Dangerous waters

Nicola Walker stars as a maritime detective with a difference

- STEVEN PERKINS, ALISON SLADE

NEW CRIME DRAMA

Annika

Tuesday, Alibi HD, 9pm

It’s a familiar opening for a crime drama: in the middle of the night, a detective inspector pulls up at a murder scene in a car to investigate the killing. But then Alibi’s new series Annika does something very different – DI Annika Stranded turns to the camera and starts talking to the viewer…

‘My character breaks the fourth wall constantly,’ says Nicola Walker, who plays her. ‘The audience is very much the other character in the show – you’re all in it, too!’

Walker knows the character of Annika intimately, as she first portrayed her in BBC Radio 4 drama Annika Stranded in 2013. She and writer Nick Walker (no relation) talked about the possibility of the character moving to TV one day, but Walker says she ‘never really thought that was going to happen’. Then, last year, that suddenly changed.