BBC Shetland Ashley Jensen's huge show future confession after replacing Douglas Henshall

BBC viewers are gearing up for another nail-biting season of crime drama Shetland. The popular programme returns to screens for its ninth season on November 6.

While the show's future has been up in the air, fans can at least get their fix next week as Ashley Jensen and Alison O'Donnell step back into their roles as DI Ruth Calder and DS Alison 'Tosh' McIntosh.

Now Jensen has recently opened up about the new series and what things are looking like long term. "I was very excited to be getting on the wee plane off to Shetland again with my half a cup of tea and my caramel wafe," she told the BBC.

"...half a cup of tea, because there’s often turbulence and you can't get a full cup of tea because it'll spill, which I thought was quite funny. As soon as you touch down, Shetland kind of envelops you. It’s the whole landscape, I mean the real star of the show is Shetland and the Shetland Isles…it's an inimitable place."

Ashley continued: "It's like nowhere I've ever been before. It's a landscape that's arresting and breathtaking… it's just a real privilege to be able to go back there." Her character arrived during the show's eighth season after Jimmy Perez's exit.

Played by Douglas Henshall, Ashley wasn't sure she'd be asked to return after fans begged for Henshall's comeback. "Obviously, when I did my first series, I didn't know whether I was ever going to go back there. So I felt like I had to rush around buying Shetland jumpers and puffin poo and things like that, just in case."

On filming, she explained: "One of the day trips that we had was with Ian Hart [who plays Euan Rossi] and some of the crew," she explained. "We drove for miles and got on two ferries up to Unst to visit the gin distillery there as well as the most northern tea room in the British Isles. It was amazing.

"Unst almost makes Lerwick [Shetland’s capital] look like a metropolis. When you get up to Unst, it's really remote. And you really feel it there – you’re part of the landscape. It's a very visceral, humbling place to be."

Teasers for Shetland's new series hint at a tumultuous ride as a complex case entangling two individuals' disappearance threatens to muddle the boundaries between personal engagements and professional lives.

The plot thickens alarmingly when Tosh's friend Abbie Bett vanishes without a trace. With intuition suggesting foul play, Tosh and Ruth embark on a mission to unravel the whereabouts of Annie and her little boy Noah.

The synopsis reveals: "They discover accountant Annie is estranged from her husband, Ian, and has been staying with mussel farmer John Harris and his two sons, Patrick and Fergus. Worryingly, there's no sign of Annie there either.

"Calder can't shake the feeling there's more to Rossi than meets the eye. Meanwhile, at the station, Calder delves deeper into another case involving a deadly argument between two brothers. The missing persons investigation draws Tosh and Calder into a web of lies and when a bloodied person turns up at a remote garage, nothing can prepare the team for what lies ahead."

Shetland airs on Wednesday, November 6 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One.