Such is the British fixation with Nordic crime drama that they decided to make one of their own but copy an original. Not being Nordic and all, they made it about the nearest continental country, France. And how the French are odd while the Brits are merely wacky.
The Tunnel (starts Sunday, PBS, 10:30 p.m.) is it and arrives over here at long last. Made as a co-production between Sky Atlantic and Canal+, it is "inspired" by the original Swedish/Danish co-production The Bridge. At times, mind you, it looks and feels like a copy of the original.
Clever and at times piquant, it's no masterpiece. But it is an excellent summer diversion.
Like the original and indeed the U.S. version made for FX, it is anchored in the discovery of a bisected body at a border crossing. But in this case the border is located in the extremely creepy, dank environment of the Chunnel – the train tunnel linking London and Paris. It is a highly effective locale for such a murder mystery.
First, the French detective Elise Wassermann (Clémence Poésy) claims jurisdiction on the case. This pleases British detective Karl Roebuck (Stephen Dillane) who smells a complicated case and he's a bit lazy and unserious, so he backs away. If you've seen either the original or American versions of The Bridge you know there's a complication coming – part of the body is that of a French woman and the other part is that of an English prostitute.
In fact, the French woman is a toxic French politician, Marie Villaneuve, which helps drive the mystery into the heart of complex French politics and toward the top of the establishment. Meanwhile, the background of the English victim leads the drama downward into English lowlife. As such, the mystery is intriguing and, meanwhile, viewers are given a glimpse of a mysterious French man who is about to flee the country while his bewildered wife cannot understand what he's become involved with.
It turns out, however, that the mystery story is a cunning ruse to mock aspects of the French and English temperaments. Elise is a humourless person, a workaholic and deadly serious. Karl is laddish, a joker and a shirker of responsibilities. This element is well handled, especially by Clémence Poésy, who has a sort of charismatic stillness and gravity. Stephen Dillane is fine, too, although he actually has less work to do as a vaguely loutish copper.
The relationship between the two is what saves The Tunnel from becoming a standard-issue tangled mystery with surprise twists. The original version of The Bridge was a subdued but mesmerizing police procedural that enveloped you in its slowness. The American version's great merit was its dark eroticism, exploring the vast cultural gulf between El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico, which is just on the other side of a bridge.
There isn't such seriousness in The Tunnel. It is closer to being slick entertainment than meditative drama. It does have sport with the British tabloid press, mind you. While there are no new twists on the usual contempt for the ruthlessness of the press, that portion injects some lively, dark humour into the plot.
The upshot is a series that is highly entertaining, especially if your taste runs mainly to British crime drama. There is a sensibility that is more familiar from countless BBC cop shows rather than from the two true classics of the Nordic genre – The Bridge and The Killing. If you want a British crime drama that truly grasps the nuances of the Nordic genre, then your best bet is River, streamed here on Netflix.
The Tunnel has flashes of excellence, especially in the interplay of the culturally mismatched cops. But it doesn't add up to a substantial statement about France and Britain.
Also airing this weekend
David Beckham: For the Love of the Game (Sunday, documentary channel, 9 p.m.) is suitable for anyone caught up in the Euro 2016 or Copa America tournaments. Beckham, now retired from soccer, is industrious in his charitable work and to publicize his own charity foundation he embarked on a harebrained scheme. Over the course of 10 days, he played seven games of soccer on seven continents and on seven different surfaces – the scrub grass of Papua New Guinea, Kathmandu cobblestones, Djibouti gravel, Buenos Aires concrete, Antarctic ice, rooftop Astroturf in Miami and then his old stomping ground of Old Trafford in Manchester.
The BBC filmed his every move for this program. The point, really, was to establish that soccer is global. The most interesting segment is his trip to Antarctica. He doesn't seem quite prepared for the cold. It's also interesting as an example of a celebrity trying to reach beyond his personal bubble.