BBC Shetland Series - Ann Cleeves novels filmed in Shetland

[midget1965]

Cruise ships & Up Helly Aa there's a combination...oh dear they didn't think that one through very well did they...

 

Poor filming, poor story, did nothing for Shetland and the Jarl Squad looked a mess. The Guizer Jarl looked awful with no proper beard and just looked a mess.

 

Up helly Aa looked so fake as they walked along, no pipe band or brass band.

It did nothing for Shetland, all that going on about no Marks and Spencers, top shop and the likes. Made Shetland sound like a pretty isolated place where no one in their right mind would choose to live.

[oxna]

Shetland isn't awash with A-List celebrity actors with Shetland dialects and there are even fewer prolific crime writers. A reasonable effort, however, is my assessment and for those who seek to be unduly critical I say - could you do better? If so, have a go! Oxna

[EM]

The Guizer Jarl looked awful with no proper beard and just looked a mess.

I've not seen part 2 yet, but you may want to consider how somebody is likely to look after having recently lost their thumb, then waiting in the bitter cold (summer it may have been, but summery it certainly wasn't) till after two in the morning. \We were all frozen and knackered.

[tlady]

I thought it was excellent!

 

I loved every minute of it! especially the "tongue in cheek" humour.

 

Anybody who feels the need to nitpick needs to "get a life" !!

[max]

^^

Totally agree tlady. Gorgeous scenes o Shetland in this FICTION drama. Well done to all concerned - especially Steven Robertson and the 'Shetland Fixer'

[klanky]

It's fictional entertainment, not a historically and culturally accurate representation of Shetland.

[owre-weel]

all that going on about no Marks and Spencers, top shop and the likes. Made Shetland sound like a pretty isolated place where no one in their right mind would choose to live.

 

Your missing the point, that's exactly what makes Shetland appealing. It's different from other places.

 

I can understand people commenting on the quality of the production, but can't understand some of the comments in this tread. It's a piece of fiction, not a promote Shetland DVD. Like all fiction a certain amount of poetic licence will be used.

 

Personally I enjoyed it and also liked a lot of the shots of Shetland scenery. I have already had a friend from south saying they must visit after seeing the views of Shetland.

[tooney1]

I wanted this to work, but unfortunately it was average. The cast, especially lead was good, but the story wasn't there and it was too slow. I was worried he wouldn't get it solved before the 10 o'clock news.

 

On a positive note I think this will do something for Shetland, and although I feel we were maybe used for our looks rather than substance, I'm very glad it was tried.

 

Ultimately this recent TV exposure is an excellent thing, and if it puts us on the map as a film/tv location (Tourism gold), enhances visitor numbers, or even spurs on more local actors, then it can only be good.

[wastmania]

It was good for Shetland, I enjoyed it, well done everybody that were in any way involved.

 

Thank you the BBC for free prime time coverage of Shetland which is going to be a positive benefit in many, many ways.

[lastpubrunner]

It was interesting to read some of the reviews; I saw more than one posting, being critical of the fact that Lerwick wasn't pronounced Ler-Wick.

 

"Why did the actors feel the need to drop the 'W' from Lerwick, can't they speak proper English" ?

 

. . . . . . yes, really !

 

 

. . . Frequently, these messages are left by those who refer to 'the Shetlands'

 

Did anyone else notice, that one time when Perez was leaving Bressay, he said on his mobile phone . . . . . . .

 

"I'm off back to the 'main island'

 

I've never heard 'main island' used as an expression in Shetland; I guess that the program had to be 'dumbed down' to make it easier for the viewers to understand.

[Twerto]

People have to remember this is catering to the 6.19 million other viewers not the 0.01 million viewers in Shetland.

 

So what if it wasn't 100% accurate I still enjoyed it.. wasn't the best i have ever watched but it was still a lot more palatable than most crap on telly these days ie Coronation Street and Emerdale

[Hector's House]

can't they speak proper English" ?

With the previously mentioned proliferation of Glaswegian accents, I'm guessing not

 

The problem of a (possible) one-off programme is how to maximise the information in the dialogue without having a lengthy "training" session to clue-up non-locals. In Inspector Morse it was achieved by correcting Lewis' lack of knowledge of Oxford's peculiarities, but that was over the course of 33 episodes.

 

As for "wrong" pronunciations of place names, ever been to Leominster, or Mildenhall in Wiltshire? The country is littered with problematic names for outsiders. The irritation of the online comments is that folk seem to want to correct the dialogue, rather than try to learn a new regional accent.

[JohanofNess]

All the folk at my work who watched it quite enjoyed it. Most of them commented about the lack of Shetland accents but keeping in mind that it went out prime time across the nation and there isn't exactly a lot of Shetland actors to fill those roles it wasn't a huge surprise. It could of been worse you could have had a heap of mainlanders murdering the Shetland accent.

 

Lot of folk on facebook have been whining about the accents and lack of accuracy but it's a fictional drama for the love of god. If it upsets folk that much is it preferable that no TV programmes get made on the isles other than a bunch of nature photographers and Bill Oddie.

[manxman]

As a complete outsider (never visited Shetland and never read any of Ms Cleeves's books), I enjoyed it. Then again, I do like this genre of TV and will cheerfully sit through Poirot, Morse, Touch Of Frost, Death In Paradise et al (though I do draw the line at the execrable Midsomer Murders).

 

For sure, it embodied every cliché of the "cosy mystery" style: seething resentments between neighbouring families, unsolved crimes from the past, more red herrings than your local fishmonger, and (worst of all) the dreadful plot device of a character trying (and narrowly failing) to communicate information to the detective shortly before she is murdered.

 

But it kept me quiet for a couple of hours, and I thought it presented Shetland very attractively, so I hope they make some more. Talking of Shetland, it was even more obvious from watching TV than from the pictures I'd already seen just how different the place looks from the Isle of Man…

[Spinner72]

^^ Seeing, and talking to, many people with the same viewpoint I feel I was overly harsh in my initial criticism of the show.

 

Clearly it is not, and never was, supposed to be a top shelf crime drama but more of the generic type as mentioned above (Morse, Poirot, Frost etc).

 

I was hoping for something much higher caliber (Sherlock, Banks, Luther, or one-off's like Mayday) but that's just me being selfish. Shows like those come along very rarely, and perhaps do not have the mass appeal of the simple murder mystery.