Atlantic Edge Music Services

Himmelbla in Shetland

July 15, 2010

Norwegian National Television (NRK) the makers of 'Himmelbla' - the most popular drama series in Norway ever - recently visited Shetland to secretly film the concluding two episodes of the series and Davie Gardner, manager of Atlantic Edge Music Services, was hired by the organisation as their local 'production fixer' for the duration of the project.

Since it started on Norwegian television a couple of years back 'Himmelbla' - a remake of the BBC programme '2000 Acres of Sky' - has proved to be a run-away success for the national organisation, regularly attracting an audience of around 2 million viewers - this in a country with a total population of only 5 million.

Due to the 'disappearance' of one of the central characters in a previous episode (who eventually re-emerges in Shetland) keeping the overall story-line under wraps, especially the Shetland element, was essential. However, this proved to be a very difficult task given the high profile of the film crew while on the islands and especially so as they were filming in a number of external and internal public locations throughout the Shetland mainland, inevitably attracting not only public but also significant media attention.

"It was a real and very fraught challenge to keep everything under wraps" said Davie "both in the initial planning stages and then in the lead up to and during the actual shoot itself. We had to make detailed production and logistics plans with lots of local actors, extra's and location owners, not to mention equipment and resource hirer's, prior to the crew coming to Shetland. Then we had to do the hotel bookings and transport arrangements for them all - a crew of 19 in total with masses of filming equipment, costumes etc - while all the while also working in open partnership on the project with the likes of Shetland Islands Council and Shetland Arts. Everyone had to be sworn to secrecy throughout, but it proved very difficult with so many people having to be involved and indeed very excited at being so" Davie said. 

Davie said that the most challenging element in this particular respect occurred on the final day of filming in Lerwick when the large Norwegian sail training vessel 'Staadsraad Lehmkuhl' docked in Lerwick harbour, disgorging en-masse around 200 young Norwegian sailors into the town centre, all of whom immediately recognised the main Norwegian actors undertaking that days 'shoot'. Thanksfully this 'revelation' did not seem to escape (nationally at least) and spoil the impact of the story-line back home.

Another challenge was getting all the film related equipment to and from Shetland on, what are after all, fairly small aircraft. Davie said he would like to thank Loganair, Flybe and Shetland's local MSP Tavish Scott for making this difficult exercise work out satisfactorily in the end.

Filming for the Shetland episodes was completed in September 2009 - with them being shown on Norwegian television in April 2010 - again attracting a massive audience.

Since then a number of fans of the programme have arrived in Shetland to search out the locations used in the filming including the Douglas Arms and Lounge pubs in Lerwick, St Ninians Isle and 'Sarah's House' on the nearby island of Bressay.

Davie said his involvement with the programme as their production fixer had not only been "one of the most challenging of his career" but unquestionably also one of the most rewarding.