Over one million Danish viewers watched Cosmo Film's new TV drama Lærkevej on TV2 Thursday September 24 at 20hr00 and three days later, at the same time, another 1.7 million watched on DR1 the new crime investigations of detective Sarah Lund (alias Sofie Gråbøl) in the second season of Forbrydelsen (The Killing) produced by DR. An excellent start for two very different quality TV dramas supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Lærkevej was a huge bet for TV2 Denmark and Cosmo Film who inaugurated the ‘dramedy' genre in Denmark, with this Danish version of Desperate Housewives. The plot -targeting the 21-50 year-olds- is relatively simple: the apparent idyllic life in the ordinary suburban detached houses at Lærkevej hides secrets, jealousy, intolerance and neuroses. 46% of Danish people with their television switched on saw the first of ten episodes. The series written by Mette Heeno was directed by Kasper Gardsøe and Mogens Hagedorn Christiansen. Mie Andreasen produced it for Cosmo Film, with support from the Danish Film Institute's New Public Service Fund.

In the new season of Forbrydelsen, written again by Søren Sveistrup and directed by Kristoffer Nyholm, Sofie Gråbøl continues to embody detective Sarah Lund. This time, the case she has been asked to clear up is the murder of female lawyer Anne Dragsholm. Last Sunday evening, over 1.7m Danes tuned in, (60% of all the Danish population whose TV sets switched on between 20.00 and 21.00). Reviews were in general very positive for Forbrydelsen 2 that scooped five stars from local newspapers Ekstra Bladet and Politiken.