It was March 03 2021 when Billy Mail and his wife Susan noticed an emaciated otter cracking crabs on the pier near their house in Shetland, an archipelago in Scotland.
“I was looking out at this lovely flat calm day when I first noticed her,” Billy told me, “She was taking crabs out of the water and eating them on the pontoon. Curiosity got the better of me and I wondered how close I could get to this wild otter, because that’s just who I am.”
The wild otter came within a meter of Billy, when she suddenly turned and looked him right in the eye.
What happened next, no one could have predicted. The BAFTA nominated and Royal Television Society winning documentary Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story follows the story of when Billy met Molly the otter. Showcasing the stunning area of Shetland, and its flora and fauna, and the beautiful, and intensely personal journey Billy and Susan went on as a result of meeting Molly is full of love, loss, and of course, otters.
Wild otters are extremely shy, and “She should have scarpered at that point,” he recalls, “But I could see she was really thin, made of loose skin and bone. But she didn't look unhealthy. She had a wee sparkle in her eye. So I could see she was starving, and I thought, well, I'll give you some fish then.”
Billy started putting out fish for Molly over the next week.
“She came out of the water and caught me doing it,” he said, “And I think that's when she made the connection of, all right, you're the supplier of the fish. So the kind of friendship between me and her just grew from there.
“She was really young, so she was incredibly curious and interested in everything. She would just come up and have a look at what you were doing and have a sniff around.”
When a friend came over to help Billy build an extension on his house, he was startled to see a wild otter being so familiar.
“Molly came up and he kind of took a step back and said, well, ‘what's this going on?’ I said, well, that's Molly and I told him the story. So he said, my friend Charlie would love to see this. I said, well, that's fine. Just tell him to come if he wants. So Charlie arrived a couple of months later.”
Fortuitously, Charlie happened to be Charlie Hamilton James, world renowned wildlife cameraman and veteran National Geographic photographer.
“When he turned up I had no idea who he [Charlie] was,” said Billy. “But he was so humble, he never mentioned all the amazing things he’d done and we just hit it off. We spoke a lot and the masks came off really quickly, he probably knows as much about me and my personal life as anyone. Not because he’s making a film, just because that’s where the conversation naturally went.”
Any filmmaker will know that working with wildlife is challenging, and apart from being as prepared as possible, it’s really the animals that call the shots.
The filming process involved the small crew staying in a cottage next door to Billy and Susan’s house, so whenever Molly turned up, they were ready.
“She’s not aggressive or angry, but she’s not a pet. Sometimes she’d turn up for five minutes, or sometimes if she’s in a curious mood she might hang around for 30 minutes. Charlie and the one or two members of the crew had to take every opportunity that she presented.”
As a keen amateur photographer himself, the process was fascinating for Billy.
“I used to do a lot of photography as a kid, it was never great but I really enjoyed doing it, and I loved wildlife so this project really ticked all the boxes for me. I also used to buy Amateur Photographer every week. My first camera was a Zenit EM which is an old Russian thing, it was really heavy and noisy. You pointed it at your subject, looked down the light meter, turned the knob, got the light meter lined up and it told you what shutter speed and aperture. It was so manual, but it taught me a lot.”
Billy has recently upgraded to a Sony A7R III. “It’s a nice little camera and it’ll do everything I need, and it’s got the quality. That’s why I ended up getting Lightroom because I never used to shoot in RAW. I’m having a bit of a battle with Lightroom and it’s winning at the moment but I’ll get there.”
The response to the film has been huge, with audiences praising its stunning cinematography, soothing and original subject matter, and inspirational story arc.
“We’re overwhelmed really,” Billy said, “We never expected it to become as big as it did. I thought it would be some film kids might watch, some sort of Lassie cartoon movie. So for it to become this has blown us away.”
Despite the success of the film, Billy and Susan did have concerns about an influx of tourism to the area. “We didn’t want to attract a load of tourists,” said Billy. “Molly is a wee delicate soul, and so is her home. It’s been good actually. We have had a couple of cards from people through the post addressed to ‘Billy and Susan (Molly)’ with no postcode and they’ve found their way to us.”
And Molly…?
“She comes from time to time,” Billy said. “Winter is a harsh time for otters in Shetland, and the average life of an otter up here is four to five years, but if they get plenty of food they can live up to about 12.
“Her youngster is still around, and it’s terrified of people which is good, that’s the ideal outcome, and Molly is completely wild, and she’s living her best life as a wild otter.”
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story can be watched with a subscription on Disney+.
Inspired? Take a look at our guides to the best camera for wildlife photography, the best Sony cameras, and the best underwater housing for cameras and phones.
