FLICK through the channels or scroll on-demand platforms and chances are you’ll come across a TV show or movie that has been made in Scotland over the last few years.
From crime dramas and thrillers to historical fiction and sitcoms, this corner of the world has become a highly coveted shooting location for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, as well as global streaming giants such as Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Disney+.
It is a trend that looks set to continue in 2024 with a raft of must-watch offerings headed for our screens or into production around Scotland. Here, we list some of the forthcoming attractions to look out for.
Granite Harbour
Aberdeen will take centre stage as hit BBC Scotland crime drama Granite Harbour returns for a second series.
The plot centres on RMP Sergeant Davis Lindo, a rookie recruit to Police Scotland assigned to work alongside DS Lara “Bart” Bartlett, with the debut series in 2022 garnering 7.6 million streams on BBC iPlayer.
The new three-part run will see Lindo and Bartlett, played by Romario Simpson and Hannah Donaldson respectively, pressed into action as the North-East Murder Investigation Team tackle a crime wave sweeping Aberdeen.
Talking about her role, Donaldson says: “Growing up as an aspiring young actress in the north-east of Scotland I didn’t often see the landscapes I recognised as home or hear the accents of my friends and family on screen. I’m very proud to be a small part of bringing Granite Harbour to life.”
Expected to air on BBC Scotland this spring, then BBC One and BBC iPlayer later in the year
Only Child
Greg McHugh and Gregor Fisher star in a BBC Scotland and BBC Comedy sitcom about a man returning home to look after his strong-willed technophobe father. The six-part series will be shot in Glasgow and around the north-east of Scotland.
McHugh (The A Word, Fresh Meat, Gary: Tank Commander) plays budding author Richard with Fisher (Rab C Nesbitt, Love Actually, The Cockfields) as his recently widowed father Ken, who slips into patterns of increasingly eccentric and erratic behaviour.
Only Child is written by Bryce Hart who says: “As the son of a father who has steadfastly refused to learn how to compose a text message, there is no relationship as ripe for laughs as that between a Scottish son and his father.”
Coming to BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer
Lockerbie
Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth will play Dr Jim Swire in a TV series about the Lockerbie disaster. It is based on Dr Swire's search for justice after his daughter Flora died in the 1988 bombing, which claimed 270 lives.
Lockerbie - to be shown on Sky - began filming scenes in Glasgow and Linlithgow, West Lothian, last month. The storyline is based, in part, on the book that Dr Swire co-wrote with Peter Biddulph, titled The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice.
Renowned Scottish playwright David Harrower is lead writer for the drama. Maryam Hamidi, an Iranian-born, Glasgow-based writer/director, is a guest writer on an episode of the five-part series.
Coming soon to Sky
Lockerbie
That isn’t a typo: there is, in fact, a second drama series of the same name and same subject also in the works, this one set to air on the BBC and Netflix.
World Productions - the team behind Line of Duty - has been commissioned to make Lockerbie, a factual six-part drama “based on the real events surrounding the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the joint Scots-US investigation which sought to bring the perpetrators to justice”.
Jonathan Lee, the novelist behind High Dive, is lead writer on the project, alongside Scottish screenwriter Gillian Roger Park, who will pen two episodes. Lockerbie will use filming locations in Scotland, Malta and Toronto.
The series will draw on extensive interviews done by filmmaker Adam Morane-Griffiths, who spoke to Scottish police and US investigative agencies. It will also examine the long-lasting effect on the people of Lockerbie and the families who lost loved ones.
Coming soon to BBC and Netflix
Rebus
Outlander star Richard Rankin follows in the footsteps of John Hannah and Ken Stott to play the titular detective in a TV reboot of Rebus.
The six-part crime drama - based on the books of Sir Ian Rankin - was filmed in Scotland last year, with a cast that includes Stuart Bowman, Lucie Shorthouse, Brian Ferguson, Caroline Lee-Johnson and Amy Manson.
