News / ‘Shetland’ turned into a top telly show
THE MURDER mystery Shetland on BBC1 was the most watched TV programme at 9pm on Sunday night with 6.4 million viewers tuning in.
The BBC confirmed that the drama starring Douglas Henshall and local actor Steven Robertson amassed 25.6 per cent of the viewing public, outperforming the final episode of Mr Selfridge by half a million.
The figures were even better for Scotland, where the TV adaptation of Ann Cleeves’ novel Red Bones won 28.9 per cent of the audience.
A BBC spokeswoman said the corporation was very happy with the figures, saying Shetland had well outperformed the slot’s usual 19.9 per cent.
The final number of views is likely to be even higher as iPlayer is factored in over the next week.
However the statistics for Monday night are not expected to be quite so high, with the final half of the slow-paced thriller competing against the highly popular Broadchurch.
The spokeswoman said there was no truth in the oft-repeated suggestion that five million views would guarantee a full series of Ann Cleeves’ murderous Shetland quartet.
However she could not rule out that it might be a possibility.
Reviewers have given the show a mixed reception, with Neil Midgley in The Telegraph describing it as “not especially good, and also not especially bad, but just pervasively dull”.
However Tom Meltzer in The Guardian thought there were enough “hints of drama” to bring people back for the second half “if only to watch the flames on the water at the islands’ Up Helly Aa fire festival”.
He comfortably added: “Sometimes, you see, a place can be as compelling as a plot.”
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
