Shetland, series 6 episode 1 review: how many motives can you cram into one small island?

Alison O'Donnell and Douglas Henshall star in Shetland - BBC
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Somehow, Shetland (BBC One) didn’t appeal to me until now. I think it’s because everyone billed it as Scotland’s answer to “Nordic noir” and that isn’t a ringing endorsement in my book. What does it mean, apart from a dour detective, some scenery and everyone wearing jumpers? But the show is back for a sixth series, so it’s doing something right. And it’s about time I caught up.

If you’re a Shetland fan, you’ll have to forgive me for not knowing the backstory here. Douglas Henshall plays DI Jimmy Perez, which is a name more suited to The Wire than a windswept Scottish island. The case he has to crack this time is the murder of Alex Galbraith (Jim Sturgeon), a popular lawyer on the island. There are plenty of suspects: a drug-addict mother who lost custody of her kids in one of Galbraith’s cases; an ex-soldier angry that Galbraith refused to represent him when he faced accusations of abusing Iraqi detainees; someone linked to the victim’s wife, who is running in a local by-election with the backing of a local businessman (sounds shady).

There is another story about the release of a terminally-ill killer from prison, which may or may not have something to do with this case. Oh, and someone who may have captured the murder in some drone footage. So that’s a lot of motive and plot points to cram into one opening episode. Hang on, there’s also the new procurator fiscal, played by Anneika Rose, who you may remember as the luckless PC Jatri in Line of Duty.

Is there always this much going on in Shetland? Three-quarters of the way through the episode, I was exhausted. But what held my interest was Perez’s personal life. The series opened at his mother’s funeral; Perez has to cope with his own grief while dealing with his father, who is heartbroken by the loss of his wife but also showing signs of dementia. It was delicately handled, in scenes which had the ring of truth. Also realistic: a pathologist (Anne Kidd), who behaves like a normal human being rather than a quirky fictional character. This is a decent drama, but one that needs to thin out the storyline a bit.