BBC expands Nordic Noir with Viaplay dramas ‘End Of Summer’ & ‘Jana – Marked For Life’

End Of Summer (Source: Viaplay)

British pubcaster the BBC has acquired a pair of Swedish crime dramas from Viaplay – End Of Summer and Jana – Marked For Life.

The shows, distributed by Viaplay Content Distribution, come to the BBC a month after it was announced it would be picking up crime drama Rebus, which had originally been destined to be Viaplay’s first UK original, before it made plans to close the service in the country.

End Of Summer is based on former police officer Anders de la Motte’s Swedish novel of the same name and is a six-part psychological thriller starring Julia Ragnarsson (Midsommar) and Erik Enge (Tigers).

The story begins in summer 1984 with five-year-old Billy disappearing in rural Sweden, and the inconclusive police investigation that follows, shattering the family. Two decades later, Billy’s sister Vera (Ragnarsson), meets a hauntingly familiar young man (Enge), which forces her to unravel the truth behind her brother’s disappearance.

Viaplay produced End Of Summer with Harmonica Films in a co-production with SF Studios and Film i Skåne. The series is directed by Jens Jonsson (Young Wallander) and Henrik Georgsson (The Bridge) with lead writers Stefan Thunberg (Wallander) and Björn Carlström (Hunters), who also produced the series with Per Janérus (Hunters).

End Of Summer has previously sold to Polar+ in France, Wowow Japan, Deutsche Telekom Germany, Vodafone Greece, SBS Australia and Pickbox in CEE, among others.

Jana – Marked For Life (Source: Amazon)

Expanding Nordic Noir

Jana – Marked For Life, is meanwhile based on the novel by Emelie Schepp about a public prosecutor and former child soldier, and stars Madeleine Martin (Dystopia), Pernilla August (Star Wars) and August Wittgenstein (Das Boot).

The six-part series is created for television and directed by Felix Herngren (The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window And Disappeared) and Henrik Björn (Jordskott).

Writers include Maria Karlsson (Easy Money Trilogy) and Daniel Sawka (Icebox). The series is a Viaplay and FLX production, in collaboration with Wild Sheep and Reaz, produced by Sussan Treschow, and executive produced by Elin Kvist at FLX, Erik Barmack at Wild Sheep, and Martin Rea at Reaz.

Like Rebus, Jana – Those Who Kill had originally been destined to stream on the embattled Viaplay, but was picked up by Amazon streamer Prime Video in the Nordics in February as part of a nine series deal.

Sue Deeks, head of BBC programme acquisition, said: “End Of Summer is a complex and absorbing mystery drama in a beautiful setting. Jana – Marked For Life is an intriguing and suspenseful thriller. We are so pleased to be adding these two compelling series to our rich catalogue of Nordic Noir.”