Conclusions to be drawn from "Shetland"

Following yesterday's blogpost regarding BBC TV's Shetland crime drama, and the less than favourable reaction the programme has sparked from numerous corners of the polygon of taste, here's a few thoughts:

• Gentle drama has its place on the continuum of programme-making;
• Gritty drama is best experienced on the hard shoulder of a motorway;
• If every succeeding crime drama had to be more gritty and tortuous than the last, then we'd soon be stuck between lots of tiny rocks and a hard place;
• Shetland (the island) has lots of big rocks in many hard-to-get-to places;
• I rather enjoyed Shetland (the programme), thanks;
• To be relevant, crime drama should reflect time and place;
• Any crime is best not experienced.

The Scottish Government's latest statistics on Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2011-2012, make for sobering reading (ah, if only that was the case, the figures would be even better).

The below extract, from page 29 of the 2012 Crime and Justice Series Statistical Bulletin, illustrates my point:

For anyone attempting to over-analyse this, Shetland is the line with the second lowest number of crimes and the highest percentage of clear ups. It isn't an exact science and there will be other factors, but on the face of it, wouldn't we all wish those stats for our own neighbourhood?

In fact, the only programme-making crime in "Shetland" was the lack of otters.