Fair Isle - Living On the Edge s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1 Fair Isle, Britain's most remote inhabited island.
It's an extraordinary place to live.
There are so many moments when you walk outside or even stand in the window on a stormy day and you just say, "Wow! But life here is not for everyone.
You can be cut off for days at any time of the year.
There is no power at night.
And just one small shop.
Splendid.
Cheers.
See you.
Bye.
Every able-bodied adult holds down several jobs just to keep the island going.
But its population is at a critical point.
If we lose two or three more families then the population crashes and that would be utter disaster for a remote place like this.
Once, almost 400 people lived here.
Now, there are 57.
Two of them, Sean and Rachel, moved here just five months ago.
Getting here cost them their life savings.
It was a leap of faith.
It was a massive leap of faith, I think, on both our parts.
- Yeah.
- To come here together, you know, with everything.
Rachel.
The island needs people like them to put down roots if it's going to survive.
Sometimes you'll be having a day where you think, what am I doing here? Usually, being isolated is a punishment for things.
So sometimes I question that and then other times I kind of feel, God, aren't we lucky? I think you're aware, as well, that there's no half-measures here.
If you decide to leave, you can't just come back.
That would be your place gone.
Fair Isle is this very small island at the top of the United Kingdom.
It is halfway between these two groups of islands called the Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands.
It is three miles long and one-and-half miles across.
And it is Britain's most remote inhabited island.
And it's our home.
The National Trust of Scotland bought Fair Isle in 1954.
57 people live here, running 18 crofts and all the island's essential services.
This is a working island.
It's not a museum.
It's a place where we live and if we want anything doing here, we have to do it for ourselves.
Sean and Rachel are both ex-military, and are well equipped to adapt to island life.
Rachel is a finisher for one of the island's knitters and Sean is a much needed crewmember on the island's ferry.
- INTERVIEWER: - What did you work on in the military, vehicle-wise? - Tanks! - Tanks.
Tanks, yeah.
Go for that, Sean.
You know, I've gone from dead-end job to dead-end job since, you know, the military and just not been able to find anything suitable.
This is an absolute dream, you know, it is, really.
Sean and Rachel had been together three months when they applied to live here.
Since we've been here, I think, you know, we've had our ups and downs, you know, we are still a very new relationship and we've only just been together a little over a year.
You know, if a relationship wasn't working somewhere else you could just pack the car and go.
Here, I guess, you have that added, you know, it's not that easy.
And they're yet to face their first winter on Fair Isle.
Daylight in the winter can be as little as six hours.
The weather can be pretty fearsome.
I suppose on their first winter here they might actually feel a little bit claustrophobic.
Well, there's quite a few challenges of living somewhere as remote as here.
- Getting off! - Travel is the big one.
Getting off and back on is probably the biggest one! - INTERVIEWER: - Do you like having sheep? - I do like it, yes.
Sometimes I don't like it.
In the middle of winter and it's hideous and you've got to go out and feed them and roll bales of silage around, I don't like that, really, but lambing's lovely.
Everybody loves lambing.
Hollie and Derek Shaw have lived here for 15 years, raising a family of four.
OK, well, this is just a wall of It's just a random wall of photos of the children, mainly.
All four of them, since they were little.
Like all parents on the Isle, Hollie and Derek have to face the fact that when children turn 11 or 12, they leave the island to board at secondary school on the Shetland mainland.
Last month, it was time for their youngest, Ivan, to go.
- Do you feel like you're missing out? - Oh, no question about it.
- Oh, yeah.
- Absolutely.
Yeah, missing a lot, yeah, and that's very hard.
It's the major downside to living here.
PHONE RINGS It's September, and Ivan has been away for almost three weeks.
- Hello.
- But he's struggling with homesickness.
Hi, darling, are you all right? What are you up to? 'It's whenever he's got nothing to do, it seems to be, you know, 'there's no-one else around.
' OK.
He can't think what to do by himself, and then he just That's when he phones home and starts crying.
It's a huge adjustment for Hollie and Derek, too.
But, no, it's OK.
We've got used to it quite quickly.
I knew I would get used to it quickly, because I've been through it a few times, but um Very nice, lots of people on the island asking us how we are, making sure we're all right.
I'm getting lots of hugs, which is really nice.
Life here is ruled by arrivals and departures.
Every spring and autumn, the migrating birds return.
There has been a bird observatory on Fair Isle for over 60 years.
It's almost an industry.
As the migrant birds arrive, so, too, do the bird-watchers.
Thank you very much.
About 600 every year, paying hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds for the privilege.
It's just one of those places that keeps drawing me back.
It's just the air of expectation, you just don't know what's going to turn up here, and it's a beautiful place as well, you get a nice sunny day, the cliffs are just amazing.
The scenery's just beyond anything I've really seen in the country, really.
There've been occasions where we've had quite a few people gathered, you know, outside, but I don't think I've ever seen quite this many people, so it's quite exciting, even though I don't really know what the bird looks like that they're after.
A lot of them just look like sparrows to me, but don't tell them I said that, they get very cross! The bird observatory, it, er .
.
it brings people in here, keeps the townsfolk going, keeps the level of connections that we have.
We have a good level of service just because there's a lot of visitors coming here.
It keeps the shop going.
I doubt very much whether a shop would be viable here if it wasn't for having the bird observatory.
So They keep us viable and I suppose we keep them viable, so it's maybe the best of both worlds.
This is one of the Fair Isle specials, you know.
It's what all these people here have come to see, basically.
Lanceolated warbler, Pallas's grasshopper warbler.
There you go, boys.
That's what all the fuss is about.
Cool! - It's not big.
- No.
The bird observatory has been collecting data for over 60 years.
And because they have always used the same techniques, this information has become some of the most important migration and census data in Europe.
HE MAKES BIRD CALLS I'll take the bird out of the box.
OK, this is a willow warbler.
Fair Isle's pretty much one of the best places to see migration, not just in Britain but anywhere in the world, so I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to get to work here and be a part of it, really.
As the only landmass for miles, migrating birds use Fair Isle as a pit stop day and night.
Put the song on, it's very loud.
BIRDSONG RECORDING This is all ready for storm petrel trapping.
It's quite exciting.
It's good.
Coming through, coming through.
Lots and lots here.
So, what we're doing is fitting a tiny, very lightweight metal ring on to the bird's leg.
That has a unique number on it and it means that if this bird is found elsewhere or trapped by anyone else, then we get the details of where our bird has gone and the people who catch it get the details of where their bird came from.
- Looking down, going down.
- It's gone down.
It's come up the side now.
- Right underneath us.
- It's probably right beneath us.
Yeah, it's just out again.
You can just about make it out, it's just almost beneath us.
Fair Isle, tick.
It's one of the ones I always wanted to see was a blue tail on Fair Isle.
And I couldn't have asked for a better place for it, either.
That is a warbler, Steve, there on that fence.
- I think I might need to get closer.
- We're going to have to go and have a look at that for a minute.
What time is it? - It's getting close to one.
- Getting close to lunch as well.
- INTERVIEWER: - Could you live somewhere like this? - Pardon? - Could you live somewhere like this? - Oh - Would you live here? I would live here, yeah.
I would live here, yeah, I would live here.
My wife wouldn't live here.
She'd hate it.
If she can't go to John Lewis at weekend with her friend, then, you know If I won the lottery and I won the big one, 75 million, I might build, come and build a John Lewis on here! - INTERVIEWER: - If you won the lottery, what would you do? That's Do you know, that's a It's a funny question.
Would you stay, would you go? Oh, for goodness' sake, no, I will stay.
I'm living already with people that wins the lottery once so I don't need to move! No, I wouldn't.
- Bigger shed! - Bigger shed! I'm not into that thing, no.
I've got enough.
If I win the lottery? It'd be a bloody miracle, I don't play the lottery! Oh, I'd probably have to go a few places, but I'd probably come back because that's the sort of place Fair Isle is, it does kind of have a little hold on you.
Sean and Rachel only pay £500 a year in rent, but their incomes are low, too, and now they have to learn what everyone else on Fair Isle has had to before - how to make ends meet and how to croft.
I do feel very much at home and this is what I should be doing, you know, possibly should have taken this up, not necessarily here, but maybe farming up, in the first place.
Two eggs, which is very exciting.
- INTERVIEWER: - Are you still both glad you've come here, then? Yeah, massively.
Well, I certainly am, you know, it is wonderful, but there are challenges as well.
The past couple of months have been quite tight.
