Filming in Scotland

(soft music) - The landscape in Scotland works so perfectly for a a unit that exists on boats.

It's just been a gift.

It's location after location.

It's just been staggeringly beautiful.

- I am getting to see parts of Scotland that I've never seen in my life.

Being by the by the water is really nice.

- I'm loving filming in Scotland.

This is my first time ever filming up here.

I love being on the water.

It's been fun, however, jumping in the water as much as I love diving, but I've only ever scuba dived in countries that are tropical.

So to jump into freezing cold lochs was an experience I won't forget, but it was a lot of fun afterwards.

Once you feel exhilarated and all your blood is up and your mind is tingling.

Hey, these worked, didn't they?

- We definitely experienced all the four seasons, especially for a winter.

It's been absolutely freezing but I think it's gonna look really beautiful and I think it's gonna show off Scotland really well.

- I think Scotland is a strong character in our series itself.

The grand and sweeping landscape, the wonderful waterways, and lochs and rivers that we're seeing.

There is an elemental sense to Scotland that I think we are trying to get to the heart of the show as much as anything.

- For this particular series, we're interested in the West Coast, so we wanted to anchor it in Glasgow, 'cause we wanted to put the Clyde at the heart of this series as the sort of arterial root toward all the other crimes that we solve, and the Clyde itself has just got this extraordinary rich sort of heritage itself, which isn't necessarily mythical but it's like postindustrial as well.

And it's just so much, so much is going on as you go up and down the Clyde that it felt like, well, that's our environment.

That's where we set it.

And it has access to the sea.

And when you've got access to the sea, you've got access to thousands and thousands of miles of coast.

And, and so it felt like it was a really rich starting point.

Annika's house is on the Clyde.

The, the homicide unit is on the Clyde.

Everything starts from the water.

- I mean, we have been blessed with this location.

It is simply amazing to have found the Beacon Theatre here in Greenock.

To have the, the glass straight onto the Clyde Estuary is phenomenal and we've obviously been able to take it over and create the police station here.

- What we get for free is this view of the Clyde.

It's just water as far as you can see through these huge glass windows.

It totally ties in who these people are and what they do for their day job.

You know, it's seamless.

I think it's so clever and they've also done that with Annika's own home.

- And we went out of our way to cover things with wide angles, so we get huge vistas, big skies, we get sea, you get all the kind of edge of the weather.

It's not just a cop show.

And it's not just about Annika the character.

It's about a life so that the sea is always present and the weather is always present.

- The thing about the sea is it changes so quickly and the weather here changes very, very quickly.

But whatever it does, it's really interesting to look at.

It doesn't ever do dull.

It doesn't ever do sort of boring weather.

It's always dramatic what, whatever it throws at you.

- It feels like it's telling, it's got its chin out and it's telling you something.

- The changeability in the weather definitely brings another element to the series, so we do get a lot of drama out of it.

The low winter sun is great.

The big clouds, when they build up, are fantastic.

It's been quite a challenge for the cast and the crew, but when you see it on camera, it's very, very dramatic.

- Whilst the weather changes, sometimes for the bad, it always looks great.

You've gotta be ready to capture it and you've gotta have a crew that can really handle that.

And I think the Scottish crews, I've said this a lot, they're a hardy bunch and so they're used to this kind of being outside and being exposed to the elements.

And I think that is testament to those guys, 'cause this has been a particularly hard shoot, shooting over the winter, on the water.

But we've managed to get through it.

- We're a Scottish production company and Scottish producers, and I always feel really privileged to live in Scotland and to look at our mountains and our hills and our glens and our lochs and our rivers and our waterways.

So it's wonderful to have created this show in Scotland in our wonderful, fantastic Scottish landscape and be able to invite the audience to see this part of the world that we know and love so well.

(dramatic music)