Locating Nordic Noir

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction: Where Is Nordic Noir?

   • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

   Pages 1-23

3. Local Colour and Location Studies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. Local Colour and Places on Screen

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 27-51

   3. Location Studies: A Topography of Nordic Noir

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 53-76

   4. Four Perspectives on the Nordic Region

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 77-101

4. From Bestsellers to Blockbusters

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103

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   2. Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian Crime Literature as a Stepping Stone

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 105-125

   3. Beck and Character Adaptations

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 127-144

   4. Funding Models and Increasing Transnationalism

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 145-159

5. Written for the Danish Screen

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 161-161

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   2. The Killing and DR’s Danish Model

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 163-185

   3. Norskov and Danish Commercial Public Service Drama

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 187-206

   4. The Team, Danish Transnationalism and the Local Colour of Europe

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 207-225

6. Written for the Nordic Screen

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 227-227

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   2. Blue Eyes and the Rise of the Swedish Original

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 229-245

   3. Trapped and Original Noir from Iceland and Norway

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 247-267

   4. The Bridge, Transnational Co-productions and Screen Tourism

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 269-289

   5. Conclusion: Nordic Noir Beyond the Nordic

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 291-306

7. Back Matter

   Pages 307-313

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This book is a comprehensive study of Nordic Noir television drama from the 1990’s until today. The authors introduce the history of contemporary Nordic Noir from the perspective of place, production and location studies. The chapters include readings of well-known television crime dramas such as Beck, The Killing, Trapped and The Bridge as well as a range of other important Nordic Noir cases. The authors position the development of Nordic Noir in the global market for popular television drama and place the international attention towards Nordic crime dramas within regional development of drama production in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Consequently, Nordic Noir is read as both a transnational financial and creative phenomenon and as a local possibility for community building. Offering a comprehensible, scholarly and methodologically original approach to the popularity of Nordic television crime dramas, this volume is aimed at readers with an in
terest in crime drama as well as scholars and students of television drama.

• Nordic Noir
• Nordic
• Crime
• Television drama
• Beck
• The Killing
• Forbrydelsen
• Trapped
• Ófærð
• The Bridge
• Broen
• Blue Eyes
• Norskov
• Stieg Larsson
• Scandinavian television
• Scandinavian Crime Fiction
• Scandi Noir
• Television crime drama
• location studies
• Nordic landscape

“An important resource for scholars in multiple disciplines, the book brings together in one place a great deal of important information. … The primary audience is those interested in television and film production: the book provides data and firsthand accounts and synthesizes that information into a persuasive narrative of development and forecast.” (Rosemary Erickson Johnsen, Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 91 (3), 2019) “This a marvelous update to the international Nordic Noir and Scandinavian police procedurals’ scholarship of recent years! Waade and Toft Hansen’s book covers important aspects of location studies, screen tourism and transnational co-productions pertaining to the Scandinavian peninsula and the audio-visual industries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from where key Nordic noir films and television series enter the global circuit. Approaches to this rich body of work that were seen as emerging until recently now appropriately take a pivotal place.” (Olof Hedling, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Lund University, Sweden)

“This important book interrogates the concept of Nordic Noir to reveal the vital role of place in the formation of what is not so much a genre as a globally recognised brand.” (Sue Turnbull, University of Wollongong, Australia)

“Locating Nordic Noir brings together the diverse fields of location, production, policy and genre studies to offer a meticulously researched and insightful perspective on Scandinavian television drama from the 1990s until now.” (Janet McCabe, Birkbeck University of London, UK)

• Aalborg University, Institute of Culture and Global Studies Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

  Kim Toft Hansen

• School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University , Aarhus, Denmark

  Anne Marit Waade

Kim Toft Hansen is Associate Professor of Scandinavian Media Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. His research has focussed on Scandinavian crime fiction, written and audio-visual, and media production studies with special attention towards relationships between local and global media. He has published extensively on crime fiction and Danish film and television.



Anne Marit Waade is Associate Professor of Media & Journalism, Aarhus University, Denmark. Her research has focused on creative industry and promotional culture, locations in television productions, the export of Danish television drama and media tourism. She has published extensively on Danish television drama, mediated places and tourism.

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