Alison O’Donnell 's 'memorable exit' from hit show Shetland after 13 years
Time’s up for Tosh as the TV detective heads for pastures new, but in the meantime she reveals there’s ‘a thrilling storyline’ with another murder mystery to solve in the Northern Isles.
Alison O’Donnell arrives rocking towering platform shoes, high-waisted jeans and a T-shirt, all black, her long brown hair brightened by balayage and looking nothing like ‘Tosh’, the TV ‘tec we’ve followed since 2013 as she’s risen through the ranks from newbie to Detective Inspector in the BBC hit crime drama Shetland.
The metamorphosis is fitting as O’Donnell is about to hang up DI Alison McIntosh’s green parka for good as she exits from the series this time round, striding out on her stack heels to pastures new. However, before this, she’s back on our screens one last time in her iconic woolly jumpers and workboots for series 11, solving yet another mystery in Scotland’s most northerly crime-ridden archipelago.
When a skeleton is found in a car dredged from the water Tosh, Calder and the team get to work on a historic murder in the new six-part series of hour long episodes that launches this week and sees the duo joined by regular cast members such as Steven Robertson, Lewis Howden, Anne Kidd and Eubha Akilade as well as guest stars such as Gregor Fisher, Gavin Mitchell, Beth Marshall, and Helen Mackay.
Watch the Shetland Season 11 Trailer here
O’Donnell is happy to talk about all things Shetland but as to how this season’s crime is cracked and Tosh’s exit plays out, she is discreetly tight lipped. “No spoilers,” she says and smiles, as she sits down to answer questions about her time on the show and what’s next for the Motherwell-born actor.
You've been in Shetland since 2013. Will it be an emotional exit because you're leaving this time?
"It's certainly a thrilling storyline. It was very challenging to shoot and I think that it is quite a memorable exit so hopefully people will enjoy going on that journey and I don't want to give too much away. And hopefully it feels fitting given the length of time that we have all been together.
"To be honest I don't think I have even started to process it. I think it's going to take a very long time. i don't think it's possible to have something be in your life as intensely and for such a long period without it being difficult to get yourself out of it. You know, there was never going to be a kind of 'OK, thanks for that, I'm off to do something else'. You know it's a slow, lingering feeling and I'm just trying to sort of honour it as I go."
What can she reveal about the new season and what it means for Tosh?
We're still dealing with the aftermath of what happened at the end of last season when Tosh was in an impossible position with Billy (Lewis Howden), caught between loyalty and doing the right thing. He took the decision out of her hands and turned himself in but she is very aware she was a big part of how he got to that point and everything's feeling different. He's been displaced within the team and is carrying a lot of complicated feelings and it's leaking out. Tosh is picking up on that and her main focus at the start is how they're going to find their way back to each other.
Thirteen years on, are there new elements to Tosh’s character?
Yes, absolutely. Often in life you don't realise you're feeling a certain way until something happens to crack you open. Tosh was carrying on as usual, preoccupied with Billy, work and family, and it’s hard to pause and take stock: ‘Am I happy? Am I still doing what I want to do?’, but she finds herself in a situation that drags everything out into the light and becomes aware of changes within her.
You’ve played Tosh for 13 years. What's stayed the same and what’s changed about her character?
She's always been sensitive, connected to others, observant. She's not impulsive, sits back, watches, listens and is an empath. She's always been tenacious, concerned with justice and the truth and doing the right thing.
But she has grown up. A lot of the early silly humour has fallen away and she's matured. Stepping into a DI role, there wasn't as much space for that. But we wanted to see her evolve. It wouldn't have worked if she'd just stood still.
How will DI Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) cope without her?
I think we'll see Calder processing it then they'll take that onto something fresh and exciting. You're saying goodbye to one element but it gives the opportunity for another character to respond.
It is a shame because the chemistry was very successful and Tosh and Calder’s approaches to police work were very complementary. That probably had more legs, but the two of us are on totally different trajectories. For Ashley this was season four, for me, it was season 11. I’m sorry to prematurely interrupt that, but anything that happens like this brings in storyline opportunities.
Why is it time for you to say goodbye to Shetland now?
