Tec the high road
After Life and Ugly Betty star Ashley Jensen is the new cop on the block as she takes on the lead role in Shetland – and can’t wait to get back to Scotland
ASHLEY Jensen is taking over from Dougie Henshall as the main actor in Shetland – and the exiled Scot, who has lived in Bath for a number of years, is thrilled she will be spending most of next year filming in her homeland.
The 53-year-old mum of one, from Annan, is best known for Ricky Gervais’s shows Extras and After Life, and internationally for her role in Ugly Betty.
She said: “I can’t wait to be working in Scotland again – I’ve missed it.”
Ashley did film in Scotland this year – making Mayflies with Martin Compston, which comes out next month on BBC One, but it was only a short shoot.
Before that, she played a detective in Robert Carlyle’s Scottish-made directorial debut film, The Legend of Barney Thomson.
In Shetland, Ashley will star as DI Ruth Calder, a native islander who returns after 20 years working for the Met in London.
DI Calder takes on the lead detective role left vacant by the departure of DI Jimmy Perez (Henshall) when the series returns for its eighth series to BBC One and iPlayer next BLACK COMEDY With Ricky Gervais in After Life year. She will work closely with DS Alison “Tosh” McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell) and the cast and crew will begin filming in Shetland and across Scotland from the Spring.
Shetland – based on the award-winning novels by crime writer Ann Cleeves – made it’s debut in 2013, with Henshall starring as main character Perez.
But after nine years in the series, he quit at the end of this year’s seventh season and said: “We’d murdered enough people on a small island.”
Henshall claimed he and writer David Kane had talked about finishing the show after series seven so he was surprised when the BBC said that they wanted to keep it going.
Ashley, whose main job recently has been playing amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin on Sky One, insisted “the integrity of the show” would remain.
She said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Shetland as DI Ruth Calder. It’s such a hugely successful show and I’m aware I have very big boots to fill since the departure
of DI Perez, who was very much loved by fans of the show.
“There will be a different dynamic with Ruth among the regular characters and a few more new interesting characters to enjoy.
“However, the integrity of the show, and the world that has been created, will remain very much in the same tone as the last seven seasons.”
Series eight will also see the return of regulars Steven Robertson (Sandy), Lewis Howden (Billy) and Anne Kidd (Cora).
The last few series have not been based on any of Cleeves’s books and Calder is a new character, not created by the novelist. Shetland has been a huge hit for the BBC, with this year’s series averaging 7.2million viewers across its run.
With Ashley on board, and her higher profile internationally thanks to After Life and Ugly Betty, Beeb bosses hope Shetland will find an even bigger audience.
Ashley wanted to be an actress from a young age and understands the power of television.
She said: “I grew up in a little rural place which had no theatre so television was my connection with acting. I used to do little radio shows, and did impressions of the wonderful Terry Wogan.
“I’d have guests come on and would do impressions of Miss Piggy and Frank Spencer. Michael Crawford is my ultimate hero. He was the reason I wanted to act.”
Ashley studied drama at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Her first major role was playing the daughter of Billy Connolly’s Glasgow criminal Jo-Jo in 1993’s Down Among the Big Boys.
While she also worked in Scotland on the likes of Roughnecks, her success has been from roles down south. Her breakout part was as Maggie Jacobs in Gervais’s postThe Office show Extras, which saw her win two British Comedy Awards and a Bafta nomination.
She found international fame as Christina McKinney in Ugly Betty but left in 2009 when the show relocated from New York to LA.
By then she’d had son Francis, now 13, with her late husband Terence Beesley, who took his own life in 2017.
And while Perez had his pea coat, Ashley will take whatever Shetland throws at her - whether that’s the physical or the weather.
The Scot, who can be seen from today in Netflix’s Christmas on Mistletoe Farm, said: “People can’t be poised and beautiful all the time, can they?
“I’m quite confident with who I am and what I look like, and just happy that it all still works.”.
i’m aware i have very big boots to fill since the departure of di Jimmy Perez