Et lig [lee-y or lee’] (a dead person, a corpse) is found at the harbour in a misty, almost ghostly city that bears a more than faint resemblance to Copenhagen… In the next instant, politikvinden (the female police officer) Sarah Lund is on the spot with her young, male assistant. Sarah’s determined to decipher yet another riddle in her long and successful career as an efterforsker (investigator) – though she’d rather be at a special reception for officers i lang og tro tjeneste (”in long an faithful service”)…

In the meantime, forvirring (confusion) and intrigues are making it hard to be a Danish politiker (politician). Statsministeren (the PM) is busy having an affair with a leader of the opposition, while his government are fighting to prevent the powerful shipping company Zeeland from outsorcing hundreds of industrial jobs. Zeeland’s inheritor and ejer (owner) Robert takes part in hyper-serious meetings with men with black slips (tie/s, singular and plural is the same) – while his mind is glooming about his problems with his ex, and their daughter Emilie, who has started to behave in strange ways…

Yesterday marked the beginning of the third and last season of Forbrydelsen (”The Crime”) – one of the most popular Danish tv-serie/r (serial/s) in recent years. Over the next Sundays huge parts of the Danish population will be glued to their screens – as will many people in other countries.

Forbrydelsen has become an international hit. Spectators in Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom – among others – have fallen in love with the frail-but-strong Sarah Lund (played by Sofie Gråbøl) in her trademark sweater [SVETor] (jersey, sweater). In fact, the serial, known as The Killing in Britain, has become so popular among the British that when the English Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited Denmark this March, one of the important things on Camilla’s to-do list was … meeting Sofie Gråbøl and the other actors at the set of Forbrydelsen! Ms Gråbøl knew just which gift to present to the Duchess of Cornwall: a sweater.

Forbrydelsen is an exciting piece of entertainment. It’s also interesting to watch as a parody of the jet set part of urban Denmark. The political parties of the serial look disturbingly much like renamed versions of actual parties, and doesn’t Zeeland just make you think about the world-famous shipping company Mærsk?

The very best thing about Forbrydelsen is that it even has inspired some people to begin learning Danish – or so I’ve heard! 🙂

Are you watching this serial in your country?
What are your thoughts about it?
Please share with the other readers in the comments section!