New French crime drama Les Ombres Rouge begins filming

French crime drama is, as we now know, worth keeping an eye on. Spiral, Witnesses and the recent acquisition by Netflix of La Forêt mean that the country really is doing good work in the genre.

Now we hear (via The Medium Is Not Enough and Le Blog) that a new six-part crime series is on the way. Furthermore, the filming of the series Les Ombres Rouge (The Red Shadows) has begun today for French channel C8.

This series features Nadia Farès (pictured), Manon Azem, Antoine Duléry, Lannick Gautry, Raphael Lenglet ex Candice Renoir), Mhamed Arezki, Rémi Pedevilla, Héléna Soubeyrand and André Oumaski.

The story goes something like this…

1993. Five-year-old Clara Garnier. His kidnappers are demanding a huge amount of money for his release. The exchange of the ransom ends in a bloodbath: Clara’s mother is killed and the child is gone forever. The whole mystery and brutal conclusion causes huge trauma in the region and in his family, one of the most prominent in the Côte d’Azur region. 25 years later, Aurore Garnier (Farès), Clara’s older sister, is now a police officer. During an investigation, she discovers that Clara (Azem) is still alive but lives under another identity without knowing her true origins. Aurore will do everything for Clara to find her family, but this unexpected return will trigger a series of violent events and bring to the surface family secrets that everyone thought were buried forever…

Sounds interesting, non?

Douglas Henshall reveals Shetland series five shooting date

Series four of Shetland has been one of our favourite crime series of the year so far.

Douglas Henshall and co were terrific in the six-part story, which told the story of two murders – one a decades-old cold case and a new one – a man who was released from prison for a murder he did not commit, and the revelation of long-held familial secrets. All this was, as is customary with Shetland, set against that stunningly beautiful backdrop of islands themselves.

Back in February, BBC Scotland confirmed that there would be a fifth series (although there has been nothing from Beeb HQ so far to confirm that confirmation).

Great news! Our drama series #Shetland will return to @BBCOne@djhenshall @AtotheOD @mark_bonnar @erinarmstrongg @realjuliegraham pic.twitter.com/niOYBoTZGS

— BBC Scotland (@BBCScotland) March 20, 2018

On a slight tangent, a recent survey’s result concluded that nearly one-third of people who visited Shetland last year were influenced by TV shows like the BBC crime drama set in the isles. A new survey commissioned by Shetland Islands Council and VisitScotland showed 28 per cent of visitors were inspired to head north after seeing the remote islands on TV.

So as far as Shetland is concerned, you can see the impact it’s having on viewers and tourism.

The series star, Douglas Henshall, tweeted this today:

This is happening. We start shooting July 9th. It’s very good. pic.twitter.com/EHUcfoh4Fq

— Douglas Henshall (@djhenshall) May 29, 2018

Whether series five will be another six-parter (and indeed whether it will feature one story or, say, three across the series) is yet to be confirmed.

More news etc etc.

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