‘Vertigo’, the last story from the third season of Annika Stranded, goes out tomorrow at 7.45pm on BBC Radio 4. Thereafter you can catch the whole series on BBCiPlayer. In case you missed it when it first appeared on the Sweet Talk Productions Facebook page, below is a short interview with the voice of Annika, Nicola Walker.

How did you react when you read the scripts for the first series of Annika Stranded?

I fell in love with Annika immediately. She just jumped at me off the page! Straight away it was obvious that Nick [Walker] had created this woman who was fabulously complicated, funny and totally unique. And she’s ‘difficult’ in the most appealing way, I love difficult women.

In the bubble of the studio, the boundaries between where Nicola ends and Annika begins seem ever more blurred. In what ways do you identify with Annika Strandhed?

Annika is definitely my fantasy alter-ego! Her work and her private life are mashed up together and she’s never anything less than true to herself. She’s far bolder than me, far less concerned about other people’s opinions, I love that about her. And I love her attitude to the darker, difficult parts of her job and her life. I found similar traits in Stellan Skarsgard actually, he would greet a tricky filming day with a shoulder shrug, a smile and a murmur of “it is what it is, Nicola, it is what it is”.

Annika Stranded evolved out of Nick Walker’s love of ‘Scandi-crime’. In recent times as well as Annika you’ve been DCI Stuart in Unforgotten and Stevie in River. Do you enjoy crime fiction/crime drama as a ‘private citizen’, and if so, what?

When I watch tv crime drama now I’m always trying to suss the end, from the opening credits on, I’m shouting at the telly to the great annoyance of my family. I watched a lot of police documentaries for ‘Unforgotten’, like ’24 hours in police custody’, I’m now addicted to them. But I’ve always admired Gordon Burn’s work, both factual and fictional. And you have to go a long way to beat Joan Smith’s collection ‘Misogynies’, which contains one of the most brilliant and shocking essays on murder crime I’ve ever read.

What are the pleasures of working in radio compared to TV?

Radio is my favourite medium! You can be anyone, do anything and go anywhere. You are not confined by visuals – the possibilities are endless. I sit in the studio on one side of the glass running between three or four different mike stations often and the world is conjured up by three brilliant people on the other side of the glass. There are no physical limitations, we can cross oceans, climb mountains, visit the Reindeer Patrol and then be inside Annika’s head in an instant.

What are you working on now or will be working on soon?