The Killing () 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 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 Development 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 televisionshe 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.
was co-creator and a scriptwriter on more than 20 episodes. He later created the 2019 crime drama series DNA.
Filming 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.
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.
Cast Law enforcement personnel Sofie Gråbøl as Inspector Sarah Lund Morten Suurballe as Chief Inspector Lennart Brix Troels II Munk as Chief Inspector Erik Buchard Søren Malling as Inspector Jan Meyer Mikael Birkkjær as Inspector Ulrik Strange Lotte Andersen as VPD Ruth Hedeby Sigurd Holmen le Dous as Inspector Asbjørn Juncker
Series 1 Lars Mikkelsen as Troels Hartmann Bent Mejding as Mayor Poul Bremer Marie Askehave as Rie Skovgaard Bjarne Henriksen as Theis Birk Larsen Ann Eleonora Jørgensen as Pernille Birk Larsen Nicolaj Kopernikus as Vagn Skærbæk Farshad Kholghi as Rama Michael Moritzen as Morten Weber Julie Ølgaard as Nanna Birk Larsen Cyron Melville as Oliver Schandorff
Series 2 Nicolas Bro as Justice Minister Thomas Buch Kurt Ravn as Prime Minister Gert Grue Eriksen Flemming Enevold as Colonel Torsten Jarnvig Carsten Bjørnlund as Major Christian Søgaard Ken Vedsegaard as Sergeant Jens Peter Raben Stine Prætorius as Louise Raben Preben Kristensen as Carsten Plough Charlotte Guldberg as Karina Munk Jørgensen Jens Jacob Tychsen as Erling Krabbe Igor Radoslavjevic as Captain Said Bilal
Series 3 Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Mathias Borch Anders W. Berthelsen as Robert Zeuthen Helle Fagralid as Maja Zeuthen Stig Hoffmeyer as Niels Reinhardt Olaf Johannessen as Prime Minister Kristian Kamper Jonatan Spang as Kristoffer "Stoffer" Kamper Trine Pallesen as Karen Nebel Tammi Øst as Birgit Eggert Peter Mygind as Deputy Public Prosecutor Tage Steiner Sara-Marie Maltha as Rosa Lebech
Series 1
The first series consists of twenty fifty-minute episodes, which follow the police investigation into the murder of a young woman from its commencement on 3 November to its conclusion on 22 November.
The first ten episodes were shown on DR1 each Sunday from early January to the middle of March 2007 and the intention was to show the remaining ten episodes in January–March 2008; it was so popular in Denmark that in early March it was announced that the final ten episodes would be brought forward to the autumn of 2007; they were shown from late September to late November 2007.
Synopsis Deputy Inspector Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day at the Copenhagen Police. She is about to move to Sweden with her fiancé and be transferred to the Swedish police, but everything changes when a 19-year-old woman, Nanna Birk Larsen, goes missing. She is found raped and brutally murdered. Together with her colleague, Detective Inspector Jan Meyer, Sarah is forced to lead the investigation as it quickly becomes clear that she and Meyer are hunting a highly intelligent and dangerous killer.
Local politician Troels Hartmann is in the middle of a tough election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen when evidence links him to the murder, adding a political thread and further intrigue to the story. At the same time, the girl's family and friends struggle to cope with their loss.
Episodes and ratings
Series 2
Forbrydelsen II is set two years later and consists of ten episodes. It aired in Denmark between 27 September and 29 November 2009. Episodes were screened eleven days later on Thursdays on Norwegian NRK1. It was shown on German TV channel ZDF and on Swedish SVT in the autumn of 2010. In the United Kingdom, it was shown on BBC Four, starting from 19 November 2011, following the success of the first series, on the Belgian channel, Canvas, starting on 25 November 2011, and in Australia on SBS Two, starting from 21 March 2012. The Region 2 DVD with English subtitles was released on 19 December 2011.
Plot Inspector Ulrik Strange arrives at a port where Lund is working as a border guard, on the orders of her former boss, Brix, to ask her to return to help investigate the murder of Anne Dragsholm, a military adviser found murdered in Ryvangen Memorial Park. Lund suspects that the murder is not as straightforward as it seems, despite the forced confession of Dragsholm's husband. Meanwhile, Thomas Buch, the newly appointed Minister of Justice, suspects that his predecessor was involved in the cover-up of a massacre of Afghan civilians by Danish soldiers and that this incident is connected with the murder. Lund is about to be discharged from the case when a second killing, that of a Danish military veteran, leads to fears that Islamic extremists are involved. Jens Peter Raben, a sectioned war veteran, knew both victims and tells his story of the execution of an Afghan family by a special forces officer named "Perk". Raben escapes, and two other members of the unit are murdered. Suspicion falls on senior military officers, including Raben's father-in-law, Colonel Jarnvig.
