Prime-time Public Service Crime: Forbrydelsen/The Killing

Abstract

SØren Sveistrup’s crime thriller Forbrydelsen/The Killing (2007–2012) is the best-known example of a DR series, which has made it onto the international scene. The press coverage during the UK airing seemed unprecedented for a subtitled series with articles discussing how the portrayal of a modern welfare society mirrored the state of affairs in Britain, or gender issues related to the portrait of the series’ detective Sarah Lund. On a less serious scale, there were attempts at doing semiotic analysis of Lund’s iconic sweater and encouragement to readers to send pictures of their own similar knitting designs. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, announced that she was an ‘addict’ of the show, and when visiting Denmark in the spring of 2012, she got a special tour of the set of The Killing III and a copy of the sweater as a souvenir.¹ The series won the international BAFTA award in 2011, beating series like Mad Men (AMC 2007-) and Boardwalk Empire (HBO 2010), and it has been remade as The Killing (2011-) for the US cable channel AMC (Figure 7.1).²