The highly anticipated eighth season of murder mystery series Shetland returns to the BBC tonight.
Following season seven’s cliffhanger finale, Shetland’s highly anticipated season eight airs tonight at 8pm on BBC One, and will also be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Season eight of the show, based on the novels by bestselling author Ann Cleeves and filmed in Shetland earlier this year, follows the detectives on the trail of a vulnerable witness, Ellen Quinn, to a gang murder in London.
This will be the first season without Douglas Henshall, who played DI Jimmy Perez, with the show anchored by Alison O’Donnell (DS Tosh McIntosh) and new lead Ashley Jensen, who will play DI Ruth Calder.
Scottish actor Douglas Henshall, 57, unexpectedly announced his departure from the show in June 2022, just a month before the seventh season finale aired in August 2022.
Missing addition: The eighth season of The Shetland Murder returns to the BBC tonight – but without DI Jimmy Perez, after Douglas Henshall (pictured: left) announced his departure from the show in 2022
The Glasgow-born actor made his debut in 2013 playing DI Perez on BBC One in the first TV adaptation of crime writer Ann Cleeves’ award-winning novels.
Despite Douglas’ departure, the program was confirmed for an eighth series, with Ugly Betty star Ashley Jensen, 54, eventually cast to replace Henshall’s character as the lead detective.
Speak with Radio times in August 2022 about his decision to leave the role, Henshall said he thought it had “run its course” and that he felt “very comfortable” with his decision, saying he was ready to pursue other acting opportunities explore.
Speaking of filming his final scenes in season seven, Henshall explained to the outlet that it was “a bit anticlimactic.”
He said: “My final scenes were filmed in a car park in Kilmacolm, which was very strange. We had tried to pack it three times, but it kept getting put back due to COVID. So in the end it felt a bit anticlimactic.”
Henshall continued The sun in August 2022 that he grew tired of playing a “good” character, explaining, “I think it was always going to be sad, but it will be fun to play someone who isn’t so irredeemably good is like Perez.
‘I will miss him as a person that I would get into every now and then because I liked him, he is a nice man. I don’t know what the future holds. I would love to play a villain again, that would be fun.”
In February 2023, the actor praised the casting of Ashley Jensen as DI Calder in the wake of his departure. Radio times: ‘She’s a great actor and she’s obviously very different from me.
New lead role: Despite Douglas’ departure, Shetland was confirmed for an eighth series, with Ugly Betty star Ashley Jensen cast to replace Henshall’s character as lead detective DI Calden
Boosting tourism: Douglas Henshall unveiled a plaque in his name in November 2022 as a thank you from Shetland for the success of the hit BBC TV series and the boost it has given tourism to the islands
“So I mean, I think it’ll be interesting to have two women leading this detective show in the islands and see where that goes.
“I think it’s going to be very different, but I think that’s the most exciting thing. So yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing it.”
In August 2023, Henshall revealed to Radio times that he found it difficult to secure acting roles as a “57-year-old white male.”
He explained, “It’s really hard to make conscious decisions about what you’re going to do when you’re a 57-year-old white man. There aren’t that many roles left for me.’
The Shetland star added: “I think that’s just a fact of growing older. People these days are looking for younger actors. There’s a certain amount of, ‘I’ve been offered that, I’m grateful for the job, I’m going to do it.’
In his first post-Shetland project, Henshall starred as villain Daniel Long in the Netflix thriller Who is Eric Carter?, which was released on the streaming platform on August 24.
It follows the story of Erin Collantes, a British teacher living in Spain. However, her seemingly ordinary life takes a dramatic turn when he becomes involved in a supermarket robbery.
The series was shot last year in Spain, a far cry from the chilling shores of the Scottish island where the actor filmed for almost a decade.
Scarce: In August, Henshall (pictured: right, as DI Perez, alongside DS Tosh, left, played by Alison O’Donnell) revealed to Radio Times that he was finding it difficult to land acting roles as a ’57-year-old white man’
He told Radio times in February: ‘The only thing I realized is that I’d rather be too cold than too hot. No matter how I say the lines, all they end up with is a sweaty mess.
‘Whereas, no matter how cold I was in Shetland, it didn’t make much difference to the whole thing. Barcelona is a lot of fun though, the people I’ve worked with are great and if I don’t melt, hopefully they’ll keep me in.”
Since filming the Netflix thriller, Henshall has been working in Belfast on a film, which he says is “about guilt and death and all that kind of stuff.”
“So I keep the happy vibe with the characters I play,” he joked. ‘It’s fun to do different things. It’s also nice not to play the most decent man in the world!’