Shetland season 9 is here and in great news, the BBC has already commissioned a tenth series as well! The first two episodes are now available on BBC iPlayer, with episodes airing weekly on Wednesday evenings.
When Douglas Henshall left at the end of season 7, the big question was could the series continue to be a success without its leading man?
Well, Shetland season 8 emphatically proved that the show could not only survive but also thrive as Ashley Jensen joined as DI Ruth Calder. She teamed up with regular Alison O'Donnell as Tosh and the pair struck up immediate chemistry. Met Police DI Calder was seen returning to her native Shetland to retrieve a vulnerable witness to a gangland murder. Calder and Tosh soon found themselves involved in a tricky case, which saw murder, secrets and twists galore. At times they had their differences, but ultimately they worked well together and now they will be pairing up again on a fresh case.
Ashley Jensen explains why Calder is now calling Shetland home again: "Calder's decided to return to Shetland because it almost felt like there was unfinished business there, or a sort of magnetic draw back home. She's there to find out who she is which, I think, goes against all her previous instincts.
"When she first came back during the last series, she thought that she’d be there to solve the case and then get away and get back to London, back to her life. But she’s experiencing that thing where home sometimes draws you back."
Alison O'Donnell adds: "I think it's a huge vote of confidence for Tosh and all the team that Calder has chosen to take a permanent position with them. They went through a lot during series 8 and ultimately I think they came out of that experience with a mutual respect. I think their relationship has established itself but remains restless. They have moments of genuine connection and moments of disagreement but they are both single-minded in their pursuit of the truth.
"Over the course of the new series we see their connection deepen again and we see that, while these women may work in very different ways, they complement each other more often than not."
Here's everything we know...
Shetland season 9 release date
Shetland season 9 began on BBC One on Wednesday, November 6 at 9 pm. Shetland season 9 episode 4 will air on BBC One on Wednesday, November 27 at 9 pm.
It will also arrive on BBC iPlayer each week after the episode has aired on BBC One. Note it is not being box setted so you will need to wait a week between episodes.
Shetland season 9 is expected to be available on BritBox in the US, but we don't have a release date yet.
Shetland season 9 cast
Ashley Jensen returns as DI Ruth Calder and Alison O’Donnell as Tosh. Regulars Steven Robertson (Sandy), Lewis Howden (Billy) and Anne Kidd (Cora) also return.
Ian Hart (Mr Bates VS The Post Office, Harry Potter, The Responder) and Vincent Regan (Traces, Luther: The Fallen Sun, Aquaman) join the cast. Ian Hart plays the experienced Oxford University Professor of Mathematics, Euan Rossi.
Speaking of his new role, Ian said: "With Calder, it’s a game. What someone might suspect and what someone can prove are two very different things and Rossi is bright enough to understand the difference. By the very nature of what Calder does for a living, she’s suspicious of Rossi. She’d be a very poor police officer if she wasn’t suspicious! Rossi is familiar with the world of police investigations - he knows what they’re about. He knows that, provided you don’t give too much information away, it only remains a suspicion."
Other guest actors starring include Stuart Campbell (SAS Rogue Heroes, Baptiste), Robert Jack (Annika, Damaged), Nalini Chetty (Crime, Karen Pirie), Jimmy Yuill (Guilt, The Kindred) and Lesley Hart (Granite Harbour, River City).
There are also some familiar faces returning to the crime drama, including Angus Miller as Donnie, Steven Miller as Ruth's brother Rev Alan Calder, Tibu Fortes as PF Harry Lamont, Conor McCarry as PC Alex Grant and Eubha Akilade as PC Lorna Burns.
Shetland season 9 plot
The BBC has confirmed that the news season will be just as gripping as the last, but this time things get tricky for Tosh when a double missing person’s case blurs the lines between the personal and the professional.
Calder and Tosh are drawn into a labyrinthine investigation when Tosh’s friend, Annie Bett, goes missing and she suspects something is seriously wrong. Ruth Calder - now living in Shetland - has no time to recover from a life-threatening ordeal of her own, as together they set out in search of Annie and her young son, Noah. They discover accountant Annie is estranged from her husband, Ian, and has been staying with mussel farmer John Harris and his two sons, Patrick and Fergus. Worryingly, there’s no sign of Annie there either.
Calder follows Tosh’s instincts and looks for Annie at the home she shared with Ian. There, they discover Professor Euan Rossi who claims to have been Annie’s Oxford University tutor many years ago. Suspicions are stirred when Tosh and Calder learn Rossi travelled all the way to Shetland after Annie left him a distressed voicemail the night she vanished. Calder can’t shake the feeling there’s more to Rossi than meets the eye.
