Shetland Fans Have Another Scottish Crime Drama to Binge — and The Island Is Already Returning for Series 2

A wealthy family is shattered when Lady Mary Maclean is shot dead at their remote island home, her millionaire husband is wounded, and what initially looks like a burglary gone wrong begins to unravel into something far more complicated.

That is the mystery at the heart of An t-Eilean (The Island), the atmospheric four-part BBC crime drama set against the striking landscape of Lewis and Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Sorcha Groundsell, familiar to Shetland viewers, leads the series as Kat Crichton, a Family Liaison Officer whose involvement in the murder investigation forces her back to the islands she fled a decade earlier.

Combining Gaelic and English dialogue, the drama became a landmark production as the UK’s first high-end Gaelic television series. Its success went considerably further than its original run: MG ALBA reported 1.6 million BBC iPlayer views during 2024/25 and described it as the most successful Gaelic television programme ever made. It also won the Grand Prix at the 2025 Prix CIRCOM awards.

Now the story is expanding. Filming on a second four-part series began in May 2026, with Groundsell returning as Kat and another dark investigation waiting in the Western Isles.

A Murder Brings Kat Crichton Back to the Island She Escaped

Kat has built a new life for herself in Inverness after leaving Lewis and Harris ten years earlier.

But when her boss, DCI Ahmed Halim, assigns her to the Maclean case, she has little choice but to return.

Lady Mary Maclean has been killed at the family’s remote island mansion, while her husband, Sir Douglas Maclean, survives the same violent attack with injuries of his own.

Sir Douglas is a wealthy, self-made businessman and patriarch of a deeply dysfunctional family. The initial explanation points toward a robbery that went disastrously wrong, but Kat isn’t persuaded that the case is as straightforward as it appears.

Complicating matters further is her own connection to the Macleans.

Kat knows Sir Douglas and his family from her past, and the deeper she becomes involved in the investigation, the harder it is to keep her professional responsibilities separate from memories she has spent years trying to leave behind.

The Maclean Family Becomes the Center of the Mystery

Sir Douglas and Lady Mary have four grown children: Eilidh, Calum, Sìne and Ruaraidh.

As Kat moves deeper into their world, the supposedly simple burglary begins giving way to questions about the relationships, secrets and tensions within the family itself.

Sir Douglas may have been injured during the attack, but Kat becomes suspicious that he could know more about his wife’s death than he is admitting.

The investigation therefore becomes as much about understanding the Macleans as reconstructing the crime.

At the same time, Kat is forced to confront a crucial episode from her own past: a lavish New Year’s party where she worked as a waitress roughly ten years earlier.

Events surrounding that night gradually become significant to the mystery unfolding in the present.

The result is a story built around two timelines — the immediate search for Lady Mary’s killer and the unresolved history that drove Kat away from the islands in the first place.

Sorcha Groundsell Gives the Mystery Its Emotional Center

Groundsell plays Kat as much more than the investigator guiding viewers through the case.

Her return to Lewis and Harris is deeply personal.

Kat has spent years rebuilding herself after leaving the island, meaning every development in the Maclean investigation risks reopening something she has deliberately tried to contain.

That gives the series an emotional tension beyond its central whodunnit. Kat is investigating a murder while simultaneously being pulled back toward people, places and memories she thought she had escaped.

Groundsell described Kat to the BBC as someone carrying considerable baggage from her younger years who had worked hard to rebuild her life in Inverness. The actress also characterized her as driven and brave, but with plenty simmering beneath the surface.

Those contradictions make Kat an effective lead for a mystery in which almost everyone appears to have something they would rather keep hidden.

A Strong Ensemble Surrounds Groundsell

 

Groundsell is joined by Sagar Radia, known for Industry, as DCI Ahmed Halim, Kat’s boss.

Iain Macrae plays Sir Douglas Maclean, while Elspeth Turner appears as Lady Mary.

The four Maclean siblings are played by Sinéad MacInnes as Eilidh, Andrew Macinnes as Calum, Meredith Brook as Sìne and Sam James Smith as Ruaraidh.

The ensemble is particularly important because The Island is as interested in the damaged relationships within the Maclean household as it is in the mechanics of the police investigation.

Kat is effectively entering a family where grief, money, resentment and old loyalties are intertwined — while carrying history with them herself.

