[sabrina]

Well first of all, there are very few trees in Shetland but the landscape is stunning in all weathers. Never had much bother with using my mobile phone when there but like most places there will be black spot areas with no coverage ( I have very little near me at home near Banff ) As for the Shetland language. It is beautiful but takes time to understand so would have been no use in the TV drama. I myself when there seem  to use more and more Shetlands words but I have had 30 years now to pick it up. The Island has a special feeling, From the second I get on the plane to Shetland I feel relaxed and calm. Its one of those places that you either love or hate but for me its just perfect and I was heart broken when my mother left the Island to live near my younger brother who has heart and kidney problems. We take her back every year if its possible and she has made it quite clear that we have to take her home to be buried in Shetland. If my OH could get a job there we would move in an instant.

[SallyintNorth]

I think they could and should have had some broad Shetland accents - maybe some of the more peripheral characters, and they could have subtitled them.

When we visited Orkney it took a day or two to tune into the accent, but it was very much a part of the place and the atmosphere - not least because these islands feel more of a connection to Scandanavia than they do to Scotland, (so the people told me), and that comes across in the accent and dialect.

Now when there's anything about Orkney on the telly, I love to hear the Orcadians talk; their accent takes me straight back there 

I couldn't live there, though - no trees.  We did take a ferry trip to the wee island which does have a wood, and walk in that wood, just to see some!   

There are no foxes either (so no foxhounds, so no good for BH ) and I think someone said no badgers either?

One feature of Orkney is that most everyone and most of the livestock are barred up indoors all winter, battened against the almost constant 70mph winds.  The final scenes on Shetland were shot against a massive wall of window in the old man's sitting room - would a Shetland house have windows as expansive as that? 

[sabrina]

The answer to the window is yes, lots of houses have huge windows that over look the sea. Many new houses are built like the Norwegians and just beautiful. The croft type are very different but you would expect that. The Island is about 70 miles long and the furthest you are from water is 3 miles. Wild life everywhere. In Lerwick most buildings are very old, cobbled streets where the shops are. As you say the language would have been nice to hear. My stepfather who was a Shetlander spoke very fast but he did learn to slow down his words once married to my mother.

[Anke]

We went to Shetland in the summer and I loved it... (I didn't see the TV thingy though, and won't be watching it on iPlayer either). We also went up there because I wanted to decide if I felt I could go and live up there.... but I found it actually not remote enough  ... Most of the population there is wihtin easy driving distance of a huge TESCO, also a large COOP in Lerwick, the High St looks very much like others in Scotland... although we did find a couple of nice places to eat with really good fish on offer, most of the foodfare is standard like everywhere else....
 
Not quite sure if the lack of trees really bothered me or not though...
 
Loved the Knitwear at the museum, and am itching to try some of Kate Davies' designs, alas time and understanding of the pattern (steeking ) is not on my side...

[Fleecewife]

Steeks scare me too  .  You can knit things such as the 'rams and ewes' blanket on the flat, by reading the chart from the 'wrong' end on alternate rows.  It might be worth doing a practice piece first, before getting the scissors out to something which has taken an age to knit - that's what I'll do when I take the plunge.   I am thinking of making up my own Heb hat, with 4 horned Hebs dancing around it.............
 
 

[Big Light]

What annoy me was the main character calling the island "Lerick" to try and sound local but then every other word was with a west coast accent - seemed pointless either be an actor and act the part or just be glaswegian

[Anke]

Steeks scare me too  .  You can knit things such as the 'rams and ewes' blanket on the flat, by reading the chart from the 'wrong' end on alternate rows.  It might be worth doing a practice piece first, before getting the scissors out to something which has taken an age to knit - that's what I'll do when I take the plunge.   I am thinking of making up my own Heb hat, with 4 horned Hebs dancing around it.............
 
 

I love the "Rams & Ewes" blanket... one of these days I will get my brain into gear and learn it properly... (I can do FairIsle, but it takes a looooooong time)

[ellied]

Well I did watch it last night, both parts - it was OK.. 

Bit cliche and boring tho, honestly.  Randy lecturer shagging his students and assorted wives of locals in a tiny community like that?  Drunken misunderstood offshore worker with marital and debt problems? "I did it to protect my old sick dad's reputation" multi-murdering middle aged housewife?  Oh, the wartime secret that is about an affair and an illegitimate child    Not even a twist and the viking parade just a backdrop to alternate with the about to be a victim running from public place to large warehouse space where he can easily be attacked tho he seemed about 5' ahead of his pursuer on the street and out of sight when he got to the door so there wasn't anywhere else he'd have gone but the uninhabited "come get me free" space?  And most unbelievable of all, does anyone really have the kind of stand up shout between parent and teen, adopted or not, that after 5 seconds stops and becomes a "want a cuppa" moment?  Or am I just cynical

Not a thrilling thriller, nor a mysterious mystery, more costume drama plus a few random vikings on the main street..  Oh and the police wouldn't "write to the university" about a randy lecturer, not given the students were of age.  Gah. 

[Anke]

Well I did watch it last night, both parts - it was OK.. 

Bit cliche and boring tho, honestly.  Randy lecturer shagging his students and assorted wives of locals in a tiny community like that?  Drunken misunderstood offshore worker with marital and debt problems? "I did it to protect my old sick dad's reputation" multi-murdering middle aged housewife?  Oh, the wartime secret that is about an affair and an illegitimate child    Not even a twist and the viking parade just a backdrop to alternate with the about to be a victim running from public place to large warehouse space where he can easily be attacked tho he seemed about 5' ahead of his pursuer on the street and out of sight when he got to the door so there wasn't anywhere else he'd have gone but the uninhabited "come get me free" space?  And most unbelievable of all, does anyone really have the kind of stand up shout between parent and teen, adopted or not, that after 5 seconds stops and becomes a "want a cuppa" moment?  Or am I just cynical

Not a thrilling thriller, nor a mysterious mystery, more costume drama plus a few random vikings on the main street..  Oh and the police wouldn't "write to the university" about a randy lecturer, not given the students were of age.  Gah.

   I am definitely NOT watching it now....

[Lesley Silvester]

Wedon't need to watch it now.  We know what happens.

[ellied]

Sorry 

Not that I gave away anything you'd not guess the moment you saw the "characters", but sorry anyway

[Backinwellies]

Well glad I watched it all last night or I might have decided I didn't need to now!  Yes very cliched but loved the wild scenery ... no couldn't live there , not least cos I suffer from SAD  but am itching to do some island hopping in Scotland since we went to highlands 2 years ago ... this just confirmed it.
L

[Lesley Silvester]

Sorry 

Not that I gave away anything you'd not guess the moment you saw the "characters", but sorry anyway

I'll forgive you.  Just this once.   

[Lesley Silvester]

Just watched the first episode and rather enjoyed it.  Shetland certainly is beautiful.

[ellied]

I'll forgive you.  Just this once.   

Then sadly I am doomed, I take a lot of forgiving, can't seem to help putting both feet in it on a regular basis 

But thank you for the reprieve  I was  at the time and not thinking straight - more than usual