Meanwhile, at the station, Calder delves deeper into another case involving a deadly argument between two brothers. The missing persons investigation draws Tosh and Calder into a web of lies and when a bloodied person turns up at a remote garage, nothing can prepare the team for what lies ahead.
Alison O'Donnell teases the plot saying: "This series is close to home for Tosh as a friend of hers goes missing. Initially, this isn't a police matter, it's just something that is happening in Tosh's private life. Her friend has requested they meet, she had something important she wanted to talk to Tosh about - on a professional level - but when Tosh arrives at the agreed place and time, her friend is not there.
"She is immediately concerned though initially unsure of how serious this is. But as time passes and Annie [played by Sarah MacGillivray] still isn't accounted for, when she's checked with Donnie [played by Angus Miller] and all of their friends and there's still no news, things begin to escalate. Calder encourages Tosh to trust her instincts and they begin to investigate."
What happened in episode 1?
Tosh and Calder are immediately thrown into drama when Calder's held at gunpoint by a Shetland resident who has just shot his brother and is blaming the whole thing on Bergen.
Calder is confused as to why he is talking about the Norwegian city after killing his own sibling, but before she can ponder for long, Tosh and the team manage to get Calder out safe and sound. However, there’s no time to relax because the pair are soon drawn into a personal case for Tosh when one of her best friends, Annie Bett, and her son Noah go missing.
Eventually, Noah turns up, but he is mute and covered in blood that definitely isn’t his. Soon Tosh and Calder make the grim discovery of Annie’s body… but there is a second dead body in the abandoned house that belongs to a stranger called Bergen. So the Bergen that Malcolm was talking about isn't a city in Norway like Calder thought, it is a person. But how is Malcolm killing his brother related to Annie's death?
What happened in episode 2?
Tosh and Calder are on a mission to work out what happened to Annie Bett and Anton Begen after discovering their bodies at the old house. First, they try and speak to Noah, but the horrors of what happened that night continue to haunt him and he is sent into a panic attack. Annie's husband Ian is still the prime suspect in her murder, but soon it is revealed he has a watertight alibi. However, he might be out of jail, but things are about to get a whole lot worse for him when he's the victim of a hit-and-run. Elsewhere, the police get more information on Bergen's background and Calder makes a shocking discovery about Annie when she realizes she and Professor Rossi are secret spies.
What happened in episode 3?
The hunt for Annie and Bergen's killer continues, but the plot thickens when Angus goes missing after investigating the strange happenings at the marine research facility. Annie's husband, Ian, is in a bad way after John attacked him, but when the police question John he shows little remorse for his actions. Annie's son, Noah sheds some light on what happened in the old house the night Annie and Bergen were killed and soon an innocent comment from him leads Tosh and Calder back to the marine research facility to ask more questions. Elsewhere, Angus is found but something terrible has happened to him and an argument between John and his sons Patrick and Fergus soon ends in tragedy.
What happened in episode 4?
As the tragedy of what happened on John Harris's boat hits the island, Tosh and Calder close in on Annie and Bergen's killer when they work out there is more to the Marine Research Facility than meets the eye. Everyone is stunned when they discover illegal stem cell treatments are being made for poorly Astrid which Bergan had tried to put a stop to. Soon Astrid goes missing and it is a race against time to find her. Meanwhile, Professor Rossi's strange behaviour sets alarm bells ringing - could he know more about Annie's death than he is letting on?
What happened in episode 5?
The penultimate episode reveals more about Annie's past and her relationship with Rossi, and through a series of flashbacks we discover that her getting shot and losing her role as a spy was his fault and he has been living with the guilt ever since. Meanwhile, Rob Harding, Calder's ex who has come to help them look into Rossi, arrives on the island - but before Calder and Tosh can find Rossi, he has kidnapped Karin Jackobson after finding out she used to also work for MI5 and is about to shoot her on the beach, believing that she is the one who killed Annie over a past feud. Also, Cora works out that the gun that killed Annie was also used the year before in a Manchester shooing... and the prime suspect at the time was a man called Kyle Frost - who also knows Lisa Friel. Does Lisa know more about Annie's death than she is letting on?
Is there a trailer?
Yes, it has finally landed...
Behind the scenes and more on Shetland season 9
Shetland season nine is written by lead writers Paul Logue and Denise Paul, produced by Louise V Say (Dracula, Les Miserables) and directed by Andrew Cumming (Out of Darkness) and Ruth Paxton (A Banquet).
Executive producers are Gaynor Holmes for the BBC, Kate Bartlett, Denise Paul and Paul Logue for Silverprint Pictures.
Shetland is part of a growing list of BBC dramas from Scotland, including Nightsleeper, Granite Harbour and the forthcoming Lockerbie and Lions. Shetland is internationally distributed by ITV Studios.
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