Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell reprise their roles as Detectives Ruth Calder and Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh for a new series of the acclaimed murder-mystery drama.

Having left her London life behind, Calder is beginning to settle into her new life in Shetland. Realising she no longer wanted a future in London, Calder was happy to stay in Scotland not least because she enjoyed working with the team in Lerwick. Turns out, Shetland isn’t so bad after all. Calder has been warmly welcomed by Tosh, who was more than happy to have another DI in the station, especially one with Calder’s experience. The two know that they complement each other’s styles and the force is stronger having them work together.

In this new series of Shetland we see Calder finally putting down roots. Why has she decided to return to Shetland for good?

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.

What strengths does she bring to the team and what is her relationship with Tosh like this time around?

She’s very instinctive and she doesn’t waste time. I think that in a situation when things are very time sensitive, particularly in a murder case, you have to make these decisions very quickly and Calder has a wealth of experience from having worked at the Met for 25 years.

There’s very little that shocks her. She’s a DI and she’s done very well, so she trusts her instincts, which are often right – but not always – but at least she makes a decision and I think that complements Tosh, who is, as you know, much more of an empath.

Tosh is kind of the feeling one in the relationship. There’s a sort of good cop, bad cop dynamic where Calder tends to not get emotionally involved and sees a very practical puzzle that needs to be solved. So, I think that they both bring their own strengths to a case.

What is the storyline for the new series of Shetland?

There are many threads to the new series of Shetland. We jump back and forth in time – there’s a historical case, domestic relationships…there are so many different strands to the story and quite a lot of them are linked. It’s a very complex web this series.

In fact, I decided that I wasn’t going to find out who the murderer was. So, for the first three episodes I felt like I was really in Calder’s shoes. I was looking at people through the character’s eyes thinking, “What are you giving me?”. Then I would leave a scene and quickly look back around again, just to see if somebody was doing something they shouldn’t have been behind the coppers’ backs after we’d gone!

It added another element of fun for me. When I was playing the part, I wanted to be really present in every scene, to make myself look and listen to what people were saying, to see if I could solve the puzzle and ultimately, the crime.

Tosh is torn between the professional and personal, how does Calder help her deal with this conflict?

Tosh has an emotional pull towards this particular case which compromises her a little bit. She’s trying to be very professional about it but I think that Calder can see that she might be being pulled in all directions. With this she [Calder] has said “you’ve got to trust your own instincts and believe in yourself” and I think she kind of bolsters Tosh a little bit.

Part of Calder’s frustration with Tosh in the past was that she didn’t believe in herself but, this year, in Calder’s own way, she has given Tosh the confidence to believe in her own decisions.

This series welcomes another great guest cast…what was it like having them on set?

Every series it’s always a joy when you see the guest actors that that come to join us. When they come onto this show in particular, they are genuinely excited because they’re getting to come to Shetland, they’re getting the full Shetland experience.

There’s very much a feeling of bonding and camaraderie because we’re all away from home. We’re all in the same boat, it’s like being in regional theatre in the 1950s or something – we’re all together at the weekends because we can’t get back home. You’re genuinely not allowed off the isles in case the weather turns and you can’t get back which would obviously mess up filming. So there’s genuinely a feeling of all being in it together.

Having somebody like Ian Hart, who’s got a body of work that I respect so much, and the brilliant Vince Regan, was such a privilege, it was lovely to be working with them and I hope that they had as much fun on set as we did working with them.

From the off, Calder doesn’t trust Ian Hart’s character Professor Euan Rossi…what is it about him that makes her suspicious?

There is definitely a little mistrust of Rossi with Calder. I think she knows he’s smart, they’re a kind of intellectual equal. She knows there’s more to him than he’s giving away because quite often there’s more to Calder than she ever gives away. She wears a protective suit of armour and doesn’t let anyone in, and I think that she recognizes something in Rossi that’s kind of similar. She knows there’s more to Rossi than meets the eye.

How did it feel getting back on the wee plane to Shetland and where do you most enjoy visiting when you’re not filming?

