A REMOTE Scottish island is the setting for a reality TV mystery whodunnit that debuted last night.
The Isle of Gigha was transformed for Channel 4’s new TV series Murder Island, in which four teams of amateur sleuths will be attempting to solve a murder mystery using their natural detective skills.
The story was written and developed by crime writing legend Ian Rankin and produced by STV studios, and will ask members of the public to take on the role of detective and enter into the investigation. They have just one nail-biting week to compete and find out if they’ve got what it takes to solve a murder.
The Isle of Gigha Post Office and store plays a central role in the mystery – one of the eight suspects (played by actors) is the Postmaster.
Scripted filming took place at the Post Office with actors answering the amateur detectives’ questions about the gruesome murder, possible suspects and motives.
READ MORE: Here's everything you need to know about Ian Rankin's murder mystery show
The sleuths also often popped in to speak with real-life Postmaster Joe Teale and his wife, Hannah, who also works in the shop, to tap into their local knowledge of the island.
To ensure that the residents could still get provisions and Post Office services, the production had to allow the shop and Post Office to open for set hours each day, so that the community were not inconvenienced.
Isle of Gigha postmaster Joe Teale said: “We had to ensure that the shop could still serve the community. There was lots of filming here. On one particular night there was filming at the Post Office and outside until one in the morning, with lots of action going on. They had huge amounts of lighting, so it looked like it was actually filmed during the day.”
The population of the island nearly doubled during filming. The rugged beauty of the island attracts tourists, but it could not accommodate the whole crew, even with the island’s hotel and holiday lets.
Forty-two camper vans had to come over by boat from the mainland, along with supplies to build a police station for the “detectives” briefings.
Teale said: “When Ian Rankin wrote the story based on a remote Scottish island, he didn’t specifically have the Isle of Gigha in mind, but we have more facilities than many islands, some great buildings and beautiful landscape to provide an interesting setting for filming.
“There has been a buzz on the island since we heard that filming was going to take place and chatter amongst the islanders about the murder mystery. We have not seen the series ahead of time so people are wondering which parts of our island will be shown and who they may recognise. The Isle of Gigha community still don’t know who the ‘murderer’ was. We will have to watch the series like everyone else to find out.”
The series will air on Channel 4 on October 5 at 9.30pm
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