Quotes from Douglas Henshall

What the Americans have done is refuse to back down. They've refused to make the cheapest, lowest common denominator forms of entertainment for TV and instead have championed television drama as an important part of our culture.

But as an actor, you spend the majority of your life being rejected.

I always wanted to do good work, but not in order to buy big houses and big cars. I just wanted to be 'alright', to have enough money to be able to live on, to go to the cinema when I wanted to, and buy the books I wanted to read.

Sometimes it's easy for things get away from you, a little bit, if you have too many people coming in all the time, trying to put their mark on it. If something is successful, you don't have to do that. All you have to do is keep doing what you're doing, or have been doing.

I don't think I am someone who sits on someone else's coat tails while others do worthwhile work.

When you've got an audience, there's a silence in there that you don't find anywhere else. And it's really powerful. People are there listening with you and you're affecting them in some way.

I'm interested in how people interact with the landscape around them, and the effect that has.

The Scandis blew the crime genre out of the water and the Americans have been doing interesting things with it for years.

Well you know, there's a lot of people on Shetland who've never been to Fair Isle. The place itself is very unique but also the people there were fantastic. They couldn't have done enough for us.

For me, the best thing is the young actors that come in to the series as to see the depth and breadth of talent coming into the business is fantastic.

We were in Shetland for over a month so when we arrived back in Glasgow I felt quite disorientated. It was just everything, the noise, the people. It was weird that after just a month in Shetland I felt slightly assaulted by the city.

I always think that your first test of loyalty as a young lad is your football team.

After my marriage ended - a hundred years ago - I had a few memorable Christmases on my own: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

When you're young, there are always going to be one or two people who take a shine to you or get you and want to help you. Thank God for them.

Flying to Fair Isle from Lerwick is an experience I'll never forget.

Normally, I bolt at the idea of playing anyone for too long because I don't want it to become dull and like another job.

I'm not very good at being objective about myself.

I wanted the world when I was 20, and when I took stock at 40 I realised I hadn't come anywhere close to getting it.

I suppose if the script and storyline is good, you've got to take what you're given, really.

In some respects, I was almost a country boy. I ran around in streams and rivers and all that sort of thing.

I do believe in my national identity. I'm very proud, of what I come from and where I come from, and there are values up there that I like and that I hold on to: loyalty I suppose, and a sense of humour, and a lack of self pity.

Where I was brought up, if you were walking down the street and you looked at someone and they looked at you, you acknowledged them.

I'm sure there are people who associate Iona with what they want it to be but for me it's just a nice place.

One of the first jobs I did out of drama school was a panto at the Magnum.