Lewis Howden reveals the secret life of Shetland stalwart Billy McCabe
The new season of the BBC crime drama is full of suprises
If you thought Sergeant Billy McCabe in BBC crime drama Shetland was an open book, think again. The new season, which starts this week shows the long-serving police officer in a whole new light.
When I meet Lewis Howden in Glasgow, the actor who has played him in the series for 13 years, the revelations come thick and fast. There’s Billy’s origins, who is responsible for the home baking he brings in to the station, Howden’s intriguing job in a previous life, how his dad came to be in the film versions of Irvine Welsh’s Acid House and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, and what exactly is that aroma that hangs in the air around Howden and his alter ego McCabe.
In season ten, stalwart Billy is front and centre to the plot, he and wife Morag linked to a grisly murder, but on the details Howden is tight-lipped, apart from saying there are hints for eagle-eyed viewers.
“There are clues from the beginning. But if you guess before the last episode, you're a genius,” he says.
Hailing from Edinburgh, Howden was born in Leith and raised in the north of the city, then studied drama at the RSAMD, racking up extensive theatre and TV appearances, before the call to play Sergeant Billy McCabe in Shetland saw him become an audience favourite and fixture in the police station in Lerwick.
Howden, who along with Shetland is best known for The Harrowing (2020) and For Those In Peril (2013), along with an extensive stage career including Macbeth and Dunsinane, is being careful about spoilers but what can he tell us about the new season? Along with returning regulars like Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donell as DI Ruth Calder and DI Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh alongside Steven Robertson as DC Sandy Wilson, new cast members include Greg McHugh (Guilt, The A Word), Clive Russell (The Witcher, Sandman) and Ellie Haddington (Motherland, Guilt).
“We can expect more of what you're used to with Shetland, loads of excitement, intrigue, red herrings, and this time there’s high emotional content. All the core team have issues in this one, over and above the initial murder. So it's an exciting series.”
After a murder in a tight-knit, isolated Shetland community, there are secrets to unravel and with a personal link, the team’s loyalties are tested to the limits.
“We see Billy out of the police station and some of the storyline touches on his past,” says Howden. “We see him with his wife Morag, who is played by Leigh Biagi (The Prodigal Father, The Lost King), and is fantastic, dealing with stuff from his past that comes back to haunt him a wee bit. It's no secret necessarily, but issues that make him look at his past in a different light, which is traumatising and great to play. So you see Billy more vulnerable. He's out of his comfort zone.
For Howden, unpeeling the layers of Bill has been a satisfying experience.
“I’ve really enjoyed it. It was a bit tough because of the emotions in it and if I can be a wee bit wee bit actor-y and describe the emotional arc, it’s been a hard one. We filmed over six months so you have to hold it and keep it real every time.”
Having played Billy for over a decade, how would he describe him?
“I've just tried to make him a really nice guy. He’s solid, dependable. Jean, my lovely life partner of 37 years [Jean Sangster, head of voice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, with whom Howden has a daughter] describes him as a great example of modern manhood, someone who’ll make you a cup of tea, but also protect you. So that's how I've tried to portray him.
“The way they've used Billy in the past is to push the story on, so something happens and Billy will come in and say you've had a phone call or there's been a murder. There wasn’t much emotion in that, so I've just tried to make him dependable and look like he belongs.”
Which brings us to the home baking, which Billy often brings into the Lerwick police station, something DI Calder dismissed at first in her rush to get on with the job.
“He's a nice guy. That's what Billy does. But he can also grab a criminal. It's a welcoming thing but she was, how do I have time for your scones? It was good though because she was a new broom.”
So does Billy bake himself or is it down to Morag?
“I think you'll find it's him that makes them. Morag has a busy job. And I have to say that any scones that have been eaten in and around the show, Lewis Howden’s made them. Surely you can tell cooking's one of my favourite hobbies,” he says, patting his stomach.
