Ooh - Shetland, BBC1

[CocktailQueen]

Anyone see Shetland tonight? New drama series on BBC1?

I liked it! Nice to see the scenery, plus Scottish accents on a BEeb programme.

Sue, I loved her in The Hour too! It wasn't a very good show, but I wanted it to continue just for her.

And Romola Garai's wardrobe.

I am massively playing devil's advocate here, but could Lena have found out from Robbie who his Dad was (and why he was in Witness Protection) and joined the dots from there? She did say she'd told Robbie about what had happened to her mum-if he was really that drunk then maybe he knew about his Dad's past and let it slip...

Just watched it and dh pointed out the email problem. So I came here, and he went to Twitter - apparently the writers said that Leanne "gleaned" that Michael was testifying against Arthur, and so was trying to get word to Arthur, by sending a message to his lawyer. (Clearly she somehow gleaned who his lawyer was too.)

Hmm, I'm not buying that extremely tenuous 'gleaning' at all. Sounds like something the writers made up once the series had been filmed and someone pointed out the glaring plot hole to them.

I think the "gleaning" is as likely as my suggestion she googled "baddy working for other baddy".

Acting was v good, setting was great, story was gripping - I think that's why it's so annoying that the email plot bit was so unlikely.

Missing Shetland already. Especially the dishy Jimmy Perez/Dougie Henshall. Yum.

I love the show too, that's why the ending was so annoying. Maybe they let the work experience kid write the ending

I don't think there is a book. Ann Cleeves is credited for (some of) the characters but not for the plot.

I'd read and enjoyed her Shetland books before the first series and gave up watching it because it was so different. The TV series takes place after her last Shetland novel.

Agree with everyone else about unsatisfactory ending. We either needed another episode or fewer red herrings.

An early series 'Red Bones' on Drama channel this evening 9pm.

Yes, I meant to come on and say that. I think it's the first episode of a 2-parter, and then they'll show the longer series 2...?

I only watched part of it and wasn't blown away, I must admit, despite windswept beauty and a plot about land feuds and local skullduggery that did seem a lot more likely than witness protection and Glaswegian drug lords.

Maybe just little things threw me out, like Tosh looking like a twelve year old in braces and Perez looking more 'middle aged weatherbeaten rumpled cop in a Barbour' than 'expensive haircut in a well-cut pea coat'.

Did they use the same actors, frika?

Yes, every character that I saw, anyway (I recorded the episoide, but didn't watch it all) was played by the same actor - Tosh, Perez, Cassie, Duncan, the desk sergeant whose name escapes me, Sandy. Tosh just looks freakishly young with massive braces on her teeth (she says she 'doesn't want Scottish teeth') - I mean, you could have cast her as a thirteen year old, easily! - and Perez looks a lot less soigné.

Though there is an archaeologist character who has incredibly beautiful knitwear in every scene, despite being on a dig...

I remember the glam archaeologist. It's Gemma Chan, isn't it, who was in Humans? She is impossibly soignée.

I don't remember Tosh looking that much younger in the first series, or Perez looking all that different. Maybe I need to revisit and have a look!

That first episode was set around Up Helly Aa, if I remember rightly. At the time I thought it was a bit 'tourist Shetland', as if all they ever did up there was commemorate the Vikings, but I agree that that storyline at least seemed rooted in place and likely motivations than some of the more recent ones.

Leanne knew (of) Sarwar from all the trouble with her mum years ago. It's not hard to find the email address for a law firm.