The Killing (Danish: Forbrydelsen, lit. 'The Crime') 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 day-by-day. 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.

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.

Forbrydelsen II is set two years later and consists of ten episodes. It aired in Denmark between 27 September and 29 November 2009.^[8] Episodes were screened eleven days later on Thursdays on Norwegian NRK1.^[9] It was shown on German TV channel ZDF^[10] and on Swedish SVT^[11] 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,^[12][13] on the Belgian channel, Canvas, starting on 25 November 2011,^[14] and in Australia on SBS Two, starting from 21 March 2012.^[15] The Region 2 DVD with English subtitles was released on 19 December 2011.^[16]

Forbrydelsen III, premiered on Danish television on 23 September 2012.^[19] It commenced on NRK1 in Norway on Monday 8 October 2012, with an audience of 436,000.^[20][21]

Series 3 on BBC Four in the UK began on 17 November 2012 with 1.04 million viewers.^[22]

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,^[26] scored audience appreciation figures of 94%,^[27] and was described as "the best series currently on TV".^[28] The success created an interest in all things Danish,^[29] and the female detective's Faroese jumper was the subject of newspaper articles as well as becoming a sought after online item.^[30]

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."^[31]

Over 120 countries have purchased the first two seasons of The Killing.^[32] The first series has also been shown in other countries, as follows:

The Killing has been awarded a number of awards and recognitions from various festivals and organisations from around the globe since it began in 2007. Because of the time-lapse in airdates between countries, honours awarded to the first two series are spread out over an unusual number of years.

In the UK, the first series won the 2011 BAFTA award in the "Best International" category. It was also nominated for the Audience Award but lost to reality show The Only Way is Essex.^[42] The second series was again nominated for "Best International" in 2012, but lost out to fellow Danish programme Borgen.^[43]

Following both its critical and ratings success in the United Kingdom, the BBC began importing and broadcasting more subtitled programmes from a number of different countries. In 2012 the popular Danish drama Borgen and the more popular joint Swedish-Danish venture The Bridge both aired on BBC Four with similarly high viewing figures, while in the same year ITV3 also acquired the original TV2 series Those Who Kill.^[44] In late 2011 digital channel Sky Arts also broadcast the Italian series Romanzo Criminale, while FX bought the rights to popular French cop show Braquo.^[45]

Although BBC Four had shown subtitled dramas before, notably the Swedish version of Wallander and French police procedural Spiral, controller of the channel Richard Klein described The Killing as "a game-changer". Vicky Frost of The Guardian noted how it was The Killing which "paved the way for a wave of subtitled European crime dramas" appearing on UK television, while head of programming at FX Toby Etheridge also confirmed his belief that "The Killing proved it was possible [to successfully show subtitled drama]".^[45]

The original series was not broadcast in the US. In 2011 a remake was produced by Fox Television Studios for the American cable network AMC.^[46] It premiered on 3 April 2011^[46] and ran for two seasons before being cancelled on 27 July 2012.^[47] However, on 8 November 2012, it was confirmed that Fox Television Studios were in final negotiations with Netflix in order to continue the series for a third season. AMC, who had originally cancelled the show, was also included in part of the deal. The deal in question gives the network the privilege of airing the new episodes before they are hosted by Netflix in return for sharing any associated production costs with Netflix.^[48] The original US production team are expected to return.^[49] A fourth season, consisting of six episodes, was produced by and is available on Netflix.

On 8 April 2011, Sofie Gråbøl, the star of the Danish series, was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 programme Woman's Hour when she explained the American remake was necessary because Americans "for some reason cannot read subtitles, or they don't want to". Gråbøl herself has made a guest appearance in one episode of the American show playing a minor role.^[50]

A Turkish remake, Cinayet, was produced by Adam Film for Kanal D, premiering 7 January 2014.^[51] Despite being ordered for 13 episodes, it was cancelled after 5 due to low ratings.

An Egyptian remake, Mounatef Khater was produced, the rights were previously acquired by MBC and Charisma Group.^[52]

A novelisation based on the first series and titled The Killing: Book One was published by Macmillan in 2012. The book was written by British author David Hewson.^[53] This was followed by The Killing: Book Two in January 2013,^[54] and The Killing: Book Three in February 2014.^[55]

• Danish television drama
• Scandinavian noir