Dorcha (The Dark Island)

Speaking of modern English dialects of Old Provence, we've been enjoying the BBC detective series "Shetland," but having the devil of a time understanding the dialogue.

Scottish dialects don't normally trip me up too badly. I've been listening this afternoon, for instance, to an 1969 BBC radio production called "The Dark Island," a fine old cold-war mystery set in the Hebrides. Half the dialogue is in RP, which is no problem, and half in Hebridean, also pretty easy to follow, either because I'm more used to it or because the late-60s BBC tended to regularize accents somewhat for a broad audience.

In contrast, try this Shetland accent, especially the second guy working on his Jaguar:



I found the BBC radio show because I was reading a WSJ article this morning about a guy who uses AI to generate completely forgettable pop tunes that sometimes are hits for some reason, which made me nostalgic for a time when people composed melodies. I thought of the tune "The Dark Island" that I sometimes run across on folk albums. The tune is so pretty and fitting that I assumed it was a traditional Scottish or Irish melody, but it turns out it was composed specially for the BBC radio show. So here's the radio show, and after it a nice tin-whistle version of the tune with the Irish Rovers. I do love me a tin whistle.

"The Dark Island" show also made me nostalgic for stories with competent plot exposition, deftly handled suspense, and characters who effortlessly identify like-mind sorts who can be trusted in a situation that calls for courage, patriotism, and loyalty.



The tune: