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BBC Shetland Series - Ann Cleeves novels filmed in Shetland


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... how can afilm based on shetland not feature shetland. ...

 

The final version ended up with much more footage from Shetland than they originally planned. When watching the first part I was struck by how rarely I was aware of non-Shetland scenery. There are certainly many stunning Shetland vistas, and I expect there will be another "Simon King effect" on the tourism front. The obviously non-Shetland bits are places like the school or police station, which really do not matter.

 

It is important to remember that the TV series is not a documentary, but rather a crime thriller. If people take off their Shetland hats and approach it the same way they would view any other drama, the use of mainland locations is perfectly appropriate. When watching a TV drama set in Skye and there is a shot of a car hurtling along a road, so long as the production is gripping, 99.9% will never question that it might have been shot on the Scottish mainland, or indeed just outside Glasgow. The use of cost efficient locations for such shots is exactly what the BBC/ITV should be doing.

 

Nevertheless, I am chuffed that, although a house on the mainland was used for most of the scenes with Jimmy Perez's abode, there are a couple where they use the "correct" one, namely my house ;-).

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Well, what did you all think of it? I thought that if you allowed for artistic license at the bits where 'Bressay' was clearly somewhere else, etc, it was o good yarn, and I can't wait to see who dun it.

 

[***Mod edit - merged threads***]

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I went in with pretty low expectations, but sadly still found it dissapointing.

 

Nothing to do with the moving about locations or lack of local dialect that seem to have upset so many on facebook (what else do people expect, its just standard practice) - and nothing to do with the acting or production, indeed the wide shots made Shetland look great.

 

The fact is, as a crime drama, it was just awful. Especially compared to the high standard we are used to from UK productions. Take other similar shows like Broadchurch or Mayday for example, and then more regular shows like Sherlock or DCI Banks.

 

Other than playing spot the location and spot the local there really isn't anything going for it, which is a great shame. I only hope his part in it doesn't do any lasting damage to Steven Robertsons career.

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Steven Robertson was great at 10pm on BBC3. Child's been finding it rather amusing having a Shetlander on something as "big" as Being Human.

The crime thing though, was pretty much as bad as we were expecting, not as though the books were that great a starting point. It was quite interesting doing that spot the location thing, almost as entertaining as Morse, and yes the accents are as bad as Morse too, just look how long that ran, please god let this be a one off.

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  • admin changed the title to BBC Shetland Series - Ann Cleeves novels filmed in Shetland

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