Sofie Gråbøl as Deputy Superintendent Sarah Lund – and that jumper – in BBC Four's The KIlling. Photograph: BBC/DR/DR
For fans of The Killing, BBC4's tense Danish thriller currently airing on Saturday night, there's only question bigger than whodunnit: "Why does Sarah Lund always wear that thick patterned jumper? And also, of course, where can I get one from?"
Now, happily, the first mystery can be, erm, unravelled. Sofie Gråbøl, the actor who plays Lund in the show, laughs delightedly at the idea of British fans becoming obsessed with the detective's jumper – Danish viewers also went crazy for it. " Everybody wanted that sweater," she says. "The company in the Faroe Islands couldn't keep up."
It was Gråbøl who decided upon Lund's attire: "We had a costume meeting and I saw that sweater and thought: 'That's it!'," she says, despite the jumper being decidedly unpolice-like. "The reason it's so perfect is because it tells so many stories. It tells of a person who doesn't use her sexuality – that's a big point. Lund's so sure of herself she doesn't have to wear a suit. She's at peace with herself."
The knitwear also has personal memories for the actor, who was brought up in the 70s in a very hippy-like environment in Copenhagen. "I wore this sweater and so did my parents. That sweater was a sign of believing in togetherness. There's a nice tension between those soft, human values and Lund being a very tough closed person – because to me it says that she's wanting to sit around a fire with a guitar; it gives a great opposite to her line of work and behaviour."
Given Lund's position as one of only a handful of female cops on television, Gråbøl's point about sexuality is particularly important. The first images that came to mind when she was thinking about female detectives were all cliches, she says – because all her references were other TV detectives. "We have images of a woman in a suit, or a woman in a man's world."
Instead, Gråbøl started thinking about Lund as a person who is devoting her life to the darkest aspects of human nature – and asking what would drive her. "Some of her characteristics are quite masculine actually, her way of not communicating which was my personal big wish when we created her," she says. "I've played lots of women who are always expressing themselves, always crying and getting hysterical and I said to the writer I really want to go in a different direction."
The Killing – or Forbrydelsen – has been a hit across Europe, despite Gråbøl's initial reluctance to play Lund because of the time implications of doing a TV show. It was the involvement of writer Søren Sveistrup that persuaded her to sign up – although she had no idea how the mystery would fold.
"I didn't know what was going to happen at all!," says Gråbøl. "There's only one script at a time and it's always fresh from the printer." She admits to initially being quite offended and "almost pissed off" that she wasn't going to be given scripts in advance. But new scripts kept her on her toes: "I got totally engaged by the part and I tried to figure it out just as much as everyone else."
In Denmark, where the show began broadcasting before filming had finished, people would come up to her in the supermarket to discuss who the killer was. Not that she any wiser than them until the final weeks – when viewers began placing bets on whodunnit. "I had a big moral dilemma – should I play and make millions?" Gråbøl jokes. "I didn't. But people did bet a lot of money."
The show has been such a hit that a third series is currently in production, BBC4 has snapped up series two to show later this year, and US broadcaster AMC is making its own version – which Gråbøl says she's unlikely to watch in its entireity.
It will be shame, I say, to miss hearing the Danish dialogue. Gråbøl laughs at me: "It's not very beautiful, it's very guttural, it's all in the throat," she protests. It might be incomprehensible, but it's still strangely gripping.
But even if the the US show doesn't have the appeal of subtitles, it does at least have Lund's jumpers replicated in their full glory. "I have all the sweaters in my closet here," Gråbøl admits. "I wear them at home sometimes."
• Add your theories and thoughts to our episode-by-episode blogs for The Killing. The next blog will be published on Saturday night straight after the second episode. And please, no spoilers.
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