The Killing

Following the Swedish crime dramas "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" trilogy and the "Wallander" series, comes the Danish 20 part police investigation into one murder called "Forbrydelsen" or "The Killing". It is slow, sombre, bleak, moving, powerful and brilliant. I only caught up with it following a couple of reviews in the press, and have watched the first four episodes on the BBC iPlayer before recording the latest episodes on BBC4.

The story revolves not only around the police investigation, led by the terrific Sofie Grabol as detective Sarah Lund, but also the effects on the dead girl's family and the politicians involved. Each episode covers one of the consecutive days, a bit like "24" but one day instead of one hour. Fortunately two episodes are shown back to back, so we only have to wait ten weeks for the resolution. Currently my favourite TV, having ditched "True Blood", "Boardwalk Empire" (after one episode), "Outcasts" (after twenty minutes), "The Promise" and "Mad Dogs". These are dramas that I watched with anticipation, but ultimately gave up. Thank heavens for "The West Wing".