'Shetland' Season 9's First Images See DI Calder Settle In

ITV is wrapping up Vera with Season 14, ending the series based on the Ann Cleeves novels after fifteen years. But over on the BBC, the other Cleeves adaptation, Shetland, is still going strong despite having a rough few years since the pandemic hit. Filming delays pushed the series, which aired in February-March for its first five seasons, down the calendar to its new November position; meanwhile, the show's longtime lead, Douglas Henshall, who played the novels' detective, Jimmy Pérez, decided to retire from the series, forcing the BBC to either cancel or recast. The production chose the latter, adding Ashley Jensen in Season 8 as DI Ruth Calder, and the first Season 9 images suggest she's settling in nicely.

Jensen's Calder brought a major change in the show's overall feel, especially since her chemistry with co-star Alison O’Donnell, who played Perez's partner-in-crime-solving Alison "Tosh" McIntosh since the show's debut, is far more equitable than Tosh's evident junior status to her old boss. 

With the core cast now on solid footing this season, viewers can go back to focusing on the mystery that kicks off the new season and the usual roster of highly-anticipated guest stars who will show up for it, including Ian Hart (Mr Bates vs The Post Office) and Vincent Regan (Luther: The Fallen Sun).

Here's the Season 9 synopsis:

A double missing person’s case blurs the lines between the personal and the professional, as Calder and Tosh are drawn into a labyrinthine investigation. When Tosh’s friend, Annie Bett, goes missing, she suspects something is seriously wrong. Ruth Calder - now living in Shetland - has no time to recover from a life-threatening ordeal of her own, as together they set out in search of Annie and her young son, Noah. They discover accountant Annie is estranged from her husband, Ian, and has been staying with mussel farmer John Harris and his two sons, Patrick and Fergus. Worryingly, there’s no sign of Annie there either.

Calder follows Tosh’s instincts and looks for Annie at the home she shared with Ian. They discover Professor Euan Rossi, who claims to have been Annie’s tutor at Oxford University many years ago. Suspicions are stirred when Tosh and Calder learn Rossi traveled all the way to Shetland after Annie left him a distressed voicemail the night she vanished. Calder can’t shake the feeling there’s more to Rossi than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, at the station, Calder delves deeper into another case involving a deadly argument between two brothers. The missing person's investigation draws Tosh and Calder into a web of lies, and when a bloodied person turns up at a remote garage, nothing can prepare the team for what lies ahead.

Jensen and O’Donnell are joined by longtime series regulars Steven Robertson as DC Sandy Wilson, Lewis Howden as PCS Billy McBride, and Anne Kidd as Dr. Cora McLean. Other series returnees include Angus Miller (Guilt), Conor McCarry (Time), Eubha Akilade (The Diplomat), Tibu Fortes (Sister Boniface Mysteries), and Steven Miller (Payback). 

Regan and Hart lead a guest star roster that includes Gemma McElhinney (Karen Pirie), Sarah MacGillivray (The Lost King), Macleod Stephen (Granite Harbor), Robert Jack (Annika), Ross Anderson (My Mother & Other Strangers), Stuart Campbell (Rogue Heroes), Richard Thomson (This Is Going to Hurt), Andrew John Tait (Rebus), Tara Lee (The Suspect), Jimmy Yuill (Young James Harriot), Nalini Chetty (Six-Four), and Lesley Hart (Taggart).

The new series of Shetland was penned by lead writers Paul Logue and Denise Paul. Director Andrew Cumming and Ruth Paxton split helming duties across the six episodes. Logue and Paul executive produce with Kate Bartlett for Silverprint Pictures and Gaynor Holmes for the BBC.

Shetland Season 9 will debut on BBC One and iPlayer on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. We have reached out to BritBox to see if the series will arrive in the U.S. before the end of 2024 or if fans will have to wait for 2025 but had not gotten confirmation by press time. Hopefully, we'll learn more next week.