With news last summer that Viaplay, the Nordic streaming service that commissioned the series, is set to exit the UK market there has been some uncertainty about when Rebus might be shown on Scottish screens. At time of going to press, there was no confirmed air date.
Hoped to air sometime in 2024
Lions
Fife-born writer, actor and comedian Richard Gadd - who was behind the award-winning play Baby Reindeer which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 – is working on a freshly announced six-part drama for the BBC.
Lions will be set and filmed in and around Glasgow. According to the announcement last month: “When Niall's estranged ‘brother’ Ruben shows up at his wedding, it leads to an explosion of violence that catapults us back through their lives.”
The story spans four decades, charting the relationship between the two men, capturing “the good, bad, terrible, funny, angry, and challenging moments along the way”, as well as “the wild energy of a changing city”. At its heart lies a thorny question: What does it mean to be a man?
Coming to BBC Scotland, BBC One and BBC iPlayer
Nightsleeper
Billed as a “real-time thriller”, buckle up for an edge-of-the-seat ride as the UK railway network comes under attack from hackers, leaving an overnight train hurtling towards imminent catastrophe.
Peaky Blinders and Gangs of London actor Joe Cole and Alexandra Roach, known for her roles in Utopia and No Offence, play the leads in the suspense-packed drama, which was filmed in Glasgow last year.
A purpose-built set was created at the city’s Pioneer Film Studios, complete with a life-size train set and moving video walls. The production also did a night shoot at Glasgow Central Station.
Nightsleeper features a star-studded cast of names such as Alex Ferns, Sharon Small, James Cosmo, David Threlfall, Lois Chimimba, Katie Leung and Sharon Rooney.
Coming to BBC Scotland, BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year
Outlander: Blood of My Blood
The so-called “Outlander effect” is well-documented, seeing fans of the hit historical drama flock to visit the locations around Scotland where their much-beloved show was made.
Outlander itself may be heading into its final series after a decade-long run, but there will be some consolation for viewers with filming currently under way for a prequel titled Outlander: Blood of My Blood.
The show will explore the lives and relationships of the parents of Outlander’s leading couple Jamie and Claire Fraser. The 10-episode series will centre on two love stories set in two different time periods, with Jamie’s parents in the early 18th-century Highlands and Claire’s parents in England, circa the First World War.
Tony Curran, who starred alongside Martin Compston and Ashley Jensen in the BBC Scotland adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s acclaimed novel Mayflies, is among the cast.
Expected to air in 2025
The Rig
The supernatural thriller set on the fictional Kinloch Bravo oil rig in the North Sea debuted on Prime Video last year.
A second series is expected to arrive on our screens later this year, with cast members Martin Compston (Line of Duty), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek) all reprising their roles.
Plot details for the upcoming instalment, created by Scots writer David Macpherson, have been kept deliberately vague, but Prime Video released a teaser that states: “Helicopters have taken the surviving crew of the Kinloch Bravo to a bold new location, where new dangers await them.
“The crew will have to deal with the emotional and physical fallout of the epic series one finale and contend with swirling conspiracies, conflicts and new threats from the dark depths of the world’s oceans it has unleashed.”
The second series was filmed at FirstStage Studios in Edinburgh, where a vast, purpose-built set is housed.
Expected to air on Prime Video later this year
Department Q
Filming began in Scotland last month for Nordic noir crime drama Department Q, being brought to our screens by Netflix and Frank Scott, the director/writer of The Queen’s Gambit.
Adapted from the novels of the same name by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, it follows a detective in Edinburgh who is assigned to a new cold case while still wracked with guilt following an attack that left his partner paralysed and another policeman dead.
Matthew Goode plays the brilliant-yet-impossible DCI Carl Morck. The impressive cast also includes Chloe Pirrie, Alexej Manvelov, Kelly Macdonald, Mark Bonnar, Shirley Henderson, Jamie Sives, Kate Dickie and Leah Byrne.
Expected to air on Netflix in early 2025
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