Ashley Jensen brings new life to Scottish sleuthing drama
» Shetland BBC One, 9pm
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shley Jensen was a bold choice to replace Douglas Henshall as the lead detective in Shetland.
Given the climate in the UK’s most northerly region, Henshall’s mournful widower DI Jimmy Pérez was suitably buttoned up, while Jensen’s open, sunny disposition has usually been deployed for comic effect in shows like Ugly Betty, After Life and Catastrophe.
As if trying to give herself as much distance as possible from these roles, Jensen didn’t smile once in her opening episode as Met detective DI Ruth Calder. A Shetlander who left the island 20 years previously and has never looked back, Calder was forced to return, reluctantly, when ordered to trace a vital witness to a London gangland shooting.
This witness, fellow Shetlander Ellen Quinn (Maisie Norma Seaton), had been busy robbing the victim in a honeytrap scam when she was interrupted by contract killers. Ellen had scarpered back to the island, swiftly followed by the hitmen: Howell and his volatile eastern European partner Nowak (Don Gilet and Arnas Fedaravicius).
They faced not just capture by Calder and the local cops, but the wrath of Ellen’s grandmother, Grace Bains (a second formidable matriarch played by Downton Abbey’s Phyllis Logan, following her crime family boss Maggie Lynch in BBC Two’s Guilt.)
Long-time Shetland fans looking out for familiar faces will have been relieved that DI “Tosh” McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell) was still in situ – and indeed was temporarily in charge since DI Calder had no jurisdiction in Scotland. There was also the comforting presence of Sgt Billy McCabe (Lewis Howden), who was on hand to offer Tosh a scone with a cuppa. Not that Shetland
does much else in the way of cosy.
But this is primarily Jensen’s gig, and while she had her first headlining role in Sky’s comic crime drama Agatha Raisin, Shetland is a very different kettle of fish (or, in this case, red herrings). Calder has bags of back story including an estranged brother, Alan (Steven Miller) who is now a local vicar, and a dead dad who was – for reasons as yet unbeknownst to viewers – responsible for Calder’s escape from Shetland.
It was a confidently plotted episode, with Tosh also investigating a number of dead sheep with seemingly occult symbols on their carcasses. There were some whimsical touches as well, such as the hot-headed Nowak (who had no compunction about killing an elderly shopkeeper) being an avid bird-watcher. He wanted to go puffin-spotting once he’d finished with Ellen.
By the end of the episode, the body count had increased by two (not counting the dead sheep).
Ellen was one of the dead, although the identity of the killer remained unclear. And with Howell and a badly injured Nowak (after an in-car tussle with Ellen) still at large, and a vengeful Grace on their trail, the mortuary at Lerwick is likely to become even busier over the coming weeks.
Shetland has apparently become a global hit, despite (or because of) there being no easily exportable tartan tweeness. This is contemporary Scotland with a strong Scandi-noir vibe underlined by the spectacular, treeless vistas.
But Henshall’s hugely sympathetic performance was also central to its appeal. So what a relief that Shetland has successfully managed that switch of lead detectives seen in long-running crime dramas such as Midsomer Murders to Death in Paradise.
In fact, it feels altogether refreshed and, so far, one of the more enjoyable series yet.
This is contemporary Scotland with a strong Scandi-noir vibe