Boyd’s TV Land

BBC2, Fridays, 9pm

The opening scene of the fourth and final series of Scandi-noir epic The Bridge, which aired last Friday, is one of the most gruesome and distressing murder sequences I’ve ever seen on mainstream TV. In it, a woman called Margrethe, who works at the Migration Agency in Copenhagen, is slowly and methodically stoned to death by a masked psychopath. Everything about it is deeply disturbing. But rather than complain about yet another drama using the grim killing of a woman as its starting point, I have to say, the scene is indicative of just how outstanding The Bridge really is. If it wasn’t so brilliantly filmed and believable, such a sequence might feel cheap. But this show is the Rolls-royce of crime dramas, usually taking its time across ten episodes (although this run only has eight) to touch upon important themes and topical issues, making sure the victims come across as real human beings and not simplistic cyphers. And as creator Hans Rosenfeldt explained at a recent screening of the opening episode, he and his co-writer Camilla Ahlgren are careful to ensure it’s not just about vulnerable women being stalked and slaughtered – plenty of men will end up victims, too! The overriding theme is identity, and it touches upon the bigotry aimed at immigrants and homeless people, the complex issues surrounding identical twins, and of course, the intriguing psychological make-up of our heroine, detective Saga Norén, played with unflinching commitment by the great Sofia Helin. The less you know about subsequent plot turns, the better, but suffice to say this show will go down as one of the all-time great thrillers.