Something that's become clear is that the show is gonna go and go and go. There's an audience for it and it's shown it can tolerate a change of guard. The show will prevail. I started to understand I have to be the one to call time on this; the show's not going to end. It's not going to be a thing that we all share together. That's how it started to feel.
And I think there were certain storylines Tosh was going to have that we've done several times and I started to feel like, beyond that set of storylines, that just wasn't where she fitted within the show. Like we've been doing this for 14 years and I still don't know if her parents are alive. Does she have siblings? Those kinds of storylines weren't coming my way because my position within the show was to be more within the plot, and I think we had done it and done it again and I started to feel, if I stay I'm going to feel we're rehashing the same ground. I wanted to leave before I started to feel like that.
Also, when we did the first iteration of the show, we would do a season then sometimes it was two years, even three, before we did it again. But since the reboot it's been one a year and I've been surprised how much that took out of me, because I also have a young family. It's very demanding with long hours and there’s the period where you shoot, then do additional dialogue recording, then press, then it’s on TV and more press, then it’s Christmas and you're sent a new script. It never stops. It's a juggernaut. I was surprised how much that demanded of me and after four of those on the bounce, I'm ready for a rest. So I've enjoyed being at home with my kids and partner and taking the pressure off myself a bit.
What've been the highlights of your time on Shetland?
There are so many but season three still holds as incredibly special from a creative viewpoint. That was when the show started to find its feet. It went into long form rather than two-episode stories and that felt exciting. The cast who came in made us a team for the whole thing and it felt really nice. We had brilliant directors, and I had the sexual assault storyline which I'm proud of. I think we served it well, did right by the issue and it was incredibly challenging. It really tested my mettle. For me there was the show before that then the show after.
Filming in Shetland saw you working in all kinds of weather and challenges.
We've had it all. But I never ever lost that sense of ‘How am I here getting to do this?’ On really tough days and weeks when you're tired and juggling family and the scripts are hard, you can get bogged down, but that always kept burning.
I think that's why it was hard to spot the time to step away because I still felt like I'd won a prize, even 14 years later. I was still learning and meeting new people bringing fresh ideas. It never stopped feeling like I was growing in the job. I still feel that now. It was just such a gift.
Which season did you enjoy making the most?
Season eight [when Ashley Jensen joined the cast as DI Ruth Calder] was really enjoyable because I felt like I was in a new show. It felt like a big roll of the dice. Nobody knew if it was going to work. I got to be in the same show but had the experience of being in a new thing that was starting again.
And we had a heatwave in Shetland which had never happened before. So that's very vivid. Everybody was on the beach. Normally we were getting pelted with hail and stopping for fog, but that was like a proper summer.
And because Tosh had been promoted I was challenged. I remember the terror the first time I had to take control of the incident room and stand at the board, because that was Dougie's [Henshall’s] place, and I had watched him for seven seasons masterfully do that. He had control of that environment and we deferred to him so naturally in those scenes. To step into that was daunting, but a thrill. I was really pleased with how it all turned out, proud of rising to that.
I'm back to being an actor, doing self-tapes and meetings and reading scripts that are fresh and exciting and I don't know who the characters are. The way I feel to be back in that position is telling me I've done the right thing. I feel oh, wow, I'd love to try this, and that would be a side of myself I've not explored, or a character that's really different from Tosh. I just want to stretch my muscles.
I’m so excited for whatever is next. My partner says, ‘You don't need to get every job. You just need the right next job.’ And that is going to come when it's the right thing and right moment.
Are there things you've always wanted to do?
I want to write. I've been plugging away for about eight years and had little moments of things looking like they might happen. Shetland has been so all-consuming it has left very little energy for anything else so I'm loving the idea of getting to grips with my own work and seeing where I might take that.
I have a film script which is my pride and joy, a Christmas romcom set in Glasgow. I am a sucker for a rom-com. What I love about it is by setting it in Glasgow you have the sweet sparkly-ness of a Christmas romcom but also down to earth Glasgow people and it’s a nice combination.
I've also got three half hour scripts and an idea for a 60-minute one. I have built up a body of work. Now I have to work out what to do with it!
