European Television Crime Drama and Beyond

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Down These European Mean Streets

   • Kim Toft Hansen, Steven Peacock, Sue Turnbull

   Pages 1-19

3. Noir Aesthetics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

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   2. Framing Nordic Noir

      • Audun Engelstad

      Pages 23-39

   3. The Rise of ‘Bright Noir’

      • Alberto N. García

      Pages 41-60

   4. Melancholy and Murder

      • Gunhild Agger, Anne Marit Waade

      Pages 61-82

   5. Locating Sound in UK/US Television Crime Drama

      • Lucy Fife Donaldson

      Pages 83-99

   6. Seriousness, Ordinariness, and ‘Actual Police Work’

      • Helen Piper

      Pages 101-116

4. Noir Regionalism and Transnationalism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 117-117

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   2. Local, National, Transnational

      • Elke Weissmann

      Pages 119-137

   3. When the Local Goes Global

      • Milly Buonanno

      Pages 139-156

   4. The Rise of Noir in the Sun

      • Concepción Cascajosa Virino

      Pages 157-172

   5. Crime Scene Germany

      • Susanne Eichner

      Pages 173-192

   6. A Crime Drama Between Fidelity and Cultural Specificity

      • Yeşim Kaptan

      Pages 193-210

5. Noir Market Value

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 211-211

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   2. Local Noir and Local Identity

      • Kim Toft Hansen, Jørgen Riber Christensen

      Pages 213-231

   3. The Flemish TV Market

      • Tim Raats

      Pages 233-251

   4. Secret City and Micromarkets

      • Sue Turnbull, Marion McCutcheon

      Pages 253-268

   5. Saga’s Story

      • Annette Hill

      Pages 269-284

6. Back Matter

   Pages 285-294

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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.  

• Euro-noir
• detective fiction
• police procedural
• Nordic noir
• international
• transnational
• The Bridge
• Tatort

“European Crime Drama and Beyond aims to both chart and analyse the phenomenon in a European context. It is a wide-ranging study, edited by established scholars in the field, and with contributors that are similarly experienced researchers of television crime drama, with nuanced positions on the issues they discuss. … Overall, this is a timely and informative account that can be read for its individual analyses and for its overall thesis.” (Stephen Lacey, Critical Studies in Television, Vol. 17 (1), 2022) “This anthology is a timely intervention in the field of transnational television studies.  Seen through a prism of the TV Crime Drama, European Television Crime Drama and Beyond, explores the impact of this genre upon the international market.  From Britain through Germany, Denmark and France (to name but a few countries) the authors in this collection interrogate European Crime Drama series from a dizzying array of theoretical impulses. With the funding of the transnational television market in Europe increasingly under Brexit threat, this anthology captures the zeitgeist of the current trade in European television series and offers an incisive and eminently readable account of TV Crime Drama’s place within it.” (Kim Akass, University of Hertfordshire, UK) 

• Aalborg University, Aalborg East, Denmark

  Kim Toft Hansen

• Grantham College, Grantham, UK

  Steven Peacock

• Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

  Sue Turnbull

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. 

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