“I love to cook. Since we moved a few years ago from Glasgow to Ayrshire and got a garden and a greenhouse I've been growing all my own produce. Sticking carrot seeds in the ground, tomatoes, gooseberries, chillies - I made chilli and gooseberry jam this year.”
In season ten the action starts from the get-go with a murder and Sergeant McCabe appearing out of uniform in an unexpected location.
“When we were talking about his costume for outside I said just give me some colours. No black, please. I'm a bit ‘man at Fat Face’, but that's fine because that's who I am as well,” he says, indicating his neat shirt and jeans. “It was great for him to be outside and looking and wearing something different.”
So Billy McCabe is from Shetland…
“Is he?” says Howden. “I don't know. I was told when I first read for the character that he was originally from Edinburgh like me, and then I went into the interview and the producer hadn’t read that, but I must have convinced him, so he might be. I haven't read the novels yet - I will in the future - because you can only play the script that’s been written for you.
“I was told he was a gentle giant type. He can really handle himself, but he’s cuddly. So I've been playing strong but cuddly, and it's not as easy as you think to be cuddly for 13 years. As to how he's developed, he’s in his fifties and has got more modern I think. More cuddly, but there's also that edge. You don't get to hang about as a police sergeant without some edge. You sometimes hear it in his attitudes to things that have happened. He's also quite a joker as well, which I love.”
Does Howden have a backstory for him? A playlist, even a fragrance?
“You don't want to start me talking about fragrances,” smiles Howden, “because I mix my own.”
We didn’t see this coming.
“Yeah, well, I mix essential oils and things like that. Not to any great degree, but I love to do that. It came out of lockdown. I was a scientist in a previous life, an analytical chemist, so did a bit of sniffing for that. I was a trainee, so it's ridiculous me calling myself a chemist, but that's what I did from leaving school.”
Howden’s first job was at the public analyst laboratory in Edinburgh, testing various things, which he enjoyed but youth theatre and acting were always what he loved, and led him on a different path.
“I don't know how good I was in the lab, but yeah, I've got a weird routine that if we're ever going away on tour or holiday I enjoy mixing my own toiletries into wee bottles. I don't know if that's me trying to subconsciously hang on to some sort of analytical scientist part of my life or not.”
“So if you speak to the cast members, everybody says Billy always smells nice. Because you don't want to be stinky on hot, sweaty sets, especially wearing that tight lycra - which is not very flattering and hides nothing! So he's getting a wee bit older in his fifties and uses a lot of rosemary oil, which is good for the ageing brain. So if I'm doing a play where I've got a big speech or something, I'll sit with some rosemary diffusing beside me. It may not help, but I think it does. So everything I wear has a bit of rosemary about it. Billy too.”
Sea air is another thing Howden appreciates, and he theorises that could be why he and Jean, who is from Arbroath, moved back to the seaside. “I think it’s the smell of the sea that’s drawn us.”
The location is also something Howden loves about Shetland, and it’s a hit with viewers too.
“That's one of the joys of it. Wait till you see Billy’s house! Ruth Calder’s is all right, but his is the best. It's gorgeous. When we were filming there were all these seals at the shore just down from the garden. It's incredible.”
“We stayed in Scalloway and there's a place near there that's become my favourite. I was walking around when I had downtime and went round a corner and found myself among this herd of Shetland ponies. All these wee ponies, grazing.
“You're instantly in a wilderness, places where otters have been cracking shells and eating them, things like that. Just walking on beaches and just seeing ponies, it’s great.”
“Shetland's a character in the show. What makes it different. There's nowhere like it and we're making the most of drones. I love the landscape. It's also used to give the audience time to think, so a car journey or a ferry ride where you see the landscape and the character's perspectives. It can harden them or make them more resolute in what they're doing.
“In this season, you see how in a very small community they all know each other and are entwined and how difficult it would be to step back. Even in a wee community like that there are murders and they can't instantly say who did it. Imagine you know everyone that you're sitting beside - but do you?”
Apart from adding an edge to the series with its stark beauty, exploring the Shetland location was a bonus for Howden whose expanded storyline meant more time there.
