Extreme Scandi alert! Danish heavyweights be warned - the Icelanders are on the case. Sharp-eyed viewers may recognise the ship's captain from both 'The Killing' and 'Borgen' but you know Iceland must be small if Denmark embodies the big, bad, criminal nation.
The latest in the BBC4 foreign drama slot is no advertisement for the cold little country, however. Not only does a dismembered torso turn up in some fishing nets (check your fish finger sandwich very carefully) at the same time as a Lithuanian trafficker who bears an uncanny resemblance to Rasputin, but the kind of storm is blowing which has even the hardly Icelanders looking doubtfully at their snow chains and opting for a cuppa. Grumpy bear of a policeman Andri (Olafur Darri Olafsson) is called in, and in the best tradition of crime dramas, he has a troubled private life to think about, with his estranged wife showing up for the weekend with a new boyfriend.
The title presumably refers to everyone being trapped in the small coastal town - even the pathology team are trapped in comparatively comfy Reykjavik - so if claustrophobia is your thing, you can wallow in ten episodes shown in five parts. Sort of like a very long drawn out Agatha Christie. It manages to keep up the tension over the first two episodes, but not without some TWNHs on the way. Would a prisoner be allowed out of the cell to go to the toilet, with only one guard? Wouldn't there be facilities in the cell, or two on duty? No prizes for guessing what ensues.... And would the children run off in a snowstorm when it's dark and the weather is so bad they can't see a yard in front of them? It all feels a little contrived to drag the thing out.
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