Things like the sheep feed, you know, I mean that's We've had two sheep feed deliveries, that's been about £200 - Well, the third one - .
.
each time.
- Yeah, over 200 quid, 250 or whatever it was, something like that maybe, give or take.
- It's not bad.
- Which doesn't sound a lot, but I mean, I, you know, if I earn, sort of over £100 in a month from the finishing, it's a good month, so when you look at it in those terms, it's, you know, it's quite a massive expenditure and we've had the expense of, the Land Rover's a bit broken, so It's going to probably be maybe £1,000-odd at least, I don't know, but it's about 300-odd quid just to take it apart in labour.
Making Fair Isle sustainable is a priority for everyone who lives here.
Along with all his other jobs, Ian is an elected member of the Community Association, established when the islanders realised they urgently needed to boost the population.
Whilst the National Trust for Scotland does all it can, it's the community that have put together a development plan, which Ian is about to launch in Lerwick on the Shetland mainland.
The purpose of the plan is to sustain Fair Isle into into the next decade and well on after that.
So, to sum up the document, it's about us helping ourselves and helping others to help us.
Transport, there is movement ahead with the design budget for a new, improved ferry service.
We need to improve the island power supply.
- DIAL-UP CONNECTION SOUND - Broadband, fairly vital for the island to secure broadband.
It opens up the possibilities of jobs and, you know, decreasing the isolation of Fair Isle, it's just huge.
The population is too small and needs to grow.
We need more people.
We've adopted a target of attracting three families in the next three to five years.
We have to increase the housing to grow the population and that kind of sounds very obvious, but, I mean, there's a huge amount of issues in Fair Isle with producing housing.
Fair Isle is divided up into 18 crofts and any building work is restricted by crofting legislation, which allows only one property per croft.
There are three plots available for development .
.
but getting builders and building materials onto a remote island is expensive and always at the mercy of the weather.
Everything that happens on the island is ruled by the weather.
I mean, the boat's unlikely to go tomorrow because of the weather.
September brings gales, which will only get worse as the winter approaches.
It's an evil day we've got.
This is terrible, it must be 50 knots.
It must be, yeah.
There'll be no plane today.
If it's a gale, well, you'll be indoors doing something.
If it's if it's nicer weather you'll maybe take the opportunity to get outside and do something, so you can see it both ways.
It looks to be slightly darker over the hill and around.
I think that we've got two layers of cloud.
The lowest, oh How much? Three oktas, I think of that.
Dave is a meteorologist.
He's lived here for 44 years.
His Fair Isle weather readings supply the shipping forecast all year round.
No matter what improvements we get .
.
there will still be times when it's nigh-on impossible to go outside because you can't stand upright, you can't walk against the wind.
- WEATHER FORECASTER: - Fair Isle, cyclonic gale, eight to storm ten becoming north, six to gale eight.
Good morning, porters, it's the Fair Isle nurse.
I think there'll be no blood test coming out today, unfortunately.
'Life is completely ruled by the weather, 'and a lot of that is focused on transport issues because 'we never know when the transport's going to arrive.
' Hello, Dave, it's Elena.
We're all standing here like spare parts at the airstrip.
Any advances on previous news? Oh, no.
Oh, no! Oh, no, Dave! I think I get quite uptight about it at times, but I also get disproportionately happy, delirious sometimes, when things actually work out.
It's a plane, it's definitely a plane! There's no job like this in the UK anywhere, I don't think.
It's completely unique, you know, you're on a rock in the middle of nowhere, and I think if you're a control freak and you need to be able to know that you're going to do something when you want to do it, then it's just no good doing a job like this.
Very delighted to see you here.
Thank you very much.
- If you wouldn't mind taking this.
- Absolutely.
- Thank you very much.
Bye! As the year wears on, the weather worsens.
Travel to and from the Isle grows more unreliable.
The high school children who are on the Shetland mainland right now are meant to fly home today.
But the plane has been cancelled because Fair Isle lies shrouded in mist, which leaves just one alternative.
We're going to Grutness to get on the boat, so we can go home, because the plane's not going to fly.
- I'm going to get so sick! - Which isn't great, because nobody wants to go on the boat because it's horrible.
But, you know.
- It's home.
- INTERVIEWER: - Is this your first weekend home then, Ivan? - Yeah.
- Are you looking forward to it? Yeah.
- Daddy! - Hiya! Hi, Dad.
- Are you all right, darling? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
We gave them the option of what to do, you know, whether to try and wait for a plane, and if there wasn't a plane, come home next weekend.
I think he's very keen to come home this weekend, so, I think he's missing home so he's willing to suffer the boat.
- Hello! - Hey, Mum.
- You all right, sweetheart? - Yeah.
- And you, you OK? Are you OK, yeah? Yeah.
Just take your bags straight upstairs, and get your washing out because I'm going to have trouble getting it all dry.
Keep still because this is the bit, if I slip now, you're just bald, OK? He's been He's been fairly homesick.
I wasn't really surprised.
We kind of expected it because of the way Just because of the nature of him, as a person, we thought he probably would be quite homesick.
OK.
You're done.
Stand up, shake yourself off.
- Yeah.
- Taylor Swift.
Right.
Go.
Next.
We just have to ride it out.
And I think Raven was much worse.
She was much worse and homesick, much more homesick then he is.
I think, with him, it just feels worse for us because we haven't got another child to focus on back at home.
So, when he phones and he's upset, that's all we've got left.
We're left with that kind of just sad feeling when we got off the phone to him.
But she was homesick for, well, a couple of terms, weren't you? Really quite badly.
And she's come through it really well in the end.
I reckon girls get more homesick than guys - because guys can play on the computers and stuff.
- Yeah.
I don't like computers.
Let's see.
Don't walk through the hair! Let's see you.
- That looks all right, doesn't it? - Mm-hmm.
It's this side that's short.
OVERLAPPING CONVERSATIONS - INTERVIEWER: - Why is it so busy this morning? It's busy because the boat went yesterday.
So we've got all the supplies coming in on the boat yesterday.
And, you know, there's fresh fruit and vegetables, folk's milk, fresh bread, all that sort of stuff.
So, it's always Everybody kind of get their supplies in for the week.
Because you've got to wait another week for the next boat.
STRONG WIND BLOWS It's quite important to have a good supply in your freezer to keep you going through the winter.
We've been freezing the milk, just so that we've always got, you know, milk.
I can't open this very well.
Sean and Rachel are prepared for being cut off by winter weather.
But the effects of the damp, maritime climate on their home are less easy to deal with.
So, this is the really bad, mouldy room, which, you can see, it's delightful.
It gets cleaned a lot and the mould just grows back and grows back.
It's actually about ten times better than it was.
You see that bit of really black, black mould? That's what all of this was like.
We have mouldy bed slats.
Which is lovely.
We could probably do with actually lifting that up so they can dry.
But where do we put it, Sean? - There's nowhere - No, lean it up against, at least there's air moving round it.
I don't know.
We're hoping that the trust can find the money to get the insulation and everything - Sooner rather than later.
- Yes.
Um, so, we're just haemorrhaging money on trying to keep this place warm, where we shouldn't be doing, you know.
And it's depressing.
Everyone who comes to Fair Isle has to adapt.
When Mati arrived from Venezuela, her training as an architect wasn't much in demand.
So she took up the traditional Fair Isle craft of knitting instead.
Like some of the other island letters, she makes a living from what she produces by hand.
But she has plans to expand.
- INTERVIEWER: - What are you doing, Mati? I'm making a selection of the photographs for the new, um, online shop.
It's going to be my own designs.
They are not knitted here in Fair Isle, so it is a collaboration with the textile unit in Shetland College.
The idea is to explore manufacturing with an industrial knitting machine in order to offer a high-quality garment, but a more affordable price.
We've got all the stock ready, available now.
Labelled and washed and pressed.
So, it's now just a matter of putting everything together and launch it.
So, see what happens.
The knitting tradition in Fair Isle can be traced back to the 1600s.
Originally made for barter to the passing ships, it has played an essential part in the island's economy for centuries.
The Bruce Expedition of the Antarctic went with a lot of Fair Isle jumpers because James Coates from Paisley ordered 100 jumpers and 100 hats and 100 pairs of mittens and 100 pairs of socks.
So, it was one time in Fair Isle's history when having a house full of daughters must have been a huge asset! Mati's plans to produce her knitwear industrially goes against the grain.
Most Fair Isle knitters use these manual knitting machines and finish off by hand.
They work from home and have no overheads.
