DVD: The Killing (18)

For anyone who claims that UK TV drama's lack of ambition is down to a lack of US-size budgets, The Killing makes for rather damning contradictory evidence.

This Danish crime thriller surpasses any of the UK's current cop shows (with, one presumes, comparable financial resources) and bears comparison with the best of America's. Watching it intensively as a boxset exposes the more implausible twists that writer Søren Sveistrup employs to cast suspicion on characters – but in a series about a single murder case, that's more than made up for by the fine performances. Most prominent is Sofie Gråbøl as dogged investigator Sarah Lund.