European Television Crime Drama and Beyond

This book is the first to focus on the role of European television crime drama on the international market. As a genre, the television crime drama has enjoyed a long and successful career, routinely serving as a prism from which to observe the local, national and even transnational issues that are prevalent in society. This extensive volume explores a wide range of countries, from the US to European countries such as Spain, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, Germany, England and Wales, in order to reveal the very currencies that are at work in the global production and circulation of the TV crime drama. The chapters, all written by leading television and crime fiction scholars, provide readings of crime dramas such as the Swedish-Danish The Bridge, the Welsh Hinterland, the Spanish Under Suspicion, the Italian Gomorrah, the German Tatort and the Turkish Cinayet. By examining both European texts and the ‘European-ness’ of various international dramas, this book ultimately demonstrates that transnationalism is at the very core of TV crime drama in Europe and beyond.

Kim Toft Hansen is Associate Professor of Scandinavian Media Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the co-author of Locating Nordic Noir: From Beck to The Bridge (2017) and has written extensively on Nordic written and audiovisual crime fiction.

Steven Peacock is an independent scholar. He is the author of Swedish Crime Fiction: Novel, Film, Television (2013), Hollywood and Intimacy: Style, Moments, Magnificence (2011), and Colour (2010). 

Sue Turnbull is Senior Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, Australia, and Discipline Leader for the Creative Industries. Her publications include The TV Crime Drama (2014) and more recent research is concerned with the transnational career of television crime series.