As someone who was born in Shetland, and lived the first 19 years of my life in the place, I probably don’t see its amazing and unspoilt scenery in quite the same way as Simon King does. I just see it as home. In the same way someone from Glasgow sees Glasgow as home. Or someone from Essex doesn’t particularly get over excited about the south east corner of England.
The first time I properly took Emma on a tour of home, she spent the whole car journey “oohing” and “aaahing” as we turned every corner. At the time I didn’t quite understand, after all I’d seen those views every day for most of my life.
It was only last night that I had a sudden realisation of how lucky I am, and how ultimately spoilt I probably was growing up when Simon King (he’s like a modern David Attenbourgh) announced in the opening sequence of his new series, Simon King’s Shetland Diaries, that out of all the places he’s visited in the world, which included filming lions in Africa and Great White Sharks in the Pacific Ocean, Shetland is by far his favorite destination.
As someone who has also just come back from a weeks holiday in Shetland, and my first visit for over a year, watching the programme on BBC Two last night didn’t do anything for trying to cure the bout of homesickness I’m currently suffering from.
The three part series sees Simon, his wife (who films wildlife as a profession) and their 2 year old daughter Savannah move to Shetland for a year (although their year is split up as it would seem Simon has lots of other committments around the globe).
It was a marvelous hour in which Visit Shetland were most likely rubbing their hands with glee as they realise the potential number of tourists that are now planning their visits this summer.
But as a Shetlander, I must point out a few things.
Simon went house hunting. We saw a selection of houses, some that didn’t have road access, some that only had a fishing net for a bed and some that didn’t even have an indoor toilet. Shetland does have, although we didn’t see it on the telly, normal houses as well. Our house back home has a front door, windows, a driveway (tarmaced), running water, electricity and even broadband.
Every shot of his land rover driving around Shetland seemed to be on single track roads. And while we do have a lot of those, we also have normal roads, where cars can pass each other without having to move into the side. Hey, we even have roundabouts and pellican crossings. And potholes.
And finally, Simon went to Up Helly Aa, the largest fire festival in Europe he announced. Except he went to one of the smaller country Up Helly Aa’s, not the main Lerwick one (which is the largest fire festival in Europe I believe). So the main Lerwick Up Helly Aa which happens in January is much more spectacular than what was on BBC Two last night.
It was nice to see Shetland on the telly in a mostly non patronising form. A rather rare occurrence. Martin Clunes, take note. And the Sam Wollaston of the Guardian, also take note:
“Anyway, this Shetland place is flipping brilliant. And the most brilliant thing about it is that it’s part of this country. Who even knew that? We’ve got our very own David Attenborough kind of place, right on our doorstep. Well, not quite on the doorstep, it’s right up next to the north pole, but you don’t need a passport to go. People even live there, compatriots of you and me. The only downside is that they don’t have indoor lavs, it’s dark for eight months of the year and the rain comes at you horizontally. Mostly, it’s so windy it’s not safe to get out of the car. “
Simon King’s Shetland Diaries is on BBC Two for the next two Thursdays, 20:00. You can catch this weeks episode on the BBC iPlayer (http://bbc.co.uk/i/qnw1f/).
