When the Beeb started filming a new crime drama in Aberdeen earlier this year, there was lots of fuss and excitement.
Ooh, look, cameras on the Castlegate… gosh, they’ve renamed the Fittie Bar… what’s that all about?
Now, finally, Granite Harbour (BBC1) has hit the screen and we can find out.
One of the first – and most fun – things is seeing Aberdeen depicted on the telly.
A rarity. And the old Granite City looks splendid, with all those tracking shots across Fittie, the harbour and esplanade.
Then we have the fun way continuity doesn’t connect the dots of Aberdeen as we know it.”
Then we have the fun way continuity doesn’t connect the dots of Aberdeen as we know it.
The opening shot is of central character Davis Lindo (Romario Simpson) getting off a bus, clearly meant to be at the station. He takes two steps and emerges… out the front of Marischal Square. Eh?
Still, it does mean Broad Street and Provost Skene’s House and even our leopard on a stick are put in front of a national audience. And rather nice it looks, too.
That said, it’s all Aberdeen-accent light. Seems the local nick is a magnet for Central Belt coppers.
Enough about window dressing for Aberdeen, what about the story?
It’s an average by-the-numbers crime drama with a fish-out-of-water element thrown in.
Lindo is a former Jamaican RMP officer retraining as a detective for Police Scotland when he finds himself embroiled in the murder of a high-profile oil exec in a city different to everything he knows. Think Death In Paradise in reverse, if
you will.
There’s nothing groundbreaking, but it is entertaining and well worth sticking with.”
There’s nothing groundbreaking, but it is entertaining and well worth sticking with as the action ramps up and the mystery deepens over three episodes. And I do hope there will be more to follow
Even Shetland didn’t sprint to victory straight out of the starting blocks.
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