BBC4 has locked up two new Scandinavian crime dramas, one from the creator of Wallander

BBC4 has acquired Scandinavian crime series The Bridge and Sebastian Bergman from ZDF Enterprises. Both are to air in 2012.

Danish-Swedish co-production The Bridge, a ten-part crime drama, follows a bi-national manhunt for a dangerous killer always one step ahead of his pursuers.

The series has been described as “the next Killing” by Peter Gustafsson, commissioning editor for drama, culture and documentaries for Swedish channel SVT.

Rolf Lassgård (Wallander, Beck) stars as politically incorrect and abrasive profiler Sebastian Bergman in the second show, titled after its lead.

In the first of the two thrillers, he helps police in his home town solve the murder of a 15-year-old boy. In the second, he attempts to catch a serial killer who seems to be modelling his attacks on those of a jailed killer Bergman put behind bars.

The 2 x 100 mins films are from the creators of the TV series based on Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander novels.

Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition said: “Both The Bridge and Sebastian Bergman are character-based, suspense-filled murder mysteries, with a cinematic atmosphere and style. Following in footsteps of Spiral, Wallander and The Killing, they are outstanding additions to BBC Four’s slate of European crime drama”.