THE GREAT DANES (THE KILLING - SEASON ONE)

It was the year when ITV's 'Downton Abbey' returned for a hugely successful second series.

It was the year when the BBC tried to emulate 'Mad Men' with its stylish 1950s newsroom drama 'The Hour'.

It was also the year 'The Hour's' Dominic West also turned in one hell of a performance alongside Emily Watson in ITV's 'Appropriate Adult' as the infamous serial killer Fred West.

It was the year when Stephen Rea mesmerised audiences as the chilling character Gatehouse in BBC2's 'The Shadow Line'.

It was also the year when, in a shrewd marketing move, Sky gave HBO's imports a channel of their own - Sky Atlantic - and duly delivered 'In Treatment', 'Treme', 'Game of Thrones' and 'Boardwalk Empire'.

It was the year ABC in Australia turned in a memorable critique of middle class mores with its small screen adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas's novel 'The Slap', with Sophie Okenodo, Jonathan LaPaglia and Melissa George particularly impressing.

And it was the year when RTE finally gave its Dublin gangland drama 'Love Hate' some teeth.

But if 2011 belonged to one television drama, it was a 20 episode murder mystery about a Danish detective in a woolly jumper.

On paper, 'The Killing' (or 'Forbrydelsen' as it is known in its homeland) was an unlikely hit.

Broadcast in January in its original Danish on a niche digital television channel, the first series entranced viewers with its intricately constructed plot. Its much shorter 10-part follow-up, 'The Killing II', in November didn't disappoint either.

Over 20 episodes of the first series, BBC4 viewers were glued to Detective Inspector Sarah Lund's dogged unravelling of an elaborate mystery around the murder of 19-year-old Copenhagen student Nanna Bik Larsen.

But this wasn't the only mystery at the heart of the show.

Viewers were treated to the Machiavellian machinations of Copenhagen City Hall politics, with the at times besieged, charismatic yet secretive candidate Troels Hartmann plunged right into the heart of the murder investigation.

There was also the curious past of Nana's grieving father, Theis Birk Larsen and his loyal sidekick, Vagn Skaerbaek.

And then there was Lund's own domestic woes as she also battled incompetent back stabbing colleagues in her workplace.

With its carefully constructed plots, fully formed characters and believable acting, the first series of the 'The Killing' proved sophisticated television drama wasn't the sole preserve of HBO.

Has there ever been a better, more sustained study of grief than Ann Eleonora Jorgensen's performance as Nanna Bik Larsen's mother, Pernille?

Or what indeed about the pent up anger, frustration and deep sense of loss of Bjarne Henriksen as her husband, Theis?

Then there was the curious mixture of ruthlessness, naivety and vulnerability in Lars Mikkelsen's portrayal of Troels Hartmann.

And at the centre of it all, Sofie Grabol and Soren Malling (as DI Jan Meyer) were the best detective duo since Bunk and McNulty graced HBO's 'The Wire'.

In an era of huge hype around Stieg Larsson's graphically violent 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' and other 'Millennium Trilogy' novels, it was a joy to invest time in a complex and challenging 20 episode detective drama that didn't revert to cheap violent thrills. 

'The Killing' spawned a US television remake but take my advice, hunt down the Danish original on DVD if you haven't seen it already. With this wonderful series, the Danes came up with a worthy challenger to 'The Wire' as the greatest television drama ever.

(This review of ‘The Killing’ Season One appeared originally on the Eamon Mallie.com website on December 30; 2011)