Thousands of on-screen slaughters in hit TV shows make Britain look like a lawless state
This week over 4.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the finale of crime thriller Shetland as the bodies piled high.
Over four series of the murder mystery, a dozen characters had been slaughtered on the isolated, windswept isle based on the tiny archipelago off the coast of Scotland.
The BBC hit show turned the islands, which have a population of just 25,000 people, into one of the world’s death capitals.
With a murder rate of 68.2 per 100,000 people, Shetland would be the 13th deadliest place in the world, just behind Mexico’s gang-ridden Culiacan, with inhabitants lucky not to be bludgeoned to death while popping out for a pint of milk.
The reality is considerably less bloody - there have only been two murders on the sleepy islands in the last 50 years.
In honour of the show’s bloodsoaked four series, we’ve compiled a murder map of the deadliest places to live in the UK over the past 50 years, according to the small screen.
They might look nice on the telly, but you’d be lucky to escape them with your life…
Cotswolds
Midsomer Murders: 291 murders
Father Brown: (Blockley, Gloucestershire) 70 murders
Total: 361
East London
Eastenders: 24 murders
Whitechapel: 28 murders
Total: 52
Bristol
Casualty: 10
South London
The Bill: Around 2,400 murders, including 71 policemen
Oxford
Inspector Morse: 32 murders
Cambridge
Grantchester: 18 murders
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Vera: 41 murders
Inspector George Gently: 24 murders
Total: 65
Chester
Hollyoaks: 49 murders
Manchester
Coronation Street: 21 murders
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Yorkshire
Emmerdale: 24 murders
Jersey
Bergerac: 87 murders
Glasgow
Taggart: 110 murders
Shetland Islands
Shetland: 12 murders