The Outer Hebrides Are More Than a Backdrop

For viewers who love the windswept Scottish landscapes of Shetland, the setting is one of The Island‘s most immediate attractions.

The drama was filmed on location in the Outer Hebrides, including Harris, giving the murder mystery an unmistakable visual identity. Screen Scotland provided £500,000 through its Broadcast Content Fund to help support the production and enable location filming in Lewis.

The remote landscapes also contribute directly to the atmosphere.

Beautiful stretches of coastline and open countryside sit alongside the isolation surrounding the Maclean home, creating the kind of environment where family history and community secrets feel particularly difficult to escape.

It is an approach that places the series comfortably alongside Scottish mysteries such as Shetland, while the affluent family at the center of a violent crime gives it some of the closed-circle intrigue associated with dramas such as The Loch.

The Island Made Gaelic Television History

Beyond the murder mystery itself, An t-Eilean represents an important milestone for Scottish television.

The four-part production was billed as the UK’s first high-end Gaelic drama series. It combines Scottish Gaelic with English and was produced by Black Camel Pictures for BBC ALBA.

Nicholas Osborne created the series and co-wrote the first run with Patsi Mackenzie, while Tom Sullivan directed.

The first series originally began airing on BBC ALBA in January 2025 before also reaching audiences through BBC iPlayer and BBC Four.

Its performance proved that the audience extended well beyond traditional Gaelic-language broadcasting.

MG ALBA’s 2024/25 annual report recorded 1.6 million BBC iPlayer views for An t-Eilean, representing 20% of the 8.1 million views generated by Gaelic content during the year. The organization subsequently called it the most successful Gaelic television programme ever made.

The drama also received international recognition when it won the Grand Prix — the top honor — at the 2025 Prix CIRCOM awards.

Series 2 Is Already in Production

The good news for anyone discovering Kat’s story now is that the first four episodes are not the end.

Filming began in May 2026 on a second series, again consisting of four episodes of approximately 47 minutes each. Production is taking place largely across the Western Isles and mainland Scotland.

Groundsell reprises her role as Kat, while Sam James Smith returns as Ruaraidh Maclean.

The new cast includes Ava Mackinnon, Owen Sutcliffe, Tanith Munro, Aidan O’Callaghan, Debbie Mackay, Yolanda Mitchell, Jamie Quinn, Roxie Mohebbi and Àdhamh Ó Broin.

Series 2 also moves Kat’s life forward.

She is now a sergeant, but neither her career nor her personal circumstances are going particularly smoothly. She is frustrated at work, caring for her ill father and spending much of her professional time dealing with relatively minor local crime.

Then a young woman’s body washes up beneath a bridge.

Suddenly, Kat finds herself investigating something much darker.

The New Mystery Could Be Even More Disturbing

The discovery beneath the bridge opens an investigation into the hidden lives and secrets of young people within the island community.

Ruaraidh, now running a local youth group, becomes involved again when he begins to suspect that other young islanders have also disappeared.

The possibility that the cases are connected pushes Kat toward a frightening conclusion: someone may be hunting victims across the islands.

According to the official description of the new series, the investigation develops into a dangerous search for a serial killer, while simultaneously forcing Kat to reconsider her complicated relationship with the community she now calls home.

It marks a significant shift from the Maclean family mystery of the first series while preserving the element that made Kat such an interesting protagonist — every investigation is inseparable from her relationship with the islands themselves.

Why The Island Is Worth Catching Up On

For viewers drawn to detective dramas where location, family history and murder become inseparable, The Island has plenty working in its favor.

Its first series delivers a complete four-part mystery without requiring a lengthy commitment. At its center is the murder of a wealthy woman, a suspicious family, an investigator with personal connections to the case and a decade-old event that refuses to remain buried.

Around that mystery are the landscapes of the Outer Hebrides and a bilingual Gaelic-English production that gives the series an identity distinct from the many other British police dramas competing for attention.

Most importantly, audiences discovering it now already know there is more to come.

After becoming the most successful Gaelic television programme ever made and earning major European recognition, An t-Eilean is moving into its second mystery with Kat Crichton at the center once again.

For Shetland fans searching for another atmospheric Scottish detective story filled with family secrets, buried grudges and a landscape almost as important as the investigation, The Island makes for an easy four-episode binge.