“I'd been on tours with plays, but only ever been once for one scene in all 10 series of Shetland until this one, so it was great just to be there. Everything else was in studios in Glasgow, Bathgate and Dumbarton. I used to get teased because after the read-through everybody would go and have a lovely jolly in Shetland for three weeks. I mean, it's very hard work of course, but everybody got to bond and there were parties and things. This season I arrived for my first shots and in time for the party, which was great.”
Tell us more about the party…
“Well, it was puffin themed so you came as a puffin or puffin related. I got some geeky puffin watcher stuff, a gilet from a charity shop, but the saddest thing is the rest of the stuff was my own clothes, the trousers, boots, hat, outdoor shirt with the pockets...
“There were puffin hunters and complete puffing outfits so you didn't know who it was until they lifted the beak up for a drink, or to breathe. Costumes and make-up, they went to town.”
Having been in the crime drama since season one, Lowden has a long history with some of the other cast members.
“The relationships we've got, on and off screen, they’ve developed over the years. With Stephen Robertson [Detective Sandy Wilson], and Alison [O’Donnell] because Tosh and Billy have a long history as well. And Ashley [Jensen] and I have history because we worked together once before in a play called The Witches of Pollock at the Tron. She had to bathe me, poor soul - it was behind a screen so the audience didn’t have to watch it - and everything was covered up, but still!” he laughs. And with new cast members, like Leigh who plays my wife, we hit it off, so it was great.”
Howden has acting in the family as his father Alex Howden also became an actor, and his sister is Kathryn Howden who stars as matriarch Maggie McLean in River City.
Known for The Acid House (1998), Gangs of New York (2002) and Strictly Sinatra (2001) how did his father influence them?
“He had loads of jobs, but was a standup comedian in that club comic circle and a lot of variety artists were extras so he started getting wee parts and next minute he's over in Rome making Gangs of New York with Martin Scorsese.”
“But Kathryn and I were always involved in Edinburgh Youth Theatre - I did plays at Craigroyston High and Muirhouse Primary - and she got me to apply for drama college because she’d gone the year before. I always thought I was going to do something like that but I avoided it because being the eldest, I could see the pitfalls and that my mum had to work hard to keep it together. But then eventually I just couldn't avoid it.”
Named Alexander after his dad who already had an equity card, a change was required so Lewis was chosen from a baby book in a shop while he was at RSAMD, now the Conservatoire in Glasgow.
“Sometimes I would still call myself Alex but people asked for my dad by mistake and he was turning up for interviews. He actually talked himself into a part one time that I was supposed to get! So it’s been Lewis for a long time.”
While Howden is probably best known for Shetland, he has a long stage career to his name.
“The bulk of my career to be honest,” he says. “I do have a theatre habit that I need to feed but I can’t do it timewise and wouldn’t want to miss Shetland. The last shoot was six months, right up until three weeks ago. I’d like to get back on a stage sometime to find out if I can still do it, but timing’s an issue.”
Pressed to name a favourite stage role he goes for Macbeth, and treats us to a powerful soliloquy.
“I was fortunate enough to tour the world with Macbeth, the Far East, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, and various places in between.”
So it wasn’t unlucky for Howden then?
“The bad luck thing, ok the play’s to do with death and witches, but the real reason for that idea is most companies had a production of Macbeth ready in case something got cancelled, because it’s shorter. So if Macbeth was coming in, it usually meant the show you were in was going to be cancelled.
“It’s like don’t whistle on stage. It’s because the guys that pull the scenery down used to communicate in whistles, so if you did you'd get something dropped on your head. And break a leg, that’s just Elizabethan for how they take a bow, bend your knee and take your applause. So there you go.”
Lewis Howden, entertaining, warm, funny, but with an edge. Break a leg.
Shetland returns for a tenth series on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 9pm on Wednesday 5 November 2025.
With thanks to Kong, 23 Exchange Square, Glasgow, www.kong-glasgow.com
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