JUST because a drama looks spectacular, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be enthralling viewing.

Often it appears as though producers get so caught up with the visuals that they forget that the viewers are also rather partial to a meaty storyline.

The latest example was the Beeb’s two-part drama Shetland set, surprisingly enough, in the Northern Isles.

The islands’ tourist board must have loved the lingering shots of the moody skies above vast expanses of the surpringly green northernmost points of the British Isles.

And the craft community must have been equally pleased with the fine examples of fashionable knitwear which filled the screen — the young detective’s bobble hat was particularly impressive.

But as a crime drama Shetland was sadly pretty pedestrian. Dougie Henshall did his best as the detective investigating the murder of an old woman but I think most of the audience had worked out whodunnit by the end of the first episode.

Indeed, if the programme had been done in the hour it might have made it less plodding.

When novels are adapted for the small screen it is always difficult to know which details to leave out but the two episodes didn’t do it justice.