The Killing (Danish TV series)
The Killing (Danish: Forbrydelsen, lit. 'The Crime') is a Danish police procedural drama television series created by Søren Sveistrup and produced by DR in co-production with ZDF Enterprises. It premiered on the Danish national television channel DR1 on 7 January 2007 and has since been broadcast in several other countries.
The Killing
Forbrydelsen
The Crime
Denmark
Danish
3
40
- Sandra Foss
- Piv Bernth
50 minutes
7 January 2007 –
25 November 2012
The series is set in Copenhagen and revolves around Detective Inspector Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl). Each series follows a murder case. Each fifty-minute episode covers twenty-four hours of the investigation. The series is noted for its plot twists, season-long storylines and dark tone, and for giving equal emphasis to the stories of the murdered victim's family and the effect in political circles alongside the police investigation. It has also been singled out for the photography of its Danish setting and for the acting ability of its cast.
The Killing has proved to be an international success, particularly in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, receiving numerous awards and nominations including a BAFTA Award and an International Emmy. It has become something of a cult show. Novelisations of each series have been published by Macmillan.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Søren Sveistrup, series creator and head writer, worked closely with lead actress Sofie Gråbøl throughout the writing process to develop the character of Detective Inspector Sarah Lund. Gråbøl, in particular, became eager to defend her character. Gråbøl had a history of playing emotionally demonstrative characters on Danish television—she had worked with Sveistrup before on the TV-series Nikolaj og Julie. He approached her to play the part of Lund before work on the script began.
Torleif Hoppe was co-creator and a scriptwriter on more than 20 episodes. He later created the 2019 crime drama series DNA.[1][2]
Filming[edit]
Despite her insistence that she play an "isolated person [who is] unable to communicate," Gråbøl initially found it difficult to strike the right balance for the emotionally-distant Lund. She came to realise that the only people she knew like that were men. As a result, she began "acting like a man" until the character took shape.[3]
During filming of the first series, Sveistrup would not reveal major plot points or the identity of the murderer to members of the cast, including Gråbøl. The actors would receive the scripts on an episode-by-episode basis moments before shooting was scheduled to begin. Only Gråbøl was told that she was not the killer.[4]
Subtitled programmes in the UK[edit]
Following both its critical and ratings success in the United Kingdom, the BBC began importing and broadcasting more subtitled programmes from a number of different countries. In 2012 the popular Danish drama Borgen and the more popular joint Swedish-Danish venture The Bridge both aired on BBC Four with similarly high viewing figures, while in the same year ITV3 also acquired the original TV2 series Those Who Kill.[45] In late 2011 digital channel Sky Arts also broadcast the Italian series Romanzo Criminale, while FX bought the rights to popular French cop show Braquo.[46]
Although BBC Four had shown subtitled dramas before, notably the Swedish version of Wallander and French police procedural Spiral, controller of the channel Richard Klein described The Killing as "a game-changer". Vicky Frost of The Guardian noted how it was The Killing which "paved the way for a wave of subtitled European crime dramas" appearing on UK television, while head of programming at FX Toby Etheridge also confirmed his belief that "The Killing proved it was possible [to successfully show subtitled drama]".[46]
Novelisations[edit]
A novelisation based on the first series and titled The Killing: Book One was published by Macmillan in 2012. The book was written by British author David Hewson.[54] This was followed by The Killing: Book Two in January 2013,[55] and The Killing: Book Three in February 2014.[56]