NORMALLY it features a murder investigation led by a detective who does a lot of brooding, set in a stunning landscape of stormy seas crashing against towering cliffs.
Now the success of BBC TV series Shetland has led to a massive rise in yachtsmen keen to visit the locations used in the show.
Its popularity of the BBC show in Scandinavia and the Netherlands has been such as to help generated enormous interest in the islands, with visitors even asking to see the “home” of fictional detective Jimmy Perez.
He is played by actor Douglas Henshall, who, of course, does not live permanently on the islands where Ann Cleeves set the novels on which the series is based.
However Caroline McKenzie, a hotelier in Scalloway, the largest settlement on the west coast of the Shetland mainland, tells how two stunned tourists met Perez when the cast and crew stayed while filming.
She said: “We had a Dutch couple staying with us for a few nights and they were just telling us how much they loved the series, what big fans they were, when Dougie Henshall walked into the bar and sat next to them. I thought the woman was going to burst, she was so excited.”
Mrs McKenzie said the series’ impact on the tourist trade has been amazing. “There is no doubt in my mind it has drawn more and more here. It is doing for Shetland what Bergerac did for Jersey or Hamish Macbeth for Plockton.”
She thought there had been a big upturn in international interest in Shetland after the series became available on Netflix. Its popularity should continue as the BBC announced this year the fourth series was on its way. Six episodes have been filmed on location in Shetland, Glasgow and Norway.
Lerwick Port Authority chief executive Sandra Laurenson is also hoping sailing enthusiasts’ interest in the programmes continues.
She said: “It’s great news for yachting at the harbour that another series of Shetland is being produced, especially as it has locations in Norway.
“We look forward to welcoming more fans in the future as arriving yachts continue to increase at Lerwick.”
She said the growth in longer-distance sailing, including Lerwick as a stopover to and from Arctic waters, and a recent increase of about five per cent in larger yachts at the port, were also contributing to activity.
The port welcomed more than 500 yachts last year, up 12.6 per cent on 2015, with 41 per cent from Norway, followed by 19 per cent from the UK and the rest from various countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany.
By the end of May, the 2017 season was up 12 per cent on the same period last year, with 89 yachts visiting Lerwick. Pontoons were re-installed in the town centre Victoria Pier area last month following refurbishment over the winter.
International visitors will include around 48 entrants in the annual Bergen-Shetland Race, who will be in port from next Thursday, leaving for Bergen on the Saturday, she said.
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