A new murder mystery not in English

[PatrickLondon]

BBC4's Saturday night Scandi/foreign slot has moved a bit closer to home with Crâ - produced by Ireland's Gaelic language channel. The novelty of the language aside*, it's a fairly conventional detection show - maverick cop in a small community within a bleak but beautiful landscape, tiresome meddlers and false trails abounding, etc., etc.

*As with Welsh, there are quite a few English loanwords creeping in - and they all seem to swear in English

 

[PatrickLondon]

Not to be outdone, BBC Scotland has a Scottish Gaelic series An T-Eilean (The Island). Set in the Hebridean island of Harris, it has all the familiar tropes - aerial shots of foaming waves crashing on rocky seashores, a police detective with a troubled past returning to a hostile home community, lots of wide angle shots of beautiful but bleakly numinous scenery - and everyone has secrets and old grudges.

 

[Jim Zurer]

BBC4's Saturday night Scandi/foreign slot has moved a bit closer to home with Crâ -

We watch this show as well...and I agree with Patrick's analysis. One question that we had was about the proficiency in Gaelic of the various actors; some seemed very natural with it while others appeared to us as reading their lines phonetically.

 

[PatrickLondon]

I wish I had enough of the language to tell, but it wouldn't be surprising. Of course, the character too might have been lacking fluency and only having basic learning in the language.