- INTERVIEWER: - Do you think there's room for expansion on Fair Isle in regards to the knitwear? I'm sure there is, actually.
I wouldn't like to see it becoming cheap and .
.
produced well, mass produced.
Because I think we are such a small community and, er, one of the things we've got going for us is the fact that we are unique.
And I think that we should use that.
It's very easy in a modern world where everything is now technological and I could design on a computer and then the machine would churn it out and then I would have a garment at the end of it, but I wouldn't have the same sense of, "That's part of me.
" It's hand crafted, and it's the hand-crafted element that makes it important and special and not something that might have been bought in Japan.
At Christmas, family and friends return to Fair Isle.
Elena spends time with her granddaughter, and her husband, Yoan, who's come all the way from Romania.
Fresh! Ooh! It is amazing.
Yeah.
Yoan fancies himself as a celebrity chef, you see.
They use lots of salt, because this is Romania Oh! - That's OK.
- This is Romanian cookery, - so we use lots of salt.
- Carry on.
- Oh, dear.
- Don't! - Hypertension, here we come.
- INTERVIEWER: - What are you making, then? - Sarmale, it's called.
Sarmale, yes.
It's what Romanians eat for high days and holy days.
It's always I breathe a sigh of relief when Yoan turns up - for Christmas.
- Thank you.
- Why's that? - Because I don't have to cook.
There's always something bubbling on the stove, all the time when Yoan's here.
He doesn't live here all the time because he's a gold miner by trade and there aren't too many gold mines in Fair Isle.
He looks after our house in Romania He just comes and demolishes the kitchen here for Christmas and Easter time.
And I go out there three times a year, and, er But, you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Happy Christmas.
There's a sort of bond between people here which is very difficult to describe.
Unto us a saviour is born this day.
It's one of the things that make me really dread leaving here, because of that bond.
And again, I'm not quite sure exactly what it is.
It's not that we all think that everybody is wonderful, doesn't mean to say that we get on with everybody.
It can mean that we get on each other's nerves, frankly, from time to time.
But there's a bond somewhere which naturally occurs among people on an island like this.
We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Oh, they're all home.
Lachlan, the eldest, and the three high school children and my mum and dad have come up as well.
For two weeks.
So, busy.
Good fun.
- INTERVIEWER: - How is Ivan getting on? He's settling in.
It's getting easier.
- He's not there yet.
- Got more friends, though.
Yeah.
He's had a couple of sleepovers with friends in Lerwick.
It's still hard sometimes, but we get the worst of it.
You know, when he rings home and he's upset, it's because he's bored and then he gets homesick.
So we're trying to keep him busy.
He's got a few things.
He's started football and I think he might He's thinking about starting athletics.
Skipper Neall's daughter, Eileen, has flown in from Edinburgh with the latest addition to the Thompson family.
This is Luca.
This is grandson Luca.
It is Eileen's pretty boy.
And he's, what, four? Three or four months.
No? - Four months, yeah.
- Yes.
- Four months old.
Four months old.
Four months old! Isn't that good fun? - INTERVIEWER: - Is this his first time to Fair Isle? This is his first time to Fair Isle, yeah, yeah.
I always liked growing up here.
I think it was the amount of freedom we had.
When you see it compared to a city life where you have to watch your kids every second of every day.
Whereas here I can hand the baby to anyone.
You know, it's fine because they're all family or friends.
But I miss the community.
I really miss that.
There we go! What have you got there, Neal? An airplane? It's a - It is an airplane! - Airplane! - INTERVIEWER: - Have you ever considered coming back to live here? I think it's something we would think about.
Because we have a baby, I think our life has probably changed quite a lot.
And priorities change.
It's not an easy thing to do and I think it's not really an easy decision.
We'd need to think really carefully about it, but I love being at home.
My partner really loves it here, as well.
He feels very comfortable being here.
And certainly for the benefit of Luca to be here around his family and all the history that we have here on this island, it could be a really attractive idea.
I like being home.
Well, isn't that romantic, Dave? I can see that in your bathroom already.
- Well done.
- INTERVIEWER: - Where's Rachel tonight? She's not feeling very well at the moment.
She's got a really sore throat at the minute, so She's stolen the bottle of a child! - Bit more on the tray up there.
- Good girl.
- INTERVIEWER: - And how are you two getting on together then? So far this year, all of three days of it, it's been good.
And I think it's, you know It's difficult, because, you know, we have good days and we'll have bad days and, you know, there are times where, or there have been times, where I think if we weren't here on Fair Isle, it would have been It's reached the stage where it would have been very easy for us One of us, to have walked away from the situation - I'll do it.
- .
.
and say, "Right, that's it.
"I've had enough.
"I'm moving out.
" You know, you haven't got any escape here on the island.
There's nowhere to go.
Even if one of us wanted to leave, I don't have the money to leave.
I can't afford to leave the island, to pay for a removals company, to find somewhere else to live.
You know, so you kind of have to confront the issue.
Which in simplest terms is, "Do we want to be together?" Just hook that over.
Just chuck it over for now.
We'll get it on the way out.
You know, Christmas itself wasn't brilliant.
We didn't have a great day, Christmas Day, or We didn't have a day, Christmas Day, did we? Well, obviously it was a Christmas Day.
Well, just another day.
Well, yeah.
You know, Christmas Day is what you make it, but it wasn't for us as a couple, it wasn't .
.
you know, a wholly successful day.
There wasn't anything successful on that day.
I had a nice day.
Do you want to go in? Rachel.
You can't stand here.
I know, that's why I'm going.
In spite of all the arguments and the differences between us and our opinions on things and all that, I think, you know, we do want to be together.
And we'd like to try and make that work.
And, you know, long term, whether it does or it doesn't, I've no idea, but I think we'd like to give it the best shot.
- INTERVIEWER: - Would you like to make it work, Sean? - Yeah.
Oh, God.
Mum, why did you keep the door open yesterday? - Bye, love.
- Bye.
Have a good day.
Mati's website selling her machine-produced knitwear is doing brisk business.
But the internet means she can keep an eye on what's happening elsewhere, and pictures of a recent Chanel launch have caught her attention.
Yeah, that's my garment and this is a copy that Chanel did.
It's pretty much the same.
So, yeah.
It was great because I thought, "Oh, God, it really looks good.
" But then it was like, "OK.
"What do I do now?" That shouldn't really be there, because it's my design.
I had a lot of people on social media were quite aggressive.
Which was not - I mean - INTERVIEWER: - Saying what? "You should sue them" and, "That's what they always do.
" And, you know, "Always big fashion houses taking advantage.
" And I thought, actually, I don't feel like that.
I don't really care about the money.
This is not about that.
This is about awareness.
This is about knowing, you know, that there is a heritage, a Scottish, very, very rich heritage.
I have had people that have looked at my website and said, "Is that a place?" And I'm like, "Yes.
Fair Isle is actually an island.
"A very small one, but it is an island "and that's where those patterns and those garments originated.
" Two more, then.
That fuel is all just for heating.
Mostly for heating and generating the island's power scheme.
But the windmill got zapped with lightning, so it's out of order at the moment, and the direct result of that is we have three times as many barrels coming.
Which, you know, that much more fuel getting burned.
It's not good for us and it's not good for the environment and the whole thing, you know.
Before the turbine was damaged by lightning, when the wind blew, the power was cheap.
And when the wind stopped, the generators took over .
.
burning expensive diesel fuel to power and heat all the homes on the island.
We restrict the use of diesel power from 7.
30 in the morning to 11.
30 at night.
Unless we are on wind power, then it just It'll stay on 24 hours a day if we are on wind generation.
It's vital the islanders get this broken turbine repaired as soon as possible.
But it's a tall order, requiring as many hands as can be mustered.
- INTERVIEWER: - How long has it not been working? About four months.
Four months, isn't it? Four months it's been out of commission, yeah.
The trouble is, like, I mean, it's like this.
You need the perfect day and you need the people to do it.
So, you just have to wait for it all to come together at the right time.
This is the way we've always done it, because you can't get cranes and stuff and all that on this island, so you have no choice but to do it this way.
How much longer will it take? A couple of hours.
What time is it now? 25 to Yeah, maybe an hour.
Maybe.
It depends.
Depends how fast I put them through their paces, eh? Come on, boys.
Come on.
Oh, God, Derek, you've got an hour to catch up! The community have big plans to upgrade their entire power system.
They've secured £200,000 of funding, but the sustainable system they want could cost nearly three million.
If it's completed, all of the island's essential services will benefit, and so will the Fair Islanders themselves.
