Written and produced by MALCOLM BROWN In the vast expanse of sea between Scotland and Norway lie ' the islands of Shetland, a 70-mile-long tangle of rock and cliff which provides home and livelihood for 17,000 British citizens. Yet though politically British, these people are first and foremost Shetlanders, who have never forgotten that Shetland once belonged to the Norsemen of Scandinavia until it was pawned to the Kingdom of Scotland as part of a thoroughly dubious marriage settlement 501 years ago. This is the story of one midwinter month in the life of these unique islands- January 1970; a month which began with snow, continued with storm and ended in a strange almost miraculous calm; a month which culminated in the great Viking fire-festival of Up-Helly-Aa, when 700 torchmen marched through the streets of Lerwick and the dragon-galley Ormrinn Langi perished heroically in a gigantic funeral pyre. Narrated by Duncan Carse