Also I'd love to do comedy, something a bit funnier, a bit lighter. Or maybe something period where I’m getting to wear some cool 1970s clothes.
I want to do something different. I want to cleanse my palate. A change wakes you up. Not that I was asleep on the job, I very much wasn't, but I’m ready for whatever it is. I don't know what, but I'm here and I'm ready.
You have said ‘I will take everything I've learned and loved on Shetland forward with me’. What have you learned and what have you loved?
The biggest thing I've learned is how to be on a set: where to stand, what technical words mean, how to pitch your voice, how to be emotionally present without overdoing it. I think technically I understand how to act for camera. I learned most of that from Dougie but I've learned bits and pieces from everyone who has stepped on set. I feel I can do my job now and to have confidence in that is brilliant. Because I had such a consistent go at it, it feels like it's in my veins now. It's in my DNA, all that history and experience. I’ve loved it all.
And what I loved about Shetland was it felt like it was my house and I was the host. I got to welcome people in and look after them and have a nice time, then they left and more people came in.
Will you keep any of Tosh’s outfits?
I’ve taken bits and pieces but haven't got anything that’s iconic Tosh because I would look like a crazy person walking about in her actual jumpers or coat. But I've got a pair of Blundstone boots I haven't taken off in three years and some Birkenstocks this year that I’m wearing now.
The stuff I take is from an evening or weekend scene where she’s wearing something different, things that didn't really bed in as her. I would never wear that green jacket. That’s crazy. People would be like, ‘are you trying to be noticed?’ Because I mostly fly under the radar and people don't clock me.
If they do, what do they say?
“Are you Tosh?” Sometimes it happens. I was in a shop recently and the girl serving me said, ‘you really remind me of Tosh from Shetland’ and I said, ‘I am Tosh from Shetland’. But mostly they don't.
What about other props, did you take anything?
I couldn't take anything from the police station because that's still going, but I plundered Tosh’s flat. It's beautiful. I’ve got some lovely prints of a croft kitchen and a croft garden with the washing blowing in the wind. And some beautiful little croft houses ornaments. I took all sorts of little keepsakes and mementos.
Will you go back to Shetland?
Yes I will. My children are so attached to that place now and we have so many memories. My wee boy took his first steps there and we've got all our favorite cafes, beaches, shops.
Do people there notice you?
This year it had really cranked up and I couldn't really go anywhere. It has been a slow burn but this time there was one day when one of my kids was having a ‘difficult moment’ outside the ice cream shop and it was all hands on deck and some people were trying to talk to me and - I've never done this before - I had to say ‘I’m really sorry, I can't talk just now’. I couldn’t step away!.
What do you know about Shetland now that you didn't know before you went?
I didn't know anything. I'd never been. I didn’t know where it was. Now I know loads of stuff because a lot of the history of the islands has been threaded into our storylines and Steven [Robertson, who plays Detective Sandy Wilson] has always been there providing really rich information. He knows everything and is so clever and engaged. Now I feel like I know it better than I know most places.
What do you do in any spare time you have?
The last couple of years I've got really into plants. I’ve been hitting the garden centres and this is what I've started talking to other women in their forties about - gardening. I find it really meditative. A couple of times a day I can say ‘I'm just going to water my plants’, and go outside by myself and spend a bit of time deadheading and watering. Obviously the kids need a lot from me and the two cats are quite needy. But plants? A perfect ratio of attention and reward.
What do you think Tosh would think of how you played her?
I hope she would feel I had played her sensitively. That I honored her emotional truth.
What three words sum up your Shetland experience?
Magical. Challenging. Transformative.
And three for what you want the future to be?
Authentic. Peaceful. Exciting.
Alison O'Donnell stars in Shetland, season 11 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One from 12 November, weekly at 9pm.
All previous series of Shetland are available to stream on BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer)
Alison O'Donnell's hair and make up: Christine Close - Hair & Makeup Artist www.instagram.com/christineclose _hair_and_makeup
Thank you to Church on the Hill, 16 Algie Street, Glasgow, G41 3DJ, 0141 343 7569 (churchonthehill.co.uk)
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