The Gilbert Bain Hospital sits on a wind-lashed hillside in Lerwick, serving 23,000 islanders scattered across 100 miles of sea. Kevin Whately’s calm narration threads together scenes from the 92-bed unit where a 12-strong A&E team treat cardiac arrests, crushed fingers and a fisherman airlifted in by Coastguard Sikorsky. Between shifts, staff fetch groceries before shops shut at six and collect children from Britain’s most northerly primary school; one consultant’s commute involves two ferries and a night in a bothy. The crew from Red Sky Productions spent 14 months embedded, filming auroras through ward windows and blood samples couriered to Aberdeen by Loganair Dash 8.
Series two widened the lens to include midwife-run antenatal clinics on Unst, dental extractions aboard the mobile surgery van, and paramedics practising cliff rescues at Eshaness. Viewers watched consultant surgeon David Chick patch a hand caught in a creel winch, then cycle home past peat-cutters. The programme’s gentle rhythm, heavy on woollen jumpers and gulls outside ICU, earned steady ratings above two million for BBC One’s teatime slot and prompted Promote Shetland to use clips in recruitment drives for rural GP posts. A fourth run, green-lit after the 2018 finale, was delayed by Covid-19 logistics; the hospital now insists on negative tests before any camera returns.
Production Details
BBC One / 3 Seasons / 30 Episodes / 2017 - Present
Main Cast
