Oh, this is good! They talk about love at first sight, but that same instantaneous knowledge that something is just right can often be the case with a new TV series, too. Pretty much as soon as you see the characters and realise that there’s a depth to them and empathy for them, you’re hooked. It might not be full blown love (it’s a first date, after all); but it’s a warm and fluffy feeling. And I’ve got that tingle with ‘Fatal Crossing‘.
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading this article now.
Based on a series of novels by renowned Danish author, Lone Theils, ‘Fatal Crossing' features a disgraced female journalist, Nora Sand (played superbly by the relatively unknown Marie Sandø Jondal), who decides to escape the scandal and stay in rural Zealand to stay with her father.
Whilst there, she receives an anonymous package delivered by hand to her mailbox. In it are photographs of two local girls – Lisbeth and Lulu – who went missing on a school trip to the UK many years previously. As she’s suspended from her day job and has nothing better to do, Nora decides to look into their disappearance. At the time, the authorities concluded that the girls had simply run away; but Nora suspects that whoever deposited the pictures in her letterbox knows there’s more to the case than just two runaways.
Because Nora used to live in the town, she knows many of the locals (including her uncle who runs the local newspaper where she started her career). She manages to get access to the original police files and starts by interviewing Lola and Lisbeth’s mothers.
Meanwhile, in a nearby town, a young girl has gone missing. Her mum calls the police, but they think she’ll turn up by the end of the day. But this is very out of character. Could it be that there’s a connection between her disappearance and the missing girls from years ago?
Nora is a very likable character. The suspension from her job as the London correspondent for a major Danish newspaper (pretty much the same job as Lone Theils did before turning to writing books) was harsh – she had an affair with a businessman she was investigating. But as she tells her editor rather more graphically than I dare write here, there are many of her male colleagues who have done a lot worse and who have not suffered anything like the same punishment. So, you immediately sympathise with her predicament.
The series doesn’t offer anything new or ground-breaking, but it’s well-acted, nicely scripted and immediately draws you in to the plot. I’ve said this a million times before, but having characters taken from a novel invariably means more flesh on the bones. It makes for more rounded characterization and more intriguing stories.
‘Fatal Crossing' (‘Pigerne fra Englandsbåden' is the original title) is well worth checking out if you enjoy strong female-led thrillers.
Walter Presents: ‘Fatal Crossing' is available as a full boxset on C4 Streaming now.