It's hard to do your knitting in the dark.
Chanel have been in touch with Mati to apologise for the mix-up in copying her design and have offered her an opportunity to work for them.
When Chanel, er accidentally copied the design, one of the things that was on offer was that if there was a demand for the garment, they could place an order with me.
And I can't do it because I don't have the capabilities.
For the last two years, Mati has been travelling back and forward to the textiles department at Shetland College, who are making knitwear for her website using an industrial knitting machine.
She would like to see a similar machine at work on Fair Isle.
But it wouldn't produce the pure, handcrafted knitwear the Isle is famous for.
My idea is that that machine will supply retailers and online shops.
- INTERVIEWER: - Will you still hand-knit? Definitely.
I mean, the most important part of my business is my bespoke service.
That's my aim, that one day we could have hand-knitting, handcrafted and the industrial one all working together to support the economy of the island.
I would love to see you up and doing everything on the Fair Isle.
Very quickly.
Very quickly! Yeah.
Well, you know, if you can employ three, four, five people, and those four, five people are earning a living.
You know Not just getting by, as you said, but earning a living.
You know, then that's good.
It's all been worthwhile.
It's now April, so, we're well into Well, getting into spring now, and we've actually started lambing now.
This is the nitty-gritty of it and Mm, mm-hm.
It's quite nice.
Everything in the year, this is sort of the culmination of it.
Everything leads to lambing.
Oh, well done.
Nearly there.
Good girl.
Good girl, Brenda.
Good girl.
Oh, Brenda, yay.
Good girl.
Look at that big, fat lamb.
Look at it.
Good girl.
Good girl.
Lambing is in full swing.
But in Sean and Rachel's house, the list of small domestic disasters is getting longer.
- INTERVIEWER: - OK.
So, what's happened here then? Basically, as you can see, the entire wall units came crashing down.
Just a little thing to put in a box of Well, it's not a little thing.
I think there's been several major things with the house and it's, you know, up to here with it, quite frankly.
- It's not being on the island, it's not living on the island.
- No.
- We don't want to not be here.
- We don't want to move off the island - or anything like that.
- But do I want to continue living in this house? No.
I hate this house, quite frankly.
Do we want to keep putting our efforts into this place for .
.
even more belongings of ours to get broken now? You know, it's - It's that fact, isn't it, now? - DISTANT BARKING Oh, what are those pissing dogs barking at? Sorry.
BARKING - Morning.
- Morning.
Put all your stuff here, please.
- INTERVIEWER: - What's Ivan like when he goes now? Just normal now when he goes.
Just like the others.
Yeah, just like with the others now.
Yeah.
"Bye, Mum.
Bye, Dad.
" - Sometimes he's a bit clingy the day before, actually, isn't he? - Yeah.
- But not bad.
- Just thinking about it.
- How long's it been, then? Since he left? - August, September, November, - December, January, February - Last August, yeah.
March, April.
Yeah, eight months.
As much as it's very hard for us to have our children go away, I don't think many of us would think it would be beneficial to keep them here until they're 15.
You know, they need to see a bigger Well, it's important for them to get their social interaction, you know, in the wider world, you know.
Coming somewhere like Tesco's really big, because we're not used it on Fair Isle.
You hardly see three cars in the same place, but you come somewhere like this and there's traffic jams and traffic lights and shops are, like, much bigger and it's really busy.
And it's weird, but you get more used to it.
- Oh.
They sell ketchup! - So many people.
- INTERVIEWER: - Do you find it intimidating or anything? - That it's so busy.
- No.
I like seeing a lot of people.
I like people.
There's probably more people in the shop - than there is on Fair Isle.
- Yeah.
What is the population of Fair Isle? - It's about - 57.
- Do you know that? What can you see? How many people can you see right now? - Don't count.
- Count.
- OK, fine, count them.
Is it easier for you guys now that it's easier for him? - Oh, yes.
- If it's easier for him, - it's easier for us instantly.
- Oh, yeah, fabulous.
- Yeah.
And even when it was bad, he still didn't want to change it.
He still wanted That was the situation and he wanted to still live here, so he could go to the hostel.
- Yeah.
- He was just learning to deal with it.
Oh, no, hold on.
- 57.
- 57.
That's the population of Fair Isle! Oh, my God.
This is our new kitchen unit, since everything fell off the wall.
So, at least it's handy.
At least I can see stuff.
What I've got.
Um, a bit bare now, on the wall.
But, yeah, we have a toaster that works, at least.
This is Sean's room, in here.
Very neat.
And then this is my room.
The door doesn't open properly because it's broken.
So, erm - INTERVIEWER: - How long have you been in separate rooms? - Oh, months.
Months and months.
Mainly because Sean insists on sleeping with the three dogs and as many cats as want to go in there.
You know, there are times when both of us have said, you know, "We can't carry on living together.
" We're having a row and, you know, but - People say things, don't they? - We both want to be here.
- We both want to be on Fair Isle.
- Yeah.
Neither of us wants to give that up any time soon.
But, what is the alternative? You know, if one of us moves out of here, there is nowhere for them to move on Fair Isle.
There is no alternative accommodation.
You know, it would mean one of us having to move somewhere else, off island, which isn't something either of us wants to do.
You know, we both have our different jobs here on the island.
You know, we're both part of the community.
Um It's not something .
.
you know, we do want to give up, whether that's individually or as a couple.
Um, so, you know, to a certain extent, we're kind of, we're stuck with each other.
- She says that - Are still a couple? Or are you just housemates? I I know I think we're a couple.
I know we're a couple.
There are people who live here who no longer wish to live together.
And there are people who don't live here, who really wish they could.
Houses on Fair Isle are in short supply.
The National Trust for Scotland are still trying to find enough money to make homes for new families to move here.
But an unexpected door has opened for Neal's daughter, Eileen.
Some of her relatives have decided to leave, and they've signed their house and croft over to Eileen and her family.
The affordability of living in a beautiful house there and having land around us, compared to managing in a two-bedroom flat in the city .
.
is going to be much easier.
And we want more children and there's just no room here.
So, hopefully, at the end of this year, we'll be leaving Edinburgh and starting a new life back up at home.
And I just love where I come from.
I miss it.
I really miss the island, and Gishermo loves it, too.
It's now a year and a half since Sean and Rachel moved into their croft house, and a lot has happened.
The damp room has been fixed.
There's no new kitchen cupboards yet and there is something else missing.
Sean and I are no longer together.
Um, we split up quite a few months back.
Um, so I've stayed here in the croft.
Sean's moved out.
He's still on the island.
He has a house a little way down the island now.
Um, so I'm just kind of here on my own and I'm running the croft and the sheep on my own, so with help from my neighbours.
Too much difference between us.
We weren't actually, you know, on the same page with a lot of things.
So neither of us wanted to leave.
You know, it was all looking as if I was going to have to leave.
And then, just by .
.
a miracle, somewhere became available.
There are two small council properties on Fair Isle and again, unexpectedly, one has become vacant.
So, Sean has managed to stay on the Isle.
- INTERVIEWER: - Why did you want to stay? Because this is the magic of this place.
It is still the community, er, feel and .
.
that overwhelming feeling of, "I've found home.
" Sean and Rachel may not be a couple any more, but they have both become a big part of the community.
Fair Isle coastguard Alpha.
They each have several essential island jobs.
And Rachel is continuing to run the croft on her own.
You feel like you're part of something.
You feel like you're making a difference and you belong to something.
I'm so glad I'm here.
You know, I can't actually imagine living anywhere else now.
You know, I wake up every morning looking out on this view .
.
and knowing the people out there are always going to still help you, regardless of what happens.
They're still going to be there for you and they're still going to care about you.
And just the way of life here.
It's just fantastic.
It's a different world.
- INTERVIEWER: - Can you remember a moment where you thought, "I love living here"? Where were you? What were you doing? Have you ever thought that? - Oh, I've thought that lots of times.
- Yeah.
A lot.
The whole notion of thinking, "Wow, this is a lovely place to be" I think has just always been there.
If I go for a walk on the cliffs, I can have .
.
you know, there's a hush, as it were.
You don't have to think about anything.
You don't have to, um .
.
you don't have to worry about anything.
Hundreds of people have paths in this island, and the island continues to be that something and carry its own heritage.
And as soon as you move to live here, you learn to do it.
Whether it's the sheep, or the knitting, or lobster catching .
.
you just learn.
So, it belongs to the island.
A lot of things do.
We come and we go and the things are still there.
