INVERARAY is a Scottish town in Argyll and Bute with a population of just shy of 600 people. It’s the area’s scenic offering that normally attracts visitors – but last year it all changed when one of Netflix’s biggest shows “shut down” the town.
Film crews descended to shoot an episode for the hotly anticipated sixth season of Black Mirror – which is streaming now.
Actors Myha’la Herrold and Samuel Blenkin talked exclusively to The National about Loch Henry, the commercialisation of true crime and their experiences of filming in Scotland.
In Loch Henry, a young couple travel to a sleepy Scottish town to start work on a genteel nature documentary – but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events of the past.
Typically, Black Mirror is set in the near future and each episode shows the dystopian ways in which technology could develop and have a negative impact on individuals and society.
However, for the sixth season, Charlie Brooker sets the episodes in the present and focuses on aspects of technology that are all too familiar to the modern audience.
Herrold explained: “In previous seasons of Black Mirror, it was very much this is where we could be heading. But this season is very much like, here’s where we are right now… which I think is more terrifying”
Blenkin added: “Charlie has done a great job of metamorphosing the show into something that’s prescient for now because the technology is catching up. The things that he’s pinpointing are things that are happening under the surface, that are already integrated and we haven’t realised that they’re happening.”
Loch Henry is a satirical reflection on our morbid fascination with true crime documentaries and how the tragedy and trauma of a community or an individual can be commercialised by the media for profit.
Nothing gets people talking more than the drama of a great true crime series. They capture the very worst of human nature – but what is our fascination with this dark genre? Blenkin believes that it relates to the “what if?” factor.
He said: “It’s to do with you putting yourself in that person’s shoes and thinking that you’d react differently or seeing how a human being would react.
“I think that in all spheres of life right now we are drawn to the extremes, political extremes, entertainment extremes, how far can we go? We’re going down that Whirlpool at the moment so we are on an interesting journey!”
Herrold added: “We monetize trauma, we monetize our own pain, we commercialise it, we mainstream it, which is weird. So I’ll always think about that whilst I’m eating my popcorn or enjoying whatever crime thing I’m watching.”
The episode is filmed in the beautiful Scottish Highlands around Loch Fyne in the small town of Inveraray, which is described in the episode as “like something out of a painting”. The actors echoed this opinion, calling it “stunningly beautiful”.
Herrold said: “I hadn’t been to a place so green. We got really lucky with the weather as well, a little bit of rain, but mostly clear skies.
“When I finally got to watch the episode, there’s a scene where you see Pia and Davis set in the foreground of just truly a landscape, a loch and the mountains and it was stunningly beautiful. I felt like it was more impactful to watch it somehow.
“I was literally there and it was crazy but somehow watching it back I was like ‘damn, it really is like a painting’.”
The town of Inveraray is quiet and understated, not exactly where you would expect to see a cast and crew for a big-budget mega-hit.
Blenkin said: “We closed the whole town. There were queues of traffic because there’s one road going through Inverary to get further North. They closed the roads so when we were rolling the camera there was a queue and as soon as they said ‘cut’ the cars all rolled through the town.”
Herrold added: “There were a handful of people who would come by and watch us for a bit and then go in a store. But it wasn’t overwhelming because it’s not like in previous seasons of Black Mirror where there would be gadgets and things everywhere. So I don’t think they knew what was happening which was nice, it kept it all a secret.”
Loch Henry is shot and filmed in Inveraray but the cast and crew were predominantly based in Glasgow and self-professed foodie Herrold said that one of the highlights of her time in Scotland was the food.
“The entire trip was great and we had lots of really lovely dinners out, there’s some great food in Glasgow. I’d love to eat so that was great.
I loved Crabshakk, it was so good… I went so many times!”
Season six of Black Mirror is streaming on Netflix now
