Earlier this year, the last episodes of Swedish TV’s loose adaptation of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö‘s Beck introduced Steinar, a Norwegian detective, to Stockholm’s homicide division. Steinar (played by Kristofer Hivju) is a huge, hearty Viking of a man who, in the best traditions of TV detectives, breaks the rules if he has to. If you weren’t distracted by very occasional violence towards people who frankly had it coming, you might even say he was a mensch.

Steinar took a job in Stockholm to be nearer to his teenage daughter from a previous marriage, but before that he’d been a policeman in Oslo. I couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever crossed paths with Annika Strandhed. On balance, I thought probably not – I doubt the Oslo murder squad would have been big enough for both of them – but I did wonder whether Steinar did his early, hard yards with the Reindeer Police, for whom Annika, as we will hear in the third season of Annika Stranded, still has a weakness. 

To avoid self-repetition, I checked back on posts for previous series (Annika Stranded and Motherhood Becomes Her …) I see – duly repeating myself – that I said: “For some in the UK the Scandinavian crime ‘bubble’ has already burst – ‘it isn’t great and actually it’s just boring’ – but this isn’t a view I share. For one thing, I don’t think it’s a bubble. [… ] Scandinavian crime drama has settled down to take its murky place in our everyday viewing culture, just as American crime has for decades.” A few years on, I still believe this. True, the first season of Forbrydelsen (The Killing) remains unchallenged as one of the finest things I’ve ever seen on TV, period. Beck, as it happens, while perfectly watchable, was nowhere near in the same league (and personally I think Radio 4’s adaptations of the original novels, The Martin Beck Killings, were much better.) But that said, we’re all still hoping that Saga Norén will slip into her leather trousers for a fourth series of The Bridge, and the recent offering from Iceland, Trapped, was right up there with the very best.

Meanwhile, on the wireless, Annika has maintained her status as Queen of the Boat Patrol and leading light of the Oslo Murder Squad. Like Steinar – and despite or because of her idiosyncratic approach to detective work, her problems with heights, confined spaces and her father – she remains a mensch. This is part of her enduring appeal.

So what to say about Annika Stranded (Series 3) which hasn’t been said about the two previous series? Writer Nick Walker and Nicola Walker as Annika are once more at the top of their games. Mikel, Annika’s forensic photographer, is just as put-upon and just as inaudible. Jon Calver has done another playful job with the sound design. First Aid Kit and Hildur Guðnadóttir still provide most of the music although, since Series 2, the Söderberg sisters have released a new album, some of which features in Series 3, and Hildur’s haunting cello has added a very dark layer to the atmosphere of Trapped.

What is slightly different about Series 3 is that circumstances conspire to take Annika further and further away from her comfort zone of crime on the Oslofjord. The first story, ‘False Signals’ takes place on the island of Ostøya – familiar enough – but the second, ‘Forty Words’, brings her to the naval base in Bergen, and echoes Nick’s earlier, non-Annika drama, Messages To A Submariner. In ‘Traffic’, Annika’s navigational abilities are challenged by spending a lot of time in the boot of a car. The final story, ‘Vertigo’, takes place in the mountains of the Trolltindene, and Annika’s young son Tor shows a flair for church restoration in the stave church at Borgund.

Existentially, the darker moments of Series 3 are perhaps the darkest yet. But they are, in Saul Bellow’s phrase, the dark backing of the mirror, which make Annika’s vitality shine all the brighter.

But unfortunately, Annika never quite starts a relationship with a member of the Reindeer Police …

‘False Signals’, the first of four stories in Annika Stranded (Series 3), is a Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4, starting Sunday, 20 November at 7.45 pm and thereafter on BBC iPlayer.

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Photo Credits

1. Ostøya

photo credit: Espen Klem <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/23874626@N06/5966915563″>IMAG0568</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=“https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a>

2.Bergen

photo credit: IngolfBLN <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/58927646@N02/24777073882″>Fløibanen Bergen</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=“https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a>

3.Trolltindene

photo credit: Dieter Gora <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/100571744@N07/14816339785″>Trolltindene</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=“https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a>

4.Borgund

photo credit: gerdragon <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/77166813@N00/153603937″>Borgund Stave Church</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;