That's why every day there's something that makes me feel I love being here.
Every day.
It's an extraordinary place to live.
There are so many moments when you walk outside or even stand in the window on a stormy day and you just say, "Wow! But life here is not for everyone.
You can be cut off for days at any time of the year.
There is no power at night.
And just one small shop.
Splendid.
Cheers.
See you.
Bye.
Every able-bodied adult holds down several jobs just to keep the island going.
But its population is at a critical point.
If we lose two or three more families then the population crashes and that would be utter disaster for a remote place like this.
Once, almost 400 people lived here.
Now, there are 57.
Two of them, Sean and Rachel, moved here just five months ago.
Getting here cost them their life savings.
It was a leap of faith.
It was a massive leap of faith, I think, on both our parts.
- Yeah.
- To come here together, you know, with everything.
Rachel.
The island needs people like them to put down roots if it's going to survive.
Sometimes you'll be having a day where you think, what am I doing here? Usually, being isolated is a punishment for things.
So sometimes I question that and then other times I kind of feel, God, aren't we lucky? I think you're aware, as well, that there's no half-measures here.
If you decide to leave, you can't just come back.
That would be your place gone.
Fair Isle is this very small island at the top of the United Kingdom.
It is halfway between these two groups of islands called the Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands.
It is three miles long and one-and-half miles across.
And it is Britain's most remote inhabited island.
And it's our home.
The National Trust of Scotland bought Fair Isle in 1954.
57 people live here, running 18 crofts and all the island's essential services.
This is a working island.
It's not a museum.
It's a place where we live and if we want anything doing here, we have to do it for ourselves.
Sean and Rachel are both ex-military, and are well equipped to adapt to island life.
Rachel is a finisher for one of the island's knitters and Sean is a much needed crewmember on the island's ferry.
- INTERVIEWER: - What did you work on in the military, vehicle-wise? - Tanks! - Tanks.
Tanks, yeah.
Go for that, Sean.
You know, I've gone from dead-end job to dead-end job since, you know, the military and just not been able to find anything suitable.
This is an absolute dream, you know, it is, really.
Sean and Rachel had been together three months when they applied to live here.
Since we've been here, I think, you know, we've had our ups and downs, you know, we are still a very new relationship and we've only just been together a little over a year.
You know, if a relationship wasn't working somewhere else you could just pack the car and go.
Here, I guess, you have that added, you know, it's not that easy.
And they're yet to face their first winter on Fair Isle.
Daylight in the winter can be as little as six hours.
The weather can be pretty fearsome.
I suppose on their first winter here they might actually feel a little bit claustrophobic.
Well, there's quite a few challenges of living somewhere as remote as here.
- Getting off! - Travel is the big one.
Getting off and back on is probably the biggest one! - INTERVIEWER: - Do you like having sheep? - I do like it, yes.
Sometimes I don't like it.
In the middle of winter and it's hideous and you've got to go out and feed them and roll bales of silage around, I don't like that, really, but lambing's lovely.
Everybody loves lambing.
Hollie and Derek Shaw have lived here for 15 years, raising a family of four.
OK, well, this is just a wall of It's just a random wall of photos of the children, mainly.
All four of them, since they were little.
Like all parents on the Isle, Hollie and Derek have to face the fact that when children turn 11 or 12, they leave the island to board at secondary school on the Shetland mainland.
Last month, it was time for their youngest, Ivan, to go.
- Do you feel like you're missing out? - Oh, no question about it.
- Oh, yeah.
- Absolutely.
Yeah, missing a lot, yeah, and that's very hard.
It's the major downside to living here.
PHONE RINGS It's September, and Ivan has been away for almost three weeks.
- Hello.
- But he's struggling with homesickness.
Hi, darling, are you all right? What are you up to? 'It's whenever he's got nothing to do, it seems to be, you know, 'there's no-one else around.
' OK.
He can't think what to do by himself, and then he just That's when he phones home and starts crying.
It's a huge adjustment for Hollie and Derek, too.
But, no, it's OK.
We've got used to it quite quickly.
I knew I would get used to it quickly, because I've been through it a few times, but um Very nice, lots of people on the island asking us how we are, making sure we're all right.
I'm getting lots of hugs, which is really nice.
Life here is ruled by arrivals and departures.
Every spring and autumn, the migrating birds return.
There has been a bird observatory on Fair Isle for over 60 years.
It's almost an industry.
As the migrant birds arrive, so, too, do the bird-watchers.
Thank you very much.
About 600 every year, paying hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds for the privilege.
It's just one of those places that keeps drawing me back.
It's just the air of expectation, you just don't know what's going to turn up here, and it's a beautiful place as well, you get a nice sunny day, the cliffs are just amazing.
The scenery's just beyond anything I've really seen in the country, really.
There've been occasions where we've had quite a few people gathered, you know, outside, but I don't think I've ever seen quite this many people, so it's quite exciting, even though I don't really know what the bird looks like that they're after.
A lot of them just look like sparrows to me, but don't tell them I said that, they get very cross! The bird observatory, it, er .
.
it brings people in here, keeps the townsfolk going, keeps the level of connections that we have.
We have a good level of service just because there's a lot of visitors coming here.
It keeps the shop going.
I doubt very much whether a shop would be viable here if it wasn't for having the bird observatory.
So They keep us viable and I suppose we keep them viable, so it's maybe the best of both worlds.
This is one of the Fair Isle specials, you know.
It's what all these people here have come to see, basically.
Lanceolated warbler, Pallas's grasshopper warbler.
There you go, boys.
That's what all the fuss is about.
Cool! - It's not big.
- No.
The bird observatory has been collecting data for over 60 years.
And because they have always used the same techniques, this information has become some of the most important migration and census data in Europe.
HE MAKES BIRD CALLS I'll take the bird out of the box.
OK, this is a willow warbler.
Fair Isle's pretty much one of the best places to see migration, not just in Britain but anywhere in the world, so I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to get to work here and be a part of it, really.
As the only landmass for miles, migrating birds use Fair Isle as a pit stop day and night.
Put the song on, it's very loud.
BIRDSONG RECORDING This is all ready for storm petrel trapping.
It's quite exciting.
It's good.
Coming through, coming through.
Lots and lots here.
So, what we're doing is fitting a tiny, very lightweight metal ring on to the bird's leg.
That has a unique number on it and it means that if this bird is found elsewhere or trapped by anyone else, then we get the details of where our bird has gone and the people who catch it get the details of where their bird came from.
- Looking down, going down.
- It's gone down.
It's come up the side now.
- Right underneath us.
- It's probably right beneath us.
Yeah, it's just out again.
You can just about make it out, it's just almost beneath us.
Fair Isle, tick.
It's one of the ones I always wanted to see was a blue tail on Fair Isle.
And I couldn't have asked for a better place for it, either.
That is a warbler, Steve, there on that fence.
- I think I might need to get closer.
- We're going to have to go and have a look at that for a minute.
What time is it? - It's getting close to one.
- Getting close to lunch as well.
- INTERVIEWER: - Could you live somewhere like this? - Pardon? - Could you live somewhere like this? - Oh - Would you live here? I would live here, yeah.
I would live here, yeah, I would live here.
My wife wouldn't live here.
She'd hate it.
If she can't go to John Lewis at weekend with her friend, then, you know If I won the lottery and I won the big one, 75 million, I might build, come and build a John Lewis on here! - INTERVIEWER: - If you won the lottery, what would you do? That's Do you know, that's a It's a funny question.
Would you stay, would you go? Oh, for goodness' sake, no, I will stay.
I'm living already with people that wins the lottery once so I don't need to move! No, I wouldn't.
- Bigger shed! - Bigger shed! I'm not into that thing, no.
I've got enough.
If I win the lottery? It'd be a bloody miracle, I don't play the lottery! Oh, I'd probably have to go a few places, but I'd probably come back because that's the sort of place Fair Isle is, it does kind of have a little hold on you.
Sean and Rachel only pay £500 a year in rent, but their incomes are low, too, and now they have to learn what everyone else on Fair Isle has had to before - how to make ends meet and how to croft.
I do feel very much at home and this is what I should be doing, you know, possibly should have taken this up, not necessarily here, but maybe farming up, in the first place.
Two eggs, which is very exciting.
- INTERVIEWER: - Are you still both glad you've come here, then? Yeah, massively.
Well, I certainly am, you know, it is wonderful, but there are challenges as well.
The past couple of months have been quite tight.
Things like the sheep feed, you know, I mean that's We've had two sheep feed deliveries, that's been about £200 - Well, the third one - .
