The Investigation (BBC 4)
Three episodes into this superb Danish Production based on the true story of a journalist apparently murdered at sea in a submarine I asked myself – and now you – why cannot the BBC produce such drama.
The investigation centres for the first three episodes on the efforts to locate the body.
The alleged ‘perp’ says she died in the submarine in a Baltic bay when it inexplicably began to sink and he cast the injured body overboard after the submarine rose to the surface.
The divers cannot trace the body but a dog trained to bark at the scent of human gases and fats does react in one area of the bay.
An expert is brought in and in episode three a dismembered body is found.
Unsuccessful dives are not – you might have thought – the stuff of great drama but they’re riveting. I had no idea how these divers work. It’s long hard work in uninviting waters.
The investigation is masterminded by police chief Jens (Soren Malling, a veteran of Borgen and Danish TV).
There is a back story.
Because of his long hours and dedication he is a deficient father and his now pregnant daughter is both disappointed and concerned that he will be a similar grandfather.
One female member of the team leaves her file at the studio of the perp and it may have been read. This is significant in answering my original question. In contemporary TV criminal drama the detective is invariably a strong woman and it’s the misogynistic men who are the clods.
So this is really a police procedural drama.
Other questions of whether the journalist had a relationship with the perp and what she was doing in the submarine are so far not revealed.
The breakthrough is that the pathologist found no bruising and contusions to her body so we know the perp is now lying.
I believe that the answer to my question lies in the mindset of the BBC.
They are so mired in diversity that they could not make a drama like this.
They make It’s a Sin, a drama about gays, featuring gay actors and written by a gay for primarily a gay audience.
The writer has gone on record advocating more such drama.
Conversely Danish TV seems more preoccupied with the viewer.
This started with the brilliant Killing and then Borgen.
The fact that subtitles, long thought to be the curse of continental drama, are used and do not affect the tension is significant.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of the BBC these past few years is in buying such drama but sadly it reflects badly on the paucity of its own formulaic crime programmes and endless costume drama.
