Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Gwilym Lee, Fiona Dolman, Tamzin Malleson, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Richard Cordery, Nicholas Jones, Adrian Lukis, Joanna Scanlan, Poppy Drayton, John Duggan, Marcus Hutton, Jonathan Barnwell, Caroline Goodall, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Thomas Thoroe, Julie Agnete Vang, Anick Wiget, Pete Meads, Marie Askehave, Hannah Blamires, Pamela Betsy Cooper, Susan Fordham, Anthony Farrelly.
The Killing of Copenhagen was not just a landmark episode for the makers of Midsomer Murders in relation to it being the 100th episode, quite an achievement for a police drama in this era of television, nor was it the marvellous idea of giving it a Nordic Noir feeling and having part of the action set in Denmark with Ann Eleonora Jørgensen and the excellent Birgitte Hjort Sørensen portraying Barnaby’s and Nelson’s Danish counterparts but by the very fact that in a police drama it has found more unique ways to murder someone, to be wrapped in cling wrap and dispatched to a biscuit factory has be one of the most novel ever seen on British television.
Like Poirot, Morse, Lewis and a whole host of other British detective programmes over the last 30 years, the secret of success it seems is to keep the programme interesting and almost fresh for every murder or case the detective is trying to solve. The area, the place may always stay the same but the way in which the crime is solved or even perpetuated, possibly even immortalised in some way, must be so new that the viewer’s attention is gripped long before they have had chance to turn over to another channel.
The Killing of Copenhagen went down that route perfectly, even perhaps suggesting the slightly hidden nod to Hamlet as at first the owner of the biscuit factory was killed by poison, the cunning uncle waiting in the wings to take over, both the wealth and the love of the late owner’s wife and to top it all the young moody teenager in love with a woman who has her own madness tied up inside a dark secret. However The Killing of Copenhagen was much more than a sleight of hand to imitate the immortal bard’s great work, it was just another cunning way to show that despite how great Nordic Noir is as a concept and just how far and away British detective programmes are ahead of their U.S. counterparts, nobody does crime fiction like the British. It is not just about the restoration of order, it is getting grubby in the field of murder without worrying about our own dark thoughts.
100 episodes, countless murders, two senior actors in the lead role, four Detective Sergeants, a myriad of suspects and one large county in which to house them all within. Not for nothing is Midsomer Murders one of the most enjoyed detective programmes shown on television in the last 30 years, it is one of the most inventive. Long may it continue!
Ian D. Hall