Ashley Jensen Talks Shetland Series 10

Stirring Up Secrets From The Past

Ashley Jensen who plays DI Ruth Calder in the BBC’s Shetland just spoke about what we can expect in the latest series…

Calder is settled back in Shetland and has a comfortable existence. She has her growing friendship with Tosh, while her brother Alan provides a family connection. They now catch up regularly and Calder enjoys the odd piece of gossip from the Kirk. But she’s still solitary. She doesn’t have a life partner or even a boyfriend and, to be honest, she’s not unhappy about this. Out of curiosity more than anything else, she has been on a few dates recently. Though without much success – Shetland is not an easy place to meet someone. The case brings her into contact with Ed Tulloch, the victim’s estranged son and she’s intrigued by him.

Where do we find Calder at the start of this new series?

She’s pretty settled into the police station and her life in Shetland. She’s unpacked all her boxes and settled into the community – well as much as Ruth Calder ever could. She’s even making good of her relationship with her brother, Alan, after all these years apart – they now have this big sister, little brother bond which is nice. However, she’s still not going to church on Sundays – he’s not convinced her of that much, yet.

She’s now even done a bit of online dating but actually, truthfully, she’s quite happy on her own. Calder doesn’t feel the need to be with a man. Over the years, she’s built a barricade around herself. She’s very much involved in her work and I’ve always said that Ruth Calder is the kind of person who is more than happy to go home at night and have a glass of wine, or two, pops on a microwave meal and watches cold crime shows on television.

Funnily enough, when I was in Shetland, I didn’t want to fill my head with other television drama so I would also watch cold crime TV cases. Our wonderful second block director Ruth Carney and I used to watch a bit of reality TV which I got into this year having avoided it all my life . But with much going on in the world these days and the weight of this storyline, it was so easy to watch, comment, switch off and empty your head for a wee while. Not a guilty pleasure just a pleasure!

What case do Calder and Tosh face this time around?

This series we’ve kind of become a little more insular rather than the expansive locations of last year. We’ve really come into the nucleus of the small hamlet of Lunniswick and used a real-life town as our location. It’s very much a small community where everybody knows each other’s business. The series opens with the murder of a woman from this community and, of course, the houses back on to each other, everybody’s peeping from their curtains and everyone’s kind of involved in each other’s lives – whether they want to be or not.

The murder itself is a peculiar death as the victim is an older woman and she’s positioned in a rather macabre way. What makes it worse is she’s outside her house, exposed to the elements and she’s been out there for a few days. So, obviously, because it’s a small community, everyone’s a bit suspicious.

For me, this series is the best storyline out of the three I’ve been involved in. I love the detail of this one and the fact that all the locals are suspects in the murder case.

The murder investigation will stir up secrets and lies from the past which impact the team…can you tell us about that?

A fascinating element of this storyline is that the personal lives of the police officers become embroiled in this case which has been interesting for us all to play. There are relationships in the station which become slightly fraught and fractious because of the specifics of this case.

Because it’s a small community obviously people know each other so there’s questions which arise. We’re all sort of drawn into it in some way or another. Calder is drawn into it through the victim’s son [Ed Tulloch played by Stuart Townsend] and she slightly crosses the line in that she becomes intrigued by him because she also had a complex relationship with her dad and he had a difficult one with his mum. The two of them have a similar background and because of that there’s a sort of understanding about strange, strained parental relationships so I think she feels Ed is a kindred spirit. This is something that Tosh sees and finds it all a little odd. Calder butts away Tosh’s concern but it does make things tricky between them from time to time.

This is the first time Shetland has taken over a real-life village and transformed it into a fictional one – what was that like?

I always like filming on location because it feels more alive. You’re actually in a house, you’re beside the water and you can smell the sea air outside and I find it helpful to feel the damp, feel the cold even though it can be difficult. The fact your hair is going all over the place can add to the wildness of the show and the elements are bigger than you and as much a part of the show as the actors and the storyline.

This series, we see Calder embark on the dating game. How does she find this experience?

She’s interested, bored, a bit despondent and doesn’t put too much weight on it – she thinks ‘I don’t’ know why I’m bothering’. She’s one of those people who has a ‘if I meet someone, I meet someone’ approach to it all but recognises that this is the modern way of dating and this is what you’re meant to do. That being said, she’s generally fed up with it all to be honest.

There’s a brilliant guest cast of Lunniswick locals on this series, what was it like having them on board?

One of the things I love about this show is the calibre of guest actors we get. This is season ten and we’re still getting huge names to come along. Greg McHugh, Louise Brealey, Niall MacGregor, Ellie Haddington and Clive Russell joined us this year and, for me, working with experienced actors like them, is incredible.

It was also wonderful to work with the next generation of actors who had little or no TV experience. With Shetland, there is no such thing as a small part and I’m always delighted to see new faces on the show.

Yourself and Alison have forged a really lovely on screen partnership, what is the secret to the success of Calder and Tosh?

We’re both very down to earth but we take our work very seriously. We just get on – we like each other and respect each other. We also have laugh on set and that’s really important, that goes a long way.

Alison’s a very kind and open person and we’re both interested in people and that’s why we get to know all these guest actors who come in year after year.

And, of course, when we’re all off filming in Shetland all that way from home we make a point of getting together and enjoy nights out with each other. The ship is run by two mums so I think it means it’s in safe hands!

This is the tenth series of Shetland – what do you think its enduring success is?

Cleverly what the makers have done is keep the essence of what the show is. People love the environment, they love that expansive landscape – it’s so alien but also recognisable. It’s clearly Scottish. People also like crime drama because they love to be taken on this journey and if they get it right they say ‘yes!’.

I actually did the same thing I did last year and made a point of not finding out who the killer is. I like being just like the audience, enjoying how much it all unravels. I was better at working out who the killer was this time around – clearly all my cold crime docudrama research has paid off!