Annika: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Unforgotten's Nicola Walker stars as an offbeat Norwegian detective
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 12
Nicola Walker first played detective Annika Strandhed in a series of Oslo-based cases on Radio 4 in 2013. Alibi's series moves Annika and her daughter to Scotland, where she's in charge of the new Maritime Homicide Unit.
A sharp investigator but a terrible manager, Annika is often only half there, the rest of her brain off pondering social awkwardness or Greek myths. That fondness for the classics gives her a Morse-like quality.
Offbeat detectives can be a cliche, but DI Strandhed is genuinely different and, as played by Walker, both compelling and human. One minute she's coming up with a limerick about the strained relationship with her daughter, the next struggling unheroically with a fear of heights while talking down a suspect or cutting to the heart of a case with deadly accuracy.
Annika is also a woman of secrets, and getting to know her over the course of the first series is a fascinating experience. The second series, which is just as good as the first, begins with Annika mulling the consequences of the secret she revealed in the previous run. As it goes on, expect some lively detours into comedy alongside the cases and personal drama. (Two series)