.
each time.
- Yeah, over 200 quid, 250 or whatever it was, something like that maybe, give or take.
- It's not bad.
- Which doesn't sound a lot, but I mean, I, you know, if I earn, sort of over £100 in a month from the finishing, it's a good month, so when you look at it in those terms, it's, you know, it's quite a massive expenditure and we've had the expense of, the Land Rover's a bit broken, so It's going to probably be maybe £1,000-odd at least, I don't know, but it's about 300-odd quid just to take it apart in labour.
Making Fair Isle sustainable is a priority for everyone who lives here.
Along with all his other jobs, Ian is an elected member of the Community Association, established when the islanders realised they urgently needed to boost the population.
Whilst the National Trust for Scotland does all it can, it's the community that have put together a development plan, which Ian is about to launch in Lerwick on the Shetland mainland.
The purpose of the plan is to sustain Fair Isle into into the next decade and well on after that.
So, to sum up the document, it's about us helping ourselves and helping others to help us.
Transport, there is movement ahead with the design budget for a new, improved ferry service.
We need to improve the island power supply.
- DIAL-UP CONNECTION SOUND - Broadband, fairly vital for the island to secure broadband.
It opens up the possibilities of jobs and, you know, decreasing the isolation of Fair Isle, it's just huge.
The population is too small and needs to grow.
We need more people.
We've adopted a target of attracting three families in the next three to five years.
We have to increase the housing to grow the population and that kind of sounds very obvious, but, I mean, there's a huge amount of issues in Fair Isle with producing housing.
Fair Isle is divided up into 18 crofts and any building work is restricted by crofting legislation, which allows only one property per croft.
There are three plots available for development .
.
but getting builders and building materials onto a remote island is expensive and always at the mercy of the weather.
Everything that happens on the island is ruled by the weather.
I mean, the boat's unlikely to go tomorrow because of the weather.
September brings gales, which will only get worse as the winter approaches.
It's an evil day we've got.
This is terrible, it must be 50 knots.
It must be, yeah.
There'll be no plane today.
If it's a gale, well, you'll be indoors doing something.
If it's if it's nicer weather you'll maybe take the opportunity to get outside and do something, so you can see it both ways.
It looks to be slightly darker over the hill and around.
I think that we've got two layers of cloud.
The lowest, oh How much? Three oktas, I think of that.
Dave is a meteorologist.
He's lived here for 44 years.
His Fair Isle weather readings supply the shipping forecast all year round.
No matter what improvements we get .
.
there will still be times when it's nigh-on impossible to go outside because you can't stand upright, you can't walk against the wind.
- WEATHER FORECASTER: - Fair Isle, cyclonic gale, eight to storm ten becoming north, six to gale eight.
Good morning, porters, it's the Fair Isle nurse.
I think there'll be no blood test coming out today, unfortunately.
'Life is completely ruled by the weather, 'and a lot of that is focused on transport issues because 'we never know when the transport's going to arrive.
' Hello, Dave, it's Elena.
We're all standing here like spare parts at the airstrip.
Any advances on previous news? Oh, no.
Oh, no! Oh, no, Dave! I think I get quite uptight about it at times, but I also get disproportionately happy, delirious sometimes, when things actually work out.
It's a plane, it's definitely a plane! There's no job like this in the UK anywhere, I don't think.
It's completely unique, you know, you're on a rock in the middle of nowhere, and I think if you're a control freak and you need to be able to know that you're going to do something when you want to do it, then it's just no good doing a job like this.
Very delighted to see you here.
Thank you very much.
- If you wouldn't mind taking this.
- Absolutely.
- Thank you very much.
Bye! As the year wears on, the weather worsens.
Travel to and from the Isle grows more unreliable.
The high school children who are on the Shetland mainland right now are meant to fly home today.
But the plane has been cancelled because Fair Isle lies shrouded in mist, which leaves just one alternative.
We're going to Grutness to get on the boat, so we can go home, because the plane's not going to fly.
- I'm going to get so sick! - Which isn't great, because nobody wants to go on the boat because it's horrible.
But, you know.
- It's home.
- INTERVIEWER: - Is this your first weekend home then, Ivan? - Yeah.
- Are you looking forward to it? Yeah.
- Daddy! - Hiya! Hi, Dad.
- Are you all right, darling? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
We gave them the option of what to do, you know, whether to try and wait for a plane, and if there wasn't a plane, come home next weekend.
I think he's very keen to come home this weekend, so, I think he's missing home so he's willing to suffer the boat.
- Hello! - Hey, Mum.
- You all right, sweetheart? - Yeah.
- And you, you OK? Are you OK, yeah? Yeah.
Just take your bags straight upstairs, and get your washing out because I'm going to have trouble getting it all dry.
Keep still because this is the bit, if I slip now, you're just bald, OK? He's been He's been fairly homesick.
I wasn't really surprised.
We kind of expected it because of the way Just because of the nature of him, as a person, we thought he probably would be quite homesick.
OK.
You're done.
Stand up, shake yourself off.
- Yeah.
- Taylor Swift.
Right.
Go.
Next.
We just have to ride it out.
And I think Raven was much worse.
She was much worse and homesick, much more homesick then he is.
I think, with him, it just feels worse for us because we haven't got another child to focus on back at home.
So, when he phones and he's upset, that's all we've got left.
We're left with that kind of just sad feeling when we got off the phone to him.
But she was homesick for, well, a couple of terms, weren't you? Really quite badly.
And she's come through it really well in the end.
I reckon girls get more homesick than guys - because guys can play on the computers and stuff.
- Yeah.
I don't like computers.
Let's see.
Don't walk through the hair! Let's see you.
- That looks all right, doesn't it? - Mm-hmm.
It's this side that's short.
OVERLAPPING CONVERSATIONS - INTERVIEWER: - Why is it so busy this morning? It's busy because the boat went yesterday.
So we've got all the supplies coming in on the boat yesterday.
And, you know, there's fresh fruit and vegetables, folk's milk, fresh bread, all that sort of stuff.
So, it's always Everybody kind of get their supplies in for the week.
Because you've got to wait another week for the next boat.
STRONG WIND BLOWS It's quite important to have a good supply in your freezer to keep you going through the winter.
We've been freezing the milk, just so that we've always got, you know, milk.
I can't open this very well.
Sean and Rachel are prepared for being cut off by winter weather.
But the effects of the damp, maritime climate on their home are less easy to deal with.
So, this is the really bad, mouldy room, which, you can see, it's delightful.
It gets cleaned a lot and the mould just grows back and grows back.
It's actually about ten times better than it was.
You see that bit of really black, black mould? That's what all of this was like.
We have mouldy bed slats.
Which is lovely.
We could probably do with actually lifting that up so they can dry.
But where do we put it, Sean? - There's nowhere - No, lean it up against, at least there's air moving round it.
I don't know.
We're hoping that the trust can find the money to get the insulation and everything - Sooner rather than later.
- Yes.
Um, so, we're just haemorrhaging money on trying to keep this place warm, where we shouldn't be doing, you know.
And it's depressing.
Everyone who comes to Fair Isle has to adapt.
When Mati arrived from Venezuela, her training as an architect wasn't much in demand.
So she took up the traditional Fair Isle craft of knitting instead.
Like some of the other island letters, she makes a living from what she produces by hand.
But she has plans to expand.
- INTERVIEWER: - What are you doing, Mati? I'm making a selection of the photographs for the new, um, online shop.
It's going to be my own designs.
They are not knitted here in Fair Isle, so it is a collaboration with the textile unit in Shetland College.
The idea is to explore manufacturing with an industrial knitting machine in order to offer a high-quality garment, but a more affordable price.
We've got all the stock ready, available now.
Labelled and washed and pressed.
So, it's now just a matter of putting everything together and launch it.
So, see what happens.
The knitting tradition in Fair Isle can be traced back to the 1600s.
Originally made for barter to the passing ships, it has played an essential part in the island's economy for centuries.
The Bruce Expedition of the Antarctic went with a lot of Fair Isle jumpers because James Coates from Paisley ordered 100 jumpers and 100 hats and 100 pairs of mittens and 100 pairs of socks.
So, it was one time in Fair Isle's history when having a house full of daughters must have been a huge asset! Mati's plans to produce her knitwear industrially goes against the grain.
Most Fair Isle knitters use these manual knitting machines and finish off by hand.
They work from home and have no overheads.
- INTERVIEWER: - Do you think there's room for expansion on Fair Isle in regards to the knitwear? I'm sure there is, actually.