I was very excited to be getting on the wee plane off to Shetland again with my half a cup of tea and my caramel wafer…half a cup of tea, because there’s often turbulence and you can’t get a full cup of tea because it’ll spill, which I thought was quite funny.

As soon as you touch down, Shetland kind of envelops you. It’s the whole landscape, I mean the real star of the show is Shetland and the Shetland Isles…it’s an inimitable place. It’s like nowhere I’ve ever been before. It’s a landscape that’s arresting and breathtaking…it’s just a real privilege to be able to go back there.

Obviously, when I did my first series, I didn’t know whether I was ever going to go back there, so I felt like I had to rush around buying Shetland jumpers and puffin poo and things like that, just in case.

One of the day trips that we had was with Ian Hart [who plays Euan Rossi] and some of the crew. We drove for miles and got on two ferries up to Unst to visit the gin distillery there as well as the most northern tea room in the British Isles. It was amazing.

Unst almost makes Lerwick [Shetland’s capital] look like a metropolis. When you get up to Unst, it’s really remote. And you really feel it there – you’re part of the landscape. It’s a very visceral, humbling place to be.

The last series ended with Calder running into the sea – have you ever tried wild swimming or did this experience put you off?

Once, during the heat wave we had last year, about 25 cast and crew all decided to go onto one of the beaches and we went swimming in the sea. That was one of the most exhilarating evenings. It was absolutely glorious.

I was wearing a wetsuit, and some little booties, but it wasn’t a proper wetsuit. It was the one that Maisie [Norma Seaton] who played the murder victim Ellen, wore last year. When you play a dead person they give you a wetsuit to keep you warm when you’re lying on the ground. So it had a cut around the neck so the water did go in but I have to say I really did enjoy it, and I would definitely do it again.

That being said, the weather was so poor this year, wild horses or wild Shetland ponies, would not have dragged me into the sea this time!

Funny you should mention the weather…last year you had the most glorious sunshine, what was it like this time around?

The weather was a challenge. I mean, I’ve known cold when I’ve been filming but this this was something else. This is filming when it’s so cold your fingers had stopped working. We had heat pads in our pockets, our underwear and taped to our backs. We even had to put our hands in hot water in between takes to literally thaw them out. It’s the only thing that would bring the feeling back into my fingers.

And do you have any memorable moments from filming this series?

Lots of memorable moments of locations and things, but I don’t want to give too much away! Working with Alison every day is wonderful, we just get on like a house on fire. She’s one of these people where I feel as if I can’t remember ever not knowing her.

The one memory I have is when production brought in two stunt women to do a running along the beach scene for us. It was a cold, sort of miserable day and they’d got the stunt double women in wigs and Calder coats and Tosh jumpers. But apparently, we ran along the beach and looked like we knew what we were doing, so we didn’t need the stunt people. So we were like “Yes!”

A Silverprint Pictures production (part of ITV Studios) for the BBC, Shetland is loved by millions of fans, with last year’s series averaging seven million viewers across its run. Filmed earlier this year on the Shetland Isles and across Scotland, the new series will see Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell return reprise their roles as Detectives Ruth Calder and Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh.

Originally based on award-winning novels by crime writer Ann Cleeves (https://amzn.to/3Yio4l2), the new six-part series sees DI Calder (Jensen) – now a resident of the Isles – thrown in at the deep end after a friend of Tosh’s (O’Donnell) goes missing. The chilling tale of disappearances and death sparks a labyrinthine investigation for Tosh and Calder that challenges the line between the personal and professional.

The new series also sees the return of series regulars Steven Robertson (Sandy), Lewis Howden (Billy) and Anne Kidd (Cora), while acclaimed actors Ian Hart (Mr Bates VS The Post Office, Harry Potter, The Responder) and Vincent Regan (Traces, Luther: The Fallen Sun, Aquaman) lead the guest cast and can be seen in today’s first-look pictures.

Shetland series nine is written by lead writers Paul Logue and Denise Paul. Series nine is 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.