An t-Eilean review – this Gaelic language crime drama should have happened years ago

It is difficult to imagine An t-Eilean being made even 10 years ago. It is billed as the UK’s first ever “high-end” Gaelic drama series, which means, I think, that it was expensive to make (a report last year put it at £1m for each of its four episodes). The title translates as The Island, and it is set mostly on the Western Isles, which makes it breathtakingly beautiful and means that everyone is in possession of a good solid coat. An t-Eilean exists thanks to renewed interest in and support for the speaking of Gaelic and, with subtitles no longer being seen as a barrier to enjoyment, has a strong shot at winning over an audience far larger than the 60,000 or so fluent speakers in Scotland.

Local businessman and boy-done-good Sir Douglas Maclean (Iain Macrae) is one of the richest men in Scotland, having outgrown his humble beginnings as “the proud son of a bin man”, and he and his family now live in a baronial mansion on the shoreline of Harris. The Macleans and their more loyal members of staff appear to lord it over the local people, some of whom are their tenants, and there is a distinct tension brewing between rich and poor. When Sir Douglas and his wife, Lady Mary, are attacked at home, there is one obvious suspect, and no shortage of potential others who might have been eager to dole out his comeuppance.

It opens with a frantic phone call from Sir Douglas to his daughter Eilidh, informing her that he and his wife have been shot. Given that one of their other children, Sìne, is a doctor nearby, while Eilidh appears to be in bed at home in Paris, I know which daughter I might have called first – but this is only the start of the mystery. As well as rubbing his fellow island residents up the wrong way, Sir Douglas appears to be a tyrant within his own family, and you can happily imagine him clinking glasses with Logan Roy.

The shootings expose a tangle of contemporary crimes, and lead to the re-emergence of a drama that began 10 years ago, at a fateful Hogmanay party thrown by the Macleans. The appointed family liaison officer is the nervy Kat Crichton (Sorcha Groundsell, from Clique and The Innocents), a former local now living in Inverness. She assures her boss, DCI Ahmed Halim (Industry’s Sagar Radia), that if she gets involved in the case there would be absolutely no conflicts of interest.

Except, that is, literally everything about her life before she was forced to leave the island, move to the mainland and change her name, a decade ago. The plot hinges on some lurching coincidences and conveniently misplaced memories, which stretch credulity more than is comfortable. Kat throws herself into solving the case, urging herself on in order to heal ancient wounds and settle old scores. It is hard to believe that she would have set foot on the helicopter over, even less so that she would have been allowed anywhere near a crime scene, family member or suspect.

The other Maclean children, Calum and Ruaraidh, wrench An t-Eilean in a slightly different direction. Calum is a motorbike-riding, guitar-playing, estranged dad to a young child, and clearly up to his neck in some dodgy dealings, while Ruaraidh is a hunting, shooting, solitary man who seems perpetually on the edge of revealing another deep, dark family secret. Calum’s storyline takes it out of the gothic mansion and into the community, which feels like a necessary layer to add on, and gives the tawdry family melodrama more grounding.

Most of the dialogue is Gaelic, with some English mixed in. It is notable that a Scottish Gaelic drama feels simultaneously overdue and not at all a challenge for non-speakers. Subtitled dramas have been mainstream for years now, and many people watch TV with subtitles on, even programmes in their native language. Groundsell puts in a strong performance, and it is a stunning location for the story. When a setting looks this good, a few unlikely plot twists are easy to overlook.

But this isn’t flawless, nor does it reinvent the wheel. It feels boxed in by its four-episode length. There is not much room for backstory when it comes to any of the characters, other than flashbacks to that fateful New Year’s Eve. The fact that it opts for a more emotional register loosens the tension when it would benefit from ramping it up. Its language is the most arresting thing about it, then, but it remains a good, solid crime drama, albeit one that doesn’t upend the genre.

• An t-Eilean aired on BBC Alba and is on BBC iPlayer now.