Shetland future confirmed following season 10 finale – will there be a season 11?

The BBC has confirmed that Shetland will return for an 11th season.

The news was shared on BBC Scotland's Facebook page, though details about the plot – and crucially the cast – are currently been kept under wraps.

In the season 10 finale, long-serving character Sergeant Billy McCabe handed himself in to professional standards over mistakes he'd made 20 years earlier, so it remains to be seen whether he'll be back.

But we'd expect to see Alison O'Donnell return as 'Tosh', Ashley Jensen as DI Ruth Calder and Steven Robertson as DC Sandy Wilson, alongside a raft of new guest stars for another mystery.

Amandaland's Samuel Anderson also joined the cast in season 10 as Matt Blake, the new procurator fiscal.

Shetland debuted in 2013, with Douglas Henshall leading the charge as DI Jimmy Perez, a character beloved by fans. But he exited the series in season 7 – news met with both sorrow and concern for its future – with Jensen stepping in, a move that gave the show a "new lease of life", O’Donnell told RadioTimes.com shortly before the season 8 premiere.

"When there was the idea to revamp and take the show in another direction, I think it made me realise that actually, there are elements of this that still feel like they've got more room to grow," she said. "And I think that was really right. I think there was enough there that we could sort of re-imagine it all."

O'Donnell also said that bringing in Calder enticed "new audience members" to watch the show. "That was the sense I got, that some people were discovering it for the first time," she continued. "And some people even said to me that they'd watched season 8 and then they'd gone back to the beginning as well. So it definitely gave it a new lease of life."

In a recent interview, O'Donnell also said that the reboot was "much better than any of us really could have imagined".

"I remember when the first episode [of season 8] was airing, my kids were still up, so I went into the other room, and when I watched it I actually cried," she added. "I sat on my own and I wept because it was partly relief, but also I was so proud of it.

"And I always knew that there would be the dissenting voices, but I think there was far less of that than there could have been."

And it's showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, with the crime drama set to return in 2026.

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Shetland seasons 1-10 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Ann Cleeves's Shetland novels are available to buy.

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