REVIEW Shetland (S7 E2/6)

After last week’s strong start, this week Shetland went on a little excursion. And let’s face it, Shetland loves an excursion or two. Norway, onto mainland Scotland… Jimmy’s been to them all during the show’s long history. And in this episode – only the second episode of the series – Jimmy was off again, and again to Glasgow.

The reason for the trip was Danny Cairns – father of missing boy Connor. We knew from episode one that he was a bent cop from back in the day, escaping to the Shetlands after being accused of taking drugs and selling them on. Not only that but he got someone killed.

Nicole and Cameron Waldron – family of the victim – had visited the islands to scare Danny Cairns, but he was convinced that they were behind Connor’s disappearance. He went off to Glasgow to track them down. Thusly, Jimmy followed, suspicious that Danny was doing something that he shouldn’t be. Or even covering his tracks.

What followed was almost like a story within a story, a Line Of Duty-esque yarn about an accused bent copper out to clear his name and find out who really leaked information to drug dealers, which led to the death of a low-level dealer. It could have been entirely diversionary and actually annoying and had nothing much to do with furthering the story of Connor’s disappearance. But even though it was a very extravagant way to process a suspect (Danny Cairns had nothing to do with his son’s disappearance and neither did the Waldrons), it was a compelling side story.

Back on the Shetlands, suspicion surrounded some new suspects – the Davidsons, who Connor used to work with; Martin, the Cairns’ lodger, who was taking photos of Bryd surreptitiously; and Murray the librarian, who admitted he was infatuated with Connor, which was unreciprocated.

It was a nicely balanced episode, where in some ways it had no right to be. And it ended in tragedy and another body – that of Bryd, Connor’s girlfriend, found in the boot of a car. Consider the ante upped.

Paul Hirons

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW

The Suspect on ITV: Aidan Turner crime drama gets transmission date

The Suspect on ITV is now confirmed by the channel.

The drama, starring Aidan Turner, sees the Irish star play Doctor Joe O’Loughlin who appears to have a perfect life with a devoted wife, loving daughter, successful practice as a criminal psychologist, media profile and publishing deal. When a young woman is found dead he is only too willing to offer help with his profiling and expertise. But as the investigation into the woman’s death gathers pace, we start to ask, do we know the real Joe, or does he have a secret life? 

The Suspect: From Monday August 29th, 9pm, ITV

The Capture season 2: BBC confirms transmission date

The Capture season 2 is on its way back, and now the BBC has confirmed its transmission date.

The six-episode series sees DCI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) living a lonely, paranoid existence, struggling with thwarted ambitions while seconded to Counter Terrorism Command’s ‘mapping’ department. She’s officially joined the highly classified Correction team, but has yet to be truly let in.

When her former colleagues DS Flynn and DI Latif bring the case of a man murdered by invisible assailants to her attention, the stakes quickly become deadly. Carey’s investigation brings her into the orbit of hotshot politician Isaac Turner MP as the case’s links to national and international security start to emerge. Something is very wrong, but can she work out what before Britain’s security is irrevocably compromised?

And which of her colleagues can she trust?

The Capture (series 2): Sunday 28th and Monday 29th August, 9pm, BBC One

BBC announces ‘gothic thriller’ The Woman In The Wall

The BBC has announced new gothic thriller, The Woman In The Wall, which will examine the legacy of one of Ireland’s most shocking scandals – the inhumane institutions known as The Magdalene Laundries.

Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson) is a woman from the small, fictional town of Kilkinure, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her house. Chillingly, Lorna has no idea who the dead woman is or if she herself might be responsible for the apparent murder… That’s because Lorna has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking, understood to have manifested around the time she was ripped from her life at the age of 15 and incarcerated in the Kilkinure Convent.

The Convent was home to one of Ireland’s infamous Magdalene Laundries, a place where women were taken when they fell afoul of the social mores of their times – from those accused of committing adultery to teenage pregnancies. When it finally closed its doors, a score of survivors were left suffering in its wake. Very few women were able to go on and lead relatively normal lives, and others, such as Lorna, were even less fortunate in their fate. One thing all survivors had in common, is that none of them would ever forget.

Unluckily for Lorna, the extremely ambitious, albeit elusive Detective Colman Akande (McCormack) is now also on her tail for a crime which is seemingly unrelated to the dead woman she’s discovered in her house. Colman quickly rose through the ranks of the Garda Síochána thanks to his natural aptitude for the job. He possesses a dark and sometimes scathing wit but there is a quiet sadness to him that even he doesn’t understand, and he’s hiding his own secrets from the world…

The six-part series also stars Daryl McCormack.

More news as we get it.