Stories by Nick Walker, featuring Scandinavian detective Annika Strandhed, leading light in the murder squad of the Oslo police
Annika Strandhed is a leading light in the murder squad of the Oslo police. Her neuroses – and she has a few – are mostly hidden by a boisterous manner and a love of motor boats. And she thinks she’s funny – although her colleagues aren’t so sure.
Commissioned specially for Radio 4, these three stories by Nick Walker introduce us to a new Scandinavian detective: not as astute as Sarah Lund or Saga Norén perhaps, but probably better company.
Episode 1 (of 3): A Body Of Water
Duration: 15 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 20 January 2013
A sound is a body of water narrow enough for a man to swim across. But on the island of Oscarsborg, Annika finds the body of a man who clearly didn’t make it.
Episode 2 (of 3): Deep Six
Duration : 15 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 27 January 2013
After a tip off from a witness on a passing train, police divers bring up a mysterious crate from the depths of the Oslofjord.
Episode 3 (of 3): An Echo
Duration: 15 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 3 February 2013
A body is found in a metro carriage – but Annika’s judgments are being clouded by personal matters.
Reader: Nicola Walker
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
Annika Stranded is a Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
Nick Walker is part of the Coventry-based mixed media experimentalists Talking Birds whose work has been presented extensively in the UK as well as in Sweden, Ireland, and the USA. He has worked with some of the country’s leading new work theatre companies both in the UK and abroad, including Stan’s Cafe, Insomniac, and Theatre Instituut Nederlands.
He is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels ‘Blackbox’ and ‘Helloland’. His plays and short stories are often featured on BBC Radio 4 including: Arnold In A Purple Haze (2009), the First King of Mars stories (2007 – 2010), the Afternoon Play Life Coach (2010), and the stories Dig Yourself (2011) and The Indivisible (2012) – all of them Sweet Talk productions.
Season 2
Episode 1 – Into the Ice A body is found in the ice on the Oslofjord. Annika can’t place where she’s seen it before – but the man is frozen in an oddly familiar pose.
Episode 2 – Sub ZeroA woman is found, killed by a falling icicle. But Annika believes this was no accident.
Episode 3 – All Human Life Frogner Park had always been a place of happy associations for Annika – until three men were found dead at the base of its famous monolith.
Episode 4
Season 3
Four new cases land on the desk of Detective Annika Strandhed, queen of the Oslo Police boat patrol.Annika’s neuroses – and she has a few – are mostly hidden by a boisterous manner and a love of speedboats. As fictional Scandinavian detectives go, she’s not as astute as Saga Norén or Sarah Lund, but may be better company.Although Mikel, her long-suffering forensic photographer, might disagree.Read by Nicola Walker
Episode 1: False Signals
The Asker Accident – a plane disaster in 1972 – seems to have a bearing on a murder inquiry when a body is found near the crash site.
Episode 2: Forty Words
Annika and Mikel travel to Bergen to investigate a strange case involving a submarine.
Episode 3: Traffic
Annika wakes up after some serious partying on Midsummer’s Eve to find herself in the boot of a car.
Episode 4: VertigoAnnika’s holiday is interrupted when she sees someone pushed from the top of a rock face.
Episode 4: Vertigo
Annika’s holiday is interrupted when she sees someone pushed from the top of a rock face.
Season 4
Episode 1
Investigating a murder on a cruiser, Annika finds herself adrift at sea.
A teenage girl in Oslo is kidnapped. Annika and Mikel find themselves in a race against time.
Annika is struggling and in therapy, but still has to solve the murder of an industrialist at the Oslo theatre.
Annika gets an unpleasant surprise when she investigates a death in the ski resort at Lillehammer.
Annika is sent to Sandefjord where a body has been found at the harbour front.
Annika is sent to Sandefjord where a body has been found at the harbour front.
On Tor’s first day at school, Annika has to investigate the death of his class teacher.
Season 5
Episode 1
Annika and Tor from the Reindeer police investigate a crime in the northern town of Alta.
Episode 2
When an officer from the Reindeer police appears at the door, Annika is wrong-footed by a serious blast from her past.
Episode 3
Recovering in hospital from a gunshot wound, Annika involves herself with a suspicious death on the ward.
Episode 4
Annika’s first attempt at speed dating leads to the reopening of an unsolved case from the 1980s.
Episode 5
Delivering a guest lecture to criminology students, Annika recounts a case involving a murder at the aquarium.
Episode 6
Annika flies north to investigate a strange death in the permafrost of Spitsbergen.
Episode 7
When an officer from the Reindeer police appears at the door, Annika is wrong-footed by a serious blast from her past.
Episode 8
Annika and Tor from the Reindeer police investigate a crime in the northern town of Alta.
Season 6
Season 6 is presently available on BBC