Final Crossing

TV&Satellite Week goes behind the scenes on the final series of Scandinavian crime hit The Bridge

- Judy Ewens, Olly Grant

At first glance, it looks like a scene from any TV police show: a bare room, some cops and a suspect. But then the cameras roll and it all goes a bit Scandi. The dialogue is in Danish and the investigation appears to involve Øresund Bridge – the famous crossing between Sweden and Denmark.

Välkommen back to The Bridge, the subtitled crime hit starring Sofia Helin and Thure Lindhardt. We’re in Malmö, Sweden, to watch the cast film the latest series – the final outing for Swedish detective Saga Norén and her Danish colleague Henrik Sabroe.

‘Yes, this is the end,’ confirms Helin, when we catch up with her after she has finished filming the scene. Six years is a long time to play a character, especially one as demanding as Saga, but when the producers approached her with an idea for one last season, Helin couldn’t turn it down.

‘It’s a big thing to commit to another season because it means being away, and we work so hard,’ she says. ‘But when I heard the theme, I had to do it. They came up with an ending for Saga that was so brilliant I just said yes, instantly.’

BRUTAL CRIME 

The new series begins two years after we last saw the detectives, with Saga in a bad way after events in series three (see panel, right).