, I had full confidence in producer Elaine Collins and her team because they’d already done such a good job with one of my other book series, Vera. Handing your work over to television producers is like giving up a child for adoption – you don’t let it go unless you trust the person concerned. But once it’s gone, I don’t believe in meddling.

That said, I understand why some readers of my Shetland and Vera novels have difficulty getting used to a protagonist who looks different to their description. The Vera Stanhope of my novels is big and heavy, quite ugly, and dresses down – very unlike the lovely-looking Brenda Blethyn who plays her in Vera, which will be returning next year. But Brenda has made the part her own. I even hear her voice when I’m writing her dialogue now!

In a way, I regard it as a compliment that readers become so proprietorial about fictional characters. However, I’m sure that anyone who enjoys the Shetland books will enjoy the adaptation if they give it a chance, because the essence of the books is in the TV drama too. Shetland, Tuesday, 9pm, BBC1. Ann’s latest Vera novel, The Seagull, is out now in paperback, priced £7.99. The seventh Shetland novel, Cold Earth, is also available.