Streamer challenge

One of the counter arguments used by terrestrial broadcasters in their own defence when streamers like Netflix and Amazon are mentioned is this: sure, those networks have the budgets, the pulling power and the studio acreage to make starry dramas, but can they serve up the same level of cultural specificity which has long been the expertise (and indeed the duty) of the BBC and ITV, or of their cross-Border offshoots, BBC Scotland and STV?

Increasingly the answer is: yes they can. Netflix scored the year’s biggest hit with Adolescence, notionally set in a fictional northern English town but tethered pretty firmly to South Yorkshire through its script (Doncaster was mentioned) and its filming locations (exteriors in Sheffield, interiors at Production Park studio near Pontefract).

Then there was Martin Compston’s well-received outing for Amazon, the three-part psychological thriller, Fear. It was set in Glasgow and saw Compston using his own accent, as he did in another Scottish-set Amazon show, The Rig. It’s currently on its second series and, while season three hasn’t been officially announced, the noises from cast members such as Compston’s co-star Iain Glen are positive. “It does feel that we haven’t completed that journey,” Mr Glen told the Radio Times. “It does feel that we’ve done the middle chapter. There is more to tell.”

The next Scottish-set offering from the streamers – it is starting to feel a........

© Herald Scotland