Most long term fans of Scandinavian crime dramas probably remember the series Those Who Kill (Den som dræber) which starred Laura Bach and Jakob Cedergren and aired on ITV3 way back in 2012 when foreign dramas were still very much a novelty to UK audiences. Lars Mikkelsen who had played Troels Hartmann in The Killing – the show that paved the way more than any other for the influx of foreign dramas we enjoy today – was also a cast regular. That series wasn’t a huge hit in Denmark and ended after one 10 episode season – though there was a one off feature length finale made to conclude the story of the main characters. The series was remade by A&E Networks in the US – with Chloë Sevigny and James D’Arcy as the leads – but flopped and was quickly cancelled there too.
In April 2018 it was announced that Viaplay were rebooting the series with a whole new cast and a brand new format: one ongoing 8 episode story as opposed to the standalone two-parters of the original series. Darkness – Those Who Kill (Den som dræber – Fanget af mørket) stars Natalie Madueño (Claudia Moreno in the first two seasons of Follow the Money) and Kenneth M. Christensen (The Legacy, Below the Surface). Both the character names and the roles – this time around it’s a male cop and female profiler – are also different to those in the original series.
The new series – which is described as more of a whydunnit than a whodunnit – is produced by Miso Film and was first released in Scandinavia on Viaplay in March this year. Less than six months later it is set to air here on BBC Four. You’ll find the trailer – as well as a brief synopsis of the series from Miso Film – below.
17-year old Julie has been missing for six months without a trace and police investigator Jan is desperate to give her mother answers. When Jan finds the remains of a girl the similar age and suddenly another girl is kidnapped, he calls in profiler Louise to help understand the mind of the killer.
Under pressure to save the two kidnapped girls, Jan and Louise must predict the killers next move, while every decision they make escalates the manhunt which has severe consequences for the fate of the two girls. In order to save the girls, they must embark on a journey into the darkest and most extreme part of the human mind and face the consequences that arise.
Darkness: Those Who Kill airs on BBC Four weekly from Saturday 31 August with 2 episodes showing each week.
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