There’s been a murder……

If there is anyone out there who has followed the blog from an early stage, at the point where we purchased the Manse at least, you will notice that there was a hiatus to our initial flurry of work in May. At the time I was bound to secrecy, but now I can reveal a little more.

A short time before we completed on buying the house my son and I were making an advance trip to Gigha. As usual we got into conversation with the ferry staff, who all know us well, to find that producers of a new TV show were on the island looking for properties to potentially film a new drama / reality hybrid. They also told us they were interested in filming at the Manse if I would be interested.

As word of my mouth is faster than the internet in Gigha, I stepped off the ferry to be called by a lovely young runner from STV who asked if she could come see the Manse whilst we were on the island. We duly obliged and after a couple more visits, we agreed (for a small fee) to hand our property over to STV for the month of May.

The project at the time was clouded in secrecy, as I have already said, but we knew that a production crew were to descend on Gigha for pretty much all of May (not a bed to be had post lockdown) and be joined by contestants who would attempt to solve a fictional murder case. The storyline for that murder would be penned by non-other than Ian Rankin, the highly acclaimed crime author. The STV production would be shown on Channel 4 as part of it’s winter schedule.

So for any TV buffs in the UK who watch the likes of ‘Great British Bake Off’ you may have noticed trailers starting to appear for Murder Island. The show has four teams of two contestants competing for a prize of c£50,000 I believe. The trailers have transformed the very (I stress very) quiet Isle of Gigha into a crime scene (fictional I also stress) for the viewing pleasure of hopefully millions.

And for me, the Manse has featured heavily in the trailers and I am hoping therefore will be central to the programme itself. I do know (and this isn’t a spoiler as the trailer gives this away) that the murder is committed in there. So after many months of waiting I will be glued to the TV on October 5th post Bake Off to point at the telly and exclaim, “That’s my house!”

I can also tell you that whilst the boy and I applied to be contestants on the show that our proximity to Gigha immediately ruled us out. We are still searching illusively for our first TV appearance.