I wouldn't like to see it becoming cheap and .
.
produced well, mass produced.
Because I think we are such a small community and, er, one of the things we've got going for us is the fact that we are unique.
And I think that we should use that.
It's very easy in a modern world where everything is now technological and I could design on a computer and then the machine would churn it out and then I would have a garment at the end of it, but I wouldn't have the same sense of, "That's part of me.
" It's hand crafted, and it's the hand-crafted element that makes it important and special and not something that might have been bought in Japan.
At Christmas, family and friends return to Fair Isle.
Elena spends time with her granddaughter, and her husband, Yoan, who's come all the way from Romania.
Fresh! Ooh! It is amazing.
Yeah.
Yoan fancies himself as a celebrity chef, you see.
They use lots of salt, because this is Romania Oh! - That's OK.
- This is Romanian cookery, - so we use lots of salt.
- Carry on.
- Oh, dear.
- Don't! - Hypertension, here we come.
- INTERVIEWER: - What are you making, then? - Sarmale, it's called.
Sarmale, yes.
It's what Romanians eat for high days and holy days.
It's always I breathe a sigh of relief when Yoan turns up - for Christmas.
- Thank you.
- Why's that? - Because I don't have to cook.
There's always something bubbling on the stove, all the time when Yoan's here.
He doesn't live here all the time because he's a gold miner by trade and there aren't too many gold mines in Fair Isle.
He looks after our house in Romania He just comes and demolishes the kitchen here for Christmas and Easter time.
And I go out there three times a year, and, er But, you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Happy Christmas.
There's a sort of bond between people here which is very difficult to describe.
Unto us a saviour is born this day.
It's one of the things that make me really dread leaving here, because of that bond.
And again, I'm not quite sure exactly what it is.
It's not that we all think that everybody is wonderful, doesn't mean to say that we get on with everybody.
It can mean that we get on each other's nerves, frankly, from time to time.
But there's a bond somewhere which naturally occurs among people on an island like this.
We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Oh, they're all home.
Lachlan, the eldest, and the three high school children and my mum and dad have come up as well.
For two weeks.
So, busy.
Good fun.
- INTERVIEWER: - How is Ivan getting on? He's settling in.
It's getting easier.
- He's not there yet.
- Got more friends, though.
Yeah.
He's had a couple of sleepovers with friends in Lerwick.
It's still hard sometimes, but we get the worst of it.
You know, when he rings home and he's upset, it's because he's bored and then he gets homesick.
So we're trying to keep him busy.
He's got a few things.
He's started football and I think he might He's thinking about starting athletics.
Skipper Neall's daughter, Eileen, has flown in from Edinburgh with the latest addition to the Thompson family.
This is Luca.
This is grandson Luca.
It is Eileen's pretty boy.
And he's, what, four? Three or four months.
No? - Four months, yeah.
- Yes.
- Four months old.
Four months old.
Four months old! Isn't that good fun? - INTERVIEWER: - Is this his first time to Fair Isle? This is his first time to Fair Isle, yeah, yeah.
I always liked growing up here.
I think it was the amount of freedom we had.
When you see it compared to a city life where you have to watch your kids every second of every day.
Whereas here I can hand the baby to anyone.
You know, it's fine because they're all family or friends.
But I miss the community.
I really miss that.
There we go! What have you got there, Neal? An airplane? It's a - It is an airplane! - Airplane! - INTERVIEWER: - Have you ever considered coming back to live here? I think it's something we would think about.
Because we have a baby, I think our life has probably changed quite a lot.
And priorities change.
It's not an easy thing to do and I think it's not really an easy decision.
We'd need to think really carefully about it, but I love being at home.
My partner really loves it here, as well.
He feels very comfortable being here.
And certainly for the benefit of Luca to be here around his family and all the history that we have here on this island, it could be a really attractive idea.
I like being home.
Well, isn't that romantic, Dave? I can see that in your bathroom already.
- Well done.
- INTERVIEWER: - Where's Rachel tonight? She's not feeling very well at the moment.
She's got a really sore throat at the minute, so She's stolen the bottle of a child! - Bit more on the tray up there.
- Good girl.
- INTERVIEWER: - And how are you two getting on together then? So far this year, all of three days of it, it's been good.
And I think it's, you know It's difficult, because, you know, we have good days and we'll have bad days and, you know, there are times where, or there have been times, where I think if we weren't here on Fair Isle, it would have been It's reached the stage where it would have been very easy for us One of us, to have walked away from the situation - I'll do it.
- .
.
and say, "Right, that's it.
"I've had enough.
"I'm moving out.
" You know, you haven't got any escape here on the island.
There's nowhere to go.
Even if one of us wanted to leave, I don't have the money to leave.
I can't afford to leave the island, to pay for a removals company, to find somewhere else to live.
You know, so you kind of have to confront the issue.
Which in simplest terms is, "Do we want to be together?" Just hook that over.
Just chuck it over for now.
We'll get it on the way out.
You know, Christmas itself wasn't brilliant.
We didn't have a great day, Christmas Day, or We didn't have a day, Christmas Day, did we? Well, obviously it was a Christmas Day.
Well, just another day.
Well, yeah.
You know, Christmas Day is what you make it, but it wasn't for us as a couple, it wasn't .
.
you know, a wholly successful day.
There wasn't anything successful on that day.
I had a nice day.
Do you want to go in? Rachel.
You can't stand here.
I know, that's why I'm going.
In spite of all the arguments and the differences between us and our opinions on things and all that, I think, you know, we do want to be together.
And we'd like to try and make that work.
And, you know, long term, whether it does or it doesn't, I've no idea, but I think we'd like to give it the best shot.
- INTERVIEWER: - Would you like to make it work, Sean? - Yeah.
Oh, God.
Mum, why did you keep the door open yesterday? - Bye, love.
- Bye.
Have a good day.
Mati's website selling her machine-produced knitwear is doing brisk business.
But the internet means she can keep an eye on what's happening elsewhere, and pictures of a recent Chanel launch have caught her attention.
Yeah, that's my garment and this is a copy that Chanel did.
It's pretty much the same.
So, yeah.
It was great because I thought, "Oh, God, it really looks good.
" But then it was like, "OK.
"What do I do now?" That shouldn't really be there, because it's my design.
I had a lot of people on social media were quite aggressive.
Which was not - I mean - INTERVIEWER: - Saying what? "You should sue them" and, "That's what they always do.
" And, you know, "Always big fashion houses taking advantage.
" And I thought, actually, I don't feel like that.
I don't really care about the money.
This is not about that.
This is about awareness.
This is about knowing, you know, that there is a heritage, a Scottish, very, very rich heritage.
I have had people that have looked at my website and said, "Is that a place?" And I'm like, "Yes.
Fair Isle is actually an island.
"A very small one, but it is an island "and that's where those patterns and those garments originated.
" Two more, then.
That fuel is all just for heating.
Mostly for heating and generating the island's power scheme.
But the windmill got zapped with lightning, so it's out of order at the moment, and the direct result of that is we have three times as many barrels coming.
Which, you know, that much more fuel getting burned.
It's not good for us and it's not good for the environment and the whole thing, you know.
Before the turbine was damaged by lightning, when the wind blew, the power was cheap.
And when the wind stopped, the generators took over .
.
burning expensive diesel fuel to power and heat all the homes on the island.
We restrict the use of diesel power from 7.
30 in the morning to 11.
30 at night.
Unless we are on wind power, then it just It'll stay on 24 hours a day if we are on wind generation.
It's vital the islanders get this broken turbine repaired as soon as possible.
But it's a tall order, requiring as many hands as can be mustered.
- INTERVIEWER: - How long has it not been working? About four months.
Four months, isn't it? Four months it's been out of commission, yeah.
The trouble is, like, I mean, it's like this.
You need the perfect day and you need the people to do it.
So, you just have to wait for it all to come together at the right time.
This is the way we've always done it, because you can't get cranes and stuff and all that on this island, so you have no choice but to do it this way.
How much longer will it take? A couple of hours.
What time is it now? 25 to Yeah, maybe an hour.
Maybe.
It depends.
Depends how fast I put them through their paces, eh? Come on, boys.
Come on.
Oh, God, Derek, you've got an hour to catch up! The community have big plans to upgrade their entire power system.
They've secured £200,000 of funding, but the sustainable system they want could cost nearly three million.
If it's completed, all of the island's essential services will benefit, and so will the Fair Islanders themselves.
It's hard to do your knitting in the dark.
