The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
City is star of BBC crime drama Granite Harbour
Romario Simpson might be playing the lead role in the new BBC crime drama Granite Harbour, but he reckons he’s not the star – Aberdeen is.
The actor fell in love with the Granite City while filming at locations ranging from Broad Street to the beach and he reckons it will show off Aberdeen at its best when the three-part series premieres on Thursday December 1.
“There are a lot of establishing shots that really champion the city of Aberdeen,” said rising star Romario, who became a talent-to-watch after starring in Small Axe and Noughts And Crosses.
“It really does bring to light the beauty of it. When we were filming I didn’t know all that stuff was being captured, but seeing it on the screen you do think ‘oh, this is a nice place’.”
His comments came as BBC Scotland yesterday released the first images from Granite Harbour, which was filmed in May.
Romario plays LanceCorporal Davis Lindo, a Jamaican RMP officer who has completed his last tour of duty and has been sent to train as a detective constable in Aberdeen.
It’s a different world to anything he has known before and he has to learn quickly – and doesn’t always play by the rules, especially after he is partnered with Lara “Bart” Bartlett, played by Hannah Donaldson, a streetwise Aberdeen cop.
The two soon find themselves embroiled in a twisting and turning investigation into the murder of a high-profile oil industry executive.
While Romario might have fallen in love with the north-east on his first time in Scotland, he admits there were some challenges during filming.
“Aberdeen was definitely challenging in terms of the weather changing every 20 minutes,” he said.
“There was definitely a lot of adapting we had to do while filming because of this.”
But it was still a memorable experience for the actor.
“I’m a London city boy, so I’m used to the hustle and the bustle and the fastpaced life,” he said.
“It was really refreshing to be somewhere that was a slower pace of life, where I could breathe – it was fresher air, just next to the sea.
“That had a positive effect on my mental wellbeing, and people talk to you in Scotland.”
However, Romario had another challenge in a scene depicting Lindo being faced with his first experience of a full Scottish breakfast – although some might question kippers being in the mix with tattie scones and haggis.
“I tried some – it is definitely something I will have to go back to if we do more filming up in Aberdeen.”
His co-stars, Hannah Donaldson and Bhav Joshi who plays DI Jay Mallick, also had high praise for filming in Aberdeen at locations including the Castlegate and Windmill Brae.
“It was great just to absorb all the places and businesses we were talking about,” said Hannah.
“Things like driving along the esplanade and looking out to the rigs thinking, ‘yes, this is where we should be, this is where we should tell this story’.”
Bhav said: “It’s very specific that this is a story that’s taking place in Aberdeen. You don’t really see a lot of that in typical police drama, it’s normally Glasgow-centric, so it’s nice this is taking place in Aberdeen. Hopefully people in Aberdeen will love it.”
The cast were also delighted that local people were pleased to see them filming in the heart of the city – including filming a protest scene at the Castlegate.
While Granite Harbour does showcase the not-somean streets of Aberdeen – there are a lot of “oh look there’s…” moments when watching it – there is one thing missing. Doric.
It was a conscious decision not to lean heavily into Aberdeen’s rich mother tongue said Holby City star Dawn Steele, who plays the detectives’ boss DCI Cora MacMillan.
“When it comes to the Doric and the real Aberdeen accent, it would have been brilliant,” she said.