Buch and his secretarial team uncover further evidence of the cover-up, but the cabinet pressures him to continue pinning the murders on Muslims in order to assure the passage of an anti-terrorism bill. Raben takes refuge in a church presided over by a former army chaplain, who tries to convince him to give himself up and stop investigating the killings. Lund discovers the chaplain's body and pursues the perpetrator. She arranges for the exhumation of Perk's body. When Lund and Strange catch up with Raben, he calls out Perk's name before Strange shoots him. An injured Raben persists in accusing Perk of being the officer responsible for the massacre, yet it is later officially confirmed that he had left Afghanistan before the killings. Lund is uneasy about Strange's alibis for the murders, but takes him with her to Afghanistan to investigate a new suspect. Lund's persistence results in the discovery of the bones of the Afghan civilians.
Upon returning to Denmark, Lund meets her mother, who has had a premonition of Lund lying dead. Following a further search of a military barracks, suspicion falls on Captain Bilal, an anti-Taliban Muslim who kidnaps Raben's wife Louise. Raben and Jarnvig lead Lund and Strange to Bilal, who is killed by an explosion before they are able to question him. Strange volunteers to return Raben to the mental hospital, but Lund insists on driving them. On the way, they make a stop at the scene of Dragsholm's murder, where Lund points out to Strange the reasons why Bilal is unlikely to have been involved. Strange reveals a detail that only the murderer could know, and confesses to the murders before shooting Lund with her own gun, which he then plants on Raben. He phones the police and is about to shoot Raben when Lund hits him over the head. When Strange tries to retrieve his gun, Lund shoots him dead. As the police arrive at the scene, Lund walks away, removing her bullet-proof vest.
Episodes and ratings
Series 3 Forbrydelsen III, premiered on Danish television on 23 September 2012. It commenced on NRK1 in Norway on Monday 8 October 2012, with an audience of 436,000. Series 3 on BBC Four in the UK began on 17 November 2012 with 1.04 million viewers.
Synopsis This final ten-part series begins with the murder of a sailor. Sarah Lund's investigation turns to the financial and governmental communities during the 2008 financial crisis.
Episodes and ratings
Note: Figures listed above for the UK broadcast of episodes 1 – 8 do not include the ratings for BBC HD.
Overseas success In the wake of the successful Wallander series, The Killing became another Scandinavian crime hit with British viewers when it was shown on BBC Four in the spring of 2011. Although subtitled, it attracted more viewers than Mad Men, scored audience appreciation figures of 94%, and was described as "the best series currently on TV". The success created an interest in all things Danish, and the female detective's Faroese jumper was the subject of newspaper articles as well as becoming a sought after online item.
As well as the UK, DR also sold the series to a number of other broadcasters worldwide, and The Killing was eventually shown in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain and the US with varying degrees of success. Producer Piv Bernth described the broad appeal of the show as "groundbreaking", and explained what she believed to be the root of its popularity: "It's the first time you have a detective drama over 20 episodes – other series had one killing per episode. And we also have this three-plot structure – what does it [a murder] mean for a police investigator, what does it mean for the parents, what does it mean for the politicians. It's not just about finding the murderer. That's important, but it's not all."
Over 120 countries have purchased the first two seasons of The Killing. The first series has also been shown in other countries, as follows:
2007: Norway on NRK1 (as Forbrytelsen) 2007: Finland on Yle Fem (as Brottet) and AVA (as Rikos) 2007: Faroe Islands on SvF (as Brotsgerðin) 2008: Sweden on SVT1 (as Brottet) 2008: Iceland on RÚV 2008: Germany on ZDF (as Kommissarin Lund: Das Verbrechen) 2009: Austria on ORF 2010: Belgium, France, Germany on ARTE (as The Killing) 2010: Australia on SBS One 2010: Belgium on Canvas 2011: United Kingdom on BBC Four (as The Killing) 2011: Russia on Channel One (as Убийство) 2011: Spain on AXN (as The Killing: Crónica de un asesinato) 2011: Portugal on AXN Black (as The Killing: Crónica de um assassinato) 2011: Poland on Ale Kino+ (as The Killing) 2012: Japan on Super! drama TV (as The Killing) 2012: Brazil on Globosat HD (as The Killing: História de Um Assassinato) 2012: Netherlands on Nederland 2 by the KRO (as The Killing) 2012: Hungary 2012: New Zealand on SoHo TV (as Forbrydelsen)