Channel 4 has just added all six episodes of the Swedish series Blackwater, billed as a classic piece of Scandi noir, to its streaming service.
The thriller revolves around a double murder and its lingering consequences in a small community many years later. It opens in Midsummer 1973, the longest day of the year when the sun never sets, in the town of Blackwater in North Sweden.
Schoolteacher Annie arrives with her daughter Mia to start a new life in a remote hippy commune with her boyfriend Dan. But when Dan fails to show up Annie and Mia begin a hike through the forest. However, Annie is shocked when she comes across a torn tent with two bloody bodies inside.
The story, which sees Annie become a suspect, switches back and forth between 1973 and 1991, with the unsolved case still haunting the village.
"Two people are killed in a tent, but it changes the lives of these people," says co-writer Maren Louise Kaehne, who helped adapt the story from a bestselling novel.
"The villagers have a quiet life in the middle of nowhere, but this murder has changed everything for them."
The police investigation discovers secrets about the commune, including its strange leader Petrus. The police are also suspicious when local teenager Johan flees, later returning in 1991 causing more trouble for the town. The show’s producer, Piv Bernth, also worked on Nordic noir classics The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge.
Blackwater is based on the 1993 bestseller novel by Kerstin Ekman and the TV version has already been shown in Sweden. Now, UK audiences can get to enjoy it via Channel 4.
It’s not the only good Swedish noir you can enjoy now. Netflix recently added The Breakthrough, a four-part mystery that is fictional but is inspired by a real double murder case, which was solved after 16 years using groundbreaking genetic genealogy techniques.
Blackwater is on Channel4.com now. Blackwater will premiere on Channel 4 on Monday, January 20 at midnight.
