Star of huge BBC drama reveals why it will be back for a tenth series before the ninth has even aired

By Conor O'Brien

Crime drama Shetland debuted on BBC One back in 2013. With over a decade under its belt, here is a look at the show's journey so far.

Douglas Henshall led the cast in the first seven series, playing DI Jimmy Perez. However, the actor's departure from Shetland was announced in 2022.

In his place, Ugly Betty alum Ashley Jensen took over, playing newcomer DI Ruth Calder.

• Series One: Ederly Shetlander, Mima Wilson is found murdered. DI Pérez and the team suspect the murder is linked to the Haldane family (to whom Mima was related) and the Shetland bus.
• Series Two: DI Pérez and the team investigate the murder of teenager Catherine Ross. Along the way, they find links to local recluse Magnus Bain - and a seven-year-old's unsolved disappearance two decades earlier.
• Series Three: A young man disappears on a ferry crossing and a small boy ends up in intensive care after overdosing on Ecstasy. DI Pérez and the team become convinced the two events are linked.
• Series Four: Convicted murderer Thomas Malone returns to Shetland, prompting DI Pérez and the team to reopen a 23-year cold case. That case concerns Lizzie Kilmuir, who had been found strangled to death in a lime kiln. However, things take a turn when a local journalist is killed, in apparently a copy of Lizzie's murder.
• Series Five: After severed parts are discovered on a Shetland beach, the victim is determined to be a Nigerian man who'd been looking for his sister. However, the investigation leads Pérez to suspect the murder has ties to a human trafficking ring.
• Series Six: A local lawyer is shot dead on the day of Pérez's mother's funeral. The team focus on two of the lawyer's case - but are impeded by a teenager running a crime blog.
• Series Seven: In Pérez's final series on Shetland, the run starts as he is cleared of wrongdoing by the police tribunal. In his final act, Pérez lets an innocent man - who had been due to be executed for allegedly killing an American citzen - go free while he resigned from the police.
• Series Eight: DI Ruth Calder, who grew up in Shetland, takes over Pérez's old role. In one of Calder's first cases, a young woman flees to Shetland after witnessing a police informant being murdered by hitmen in London.