A strange time in Scotland
Annika star Nicola Walker says filming the series in Scotland during a pandemic was an unusual experience.
“It felt like the biggest leap,” she said. “Scotland went into lockdown while I was on the train from England. I thought, ‘Can life get any more surreal?’
“I was terrified of the logistics of filming during lockdown, but it quickly became apparent we could make it work – nothing ventured, nothing gained.
“Not seeing my family for three month was strange. It was a solitary experience on a job that is normally incredibly sociable. But the main things was I knew we were all safe.
“At the end of the day, I thought, ‘OK, that’s another day done, and everyone is safe’.”
The Spooks and Last Tango In Halifax star has played Annika for seven years on radio, and jumped at the chance of bringing her to the screen.
She added: “I’ve played a lot of detectives over the years. But I’ve been Annika a long time now, and if there was a chance of getting her fully fleshed out in a real-world environment, I wanted to be part of it. I was keen to see how she worked, transposed to life in Scotland.
“She still has Norwegian heritage, she is still an outsider, and she still has a different way of coping with life and work, but the hook is this is the only detective series where the audience is the silent sidekick. We are in cahoots with her.”