The recent popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction and its various adaptations has brought characters such as Lisbeth Salander and Kurt Wallander to a wider audience outside of the (fictional) Swedish terrain they normally inhabit. Over the last few months, a detective called Sarah Lund has been added to that list. A schoolgirl has been murdered in Copenhagen and Lund has been put in charge of finding the killer. This forms the premise for a show that was originally titled Forbrydelsen (Crime) in its native land, but goes by the moniker of The Killing for its British screening. It was originally shown four years ago on Danish TV and has been making its way all over Europe before turning up on BBC Four ten weeks ago. It’s a 20-part series that’s set in and around Copenhagen over three consecutive weeks during November. Each hour-long episode covers a 24-hour period and begins in the afternoon and finishes in the darkness of the following evening. The characters and the viewers are kept in the dark for most of the series, with the occasional flicker of light peeping through from time to time
