The Island: release date, cast, plot and everything we know

The Island (AKA An t-Eilean) is a new murder mystery series set on Scotland's stunning Western Isles. 

The four-part whodunnit, which is filmed in Gaelic with English subtitles, sees Lady Mary Maclean (Elspeth Turner) shot dead and her self-made millionaire husband Sir Douglas (Iain Macrae), the head of the Maclean family, wounded at their beautiful waterside castle.

It looks initially like a burglary gone wrong, but family liaison officer Kat Crichton (The Innocents star Sorcha Groundsell) suspects darker forces at work linked to her own personal history when she's assigned to investigate. 

Sorcha Groundsell says about being in the UK's first ever high-end Gaelic drama series: "This feels like a watershed moment for Gaelic. Across the world, we are seeing indigenous languages step confidently out from the shadows to enjoy the recognition they deserve. I see our show as part of that wider movement; a celebration of all that makes us unique."

Here's everything we know…

The Island release date

The Island (AKA An t-Eilean) has its first two episodes released on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday, January 14. Episode three will be released on iPlayer on Tuesday, January 28, with the fourth episode available on Tuesday, February 4.

It will also be shown weekly on BBC ALBA on Tuesdays from January 14 at 9 pm, while all four episodes will be available to watch on BBC Four in February, with the first two episodes on Saturday, February 8 at 9 pm, and the final two on Saturday, February, 15 at 9 pm.

We don't have a US release date yet.

What's the plot?

Family liaison officer Kat Crichton and her boss, DCI Ahmed Halim, are looking into the brutal murder of the wife of a local tycoon at a remote island mansion. Is Sir Douglas somehow involved?

"She has a troubled history with the Maclean family, which means she now lives a very insular life away from the island," explains Sorcha. "But she's forced to come back to investigate this murder, which means confronting things she’s packed away at the back of her mind."

Much of the story is revealed through flashbacks to a Hogmanay party 10 years earlier and we learn what happened between Kat and Sir Douglas. "We see how Kat is a wholly different person in those flashback scenes before all this darkness entered her life."

Cast

Sorcha Groundsell stars, alongside Sagar Radia (Industry) as her boss, DCI Ahmed Halim. Iain Macrae plays Sir Douglas, with Elspeth Turner as his wife, Lady Mary. Sinéad MacInnes (Outlander) as Eilidh, Andrew Macinnes as Calum, Meredith Brook as Sìne (Bannan) and Sam James Smith as Ruaraidh play the four grown-up children.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Behind the scenes on The Island and more

An t-Eilean (The Island) is funded by MG ALBA, All3Media International and Screen Scotland. Written by Nicholas Osborne and Patsi Mackenzie, and directed by Tom Sullivan (Arracht), the series is Executive Produced by Arabella Page Croft and Nicole Fitzpatrick, and series produced by Kieran Parker and Bjorn Hanson from BAFTA award-winning Black Camel Pictures. 

Talking about shooting the series on Lewis and Harris, star Sorcha says: "I'm actually in Lewis at the moment with my grandparents, but it was really wonderful to come here in a working capacity. It’s also very rare as an actor to live with your co-workers, but we spent five weeks staying at Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in Harris, which is also where we filmed. Also, anyone who's been to this part of the world will tell you that there's an energy that comes with the landscape, and the brutality of the scenery is really appropriate for a series like this. It brought its own kind of frisson and tension to every scene we shot!"