Chanel have been in touch with Mati to apologise for the mix-up in copying her design and have offered her an opportunity to work for them.
When Chanel, er accidentally copied the design, one of the things that was on offer was that if there was a demand for the garment, they could place an order with me.
And I can't do it because I don't have the capabilities.
For the last two years, Mati has been travelling back and forward to the textiles department at Shetland College, who are making knitwear for her website using an industrial knitting machine.
She would like to see a similar machine at work on Fair Isle.
But it wouldn't produce the pure, handcrafted knitwear the Isle is famous for.
My idea is that that machine will supply retailers and online shops.
- INTERVIEWER: - Will you still hand-knit? Definitely.
I mean, the most important part of my business is my bespoke service.
That's my aim, that one day we could have hand-knitting, handcrafted and the industrial one all working together to support the economy of the island.
I would love to see you up and doing everything on the Fair Isle.
Very quickly.
Very quickly! Yeah.
Well, you know, if you can employ three, four, five people, and those four, five people are earning a living.
You know Not just getting by, as you said, but earning a living.
You know, then that's good.
It's all been worthwhile.
It's now April, so, we're well into Well, getting into spring now, and we've actually started lambing now.
This is the nitty-gritty of it and Mm, mm-hm.
It's quite nice.
Everything in the year, this is sort of the culmination of it.
Everything leads to lambing.
Oh, well done.
Nearly there.
Good girl.
Good girl, Brenda.
Good girl.
Oh, Brenda, yay.
Good girl.
Look at that big, fat lamb.
Look at it.
Good girl.
Good girl.
Lambing is in full swing.
But in Sean and Rachel's house, the list of small domestic disasters is getting longer.
- INTERVIEWER: - OK.
So, what's happened here then? Basically, as you can see, the entire wall units came crashing down.
Just a little thing to put in a box of Well, it's not a little thing.
I think there's been several major things with the house and it's, you know, up to here with it, quite frankly.
- It's not being on the island, it's not living on the island.
- No.
- We don't want to not be here.
- We don't want to move off the island - or anything like that.
- But do I want to continue living in this house? No.
I hate this house, quite frankly.
Do we want to keep putting our efforts into this place for .
.
even more belongings of ours to get broken now? You know, it's - It's that fact, isn't it, now? - DISTANT BARKING Oh, what are those pissing dogs barking at? Sorry.
BARKING - Morning.
- Morning.
Put all your stuff here, please.
- INTERVIEWER: - What's Ivan like when he goes now? Just normal now when he goes.
Just like the others.
Yeah, just like with the others now.
Yeah.
"Bye, Mum.
Bye, Dad.
" - Sometimes he's a bit clingy the day before, actually, isn't he? - Yeah.
- But not bad.
- Just thinking about it.
- How long's it been, then? Since he left? - August, September, November, - December, January, February - Last August, yeah.
March, April.
Yeah, eight months.
As much as it's very hard for us to have our children go away, I don't think many of us would think it would be beneficial to keep them here until they're 15.
You know, they need to see a bigger Well, it's important for them to get their social interaction, you know, in the wider world, you know.
Coming somewhere like Tesco's really big, because we're not used it on Fair Isle.
You hardly see three cars in the same place, but you come somewhere like this and there's traffic jams and traffic lights and shops are, like, much bigger and it's really busy.
And it's weird, but you get more used to it.
- Oh.
They sell ketchup! - So many people.
- INTERVIEWER: - Do you find it intimidating or anything? - That it's so busy.
- No.
I like seeing a lot of people.
I like people.
There's probably more people in the shop - than there is on Fair Isle.
- Yeah.
What is the population of Fair Isle? - It's about - 57.
- Do you know that? What can you see? How many people can you see right now? - Don't count.
- Count.
- OK, fine, count them.
Is it easier for you guys now that it's easier for him? - Oh, yes.
- If it's easier for him, - it's easier for us instantly.
- Oh, yeah, fabulous.
- Yeah.
And even when it was bad, he still didn't want to change it.
He still wanted That was the situation and he wanted to still live here, so he could go to the hostel.
- Yeah.
- He was just learning to deal with it.
Oh, no, hold on.
- 57.
- 57.
That's the population of Fair Isle! Oh, my God.
This is our new kitchen unit, since everything fell off the wall.
So, at least it's handy.
At least I can see stuff.
What I've got.
Um, a bit bare now, on the wall.
But, yeah, we have a toaster that works, at least.
This is Sean's room, in here.
Very neat.
And then this is my room.
The door doesn't open properly because it's broken.
So, erm - INTERVIEWER: - How long have you been in separate rooms? - Oh, months.
Months and months.
Mainly because Sean insists on sleeping with the three dogs and as many cats as want to go in there.
You know, there are times when both of us have said, you know, "We can't carry on living together.
" We're having a row and, you know, but - People say things, don't they? - We both want to be here.
- We both want to be on Fair Isle.
- Yeah.
Neither of us wants to give that up any time soon.
But, what is the alternative? You know, if one of us moves out of here, there is nowhere for them to move on Fair Isle.
There is no alternative accommodation.
You know, it would mean one of us having to move somewhere else, off island, which isn't something either of us wants to do.
You know, we both have our different jobs here on the island.
You know, we're both part of the community.
Um It's not something .
.
you know, we do want to give up, whether that's individually or as a couple.
Um, so, you know, to a certain extent, we're kind of, we're stuck with each other.
- She says that - Are still a couple? Or are you just housemates? I I know I think we're a couple.
I know we're a couple.
There are people who live here who no longer wish to live together.
And there are people who don't live here, who really wish they could.
Houses on Fair Isle are in short supply.
The National Trust for Scotland are still trying to find enough money to make homes for new families to move here.
But an unexpected door has opened for Neal's daughter, Eileen.
Some of her relatives have decided to leave, and they've signed their house and croft over to Eileen and her family.
The affordability of living in a beautiful house there and having land around us, compared to managing in a two-bedroom flat in the city .
.
is going to be much easier.
And we want more children and there's just no room here.
So, hopefully, at the end of this year, we'll be leaving Edinburgh and starting a new life back up at home.
And I just love where I come from.
I miss it.
I really miss the island, and Gishermo loves it, too.
It's now a year and a half since Sean and Rachel moved into their croft house, and a lot has happened.
The damp room has been fixed.
There's no new kitchen cupboards yet and there is something else missing.
Sean and I are no longer together.
Um, we split up quite a few months back.
Um, so I've stayed here in the croft.
Sean's moved out.
He's still on the island.
He has a house a little way down the island now.
Um, so I'm just kind of here on my own and I'm running the croft and the sheep on my own, so with help from my neighbours.
Too much difference between us.
We weren't actually, you know, on the same page with a lot of things.
So neither of us wanted to leave.
You know, it was all looking as if I was going to have to leave.
And then, just by .
.
a miracle, somewhere became available.
There are two small council properties on Fair Isle and again, unexpectedly, one has become vacant.
So, Sean has managed to stay on the Isle.
- INTERVIEWER: - Why did you want to stay? Because this is the magic of this place.
It is still the community, er, feel and .
.
that overwhelming feeling of, "I've found home.
" Sean and Rachel may not be a couple any more, but they have both become a big part of the community.
Fair Isle coastguard Alpha.
They each have several essential island jobs.
And Rachel is continuing to run the croft on her own.
You feel like you're part of something.
You feel like you're making a difference and you belong to something.
I'm so glad I'm here.
You know, I can't actually imagine living anywhere else now.
You know, I wake up every morning looking out on this view .
.
and knowing the people out there are always going to still help you, regardless of what happens.
They're still going to be there for you and they're still going to care about you.
And just the way of life here.
It's just fantastic.
It's a different world.
- INTERVIEWER: - Can you remember a moment where you thought, "I love living here"? Where were you? What were you doing? Have you ever thought that? - Oh, I've thought that lots of times.
- Yeah.
A lot.
The whole notion of thinking, "Wow, this is a lovely place to be" I think has just always been there.
If I go for a walk on the cliffs, I can have .
.
you know, there's a hush, as it were.
You don't have to think about anything.
You don't have to, um .
.
you don't have to worry about anything.
Hundreds of people have paths in this island, and the island continues to be that something and carry its own heritage.
And as soon as you move to live here, you learn to do it.
Whether it's the sheep, or the knitting, or lobster catching .
.
you just learn.
So, it belongs to the island.
A lot of things do.
We come and we go and the things are still there.
That's why every day there's something that makes me feel I love being here.
Every day.