Bergqvist won a Kristallen award -Best Actor- for his portrayal of Tom Stilton in Spring Tide and a Guldbagge award for the film The Wedding Photographer (2010).

Before the start of principal photography last week in Göteborg, the actor had the opportunity to discuss the role of chief inspector Evert Bäckström with his creator, the celebrated author and criminologist Leif GW Persson who said: “Bäckström is something of a special character and I am confident that Kjell has the ability to portray him in a very credible way."

Bergqvist said about his character: “Bäckström is a corrupt and completely unscrupulous man who doesn’t give a damn about what everyone else thinks - including his bosses. He is utterly unbearable as a friend and colleague. He is lazy and often sneaks away from work to go the pub and overindulge in food and drink. He is shrewd, untouchable and indispensable to humankind, or so he thinks. Quite simply, a rather lousy self-image. It will be great fun bringing Bäckström to life on the screen.”

The series is based on Persson’s novel Can You Die Twice? and parts of He Who Kills the Dragon, adapted for the screen by Jonathan Sjöberg (Hidden: First Born, Black Lake) who also acts as conceptual director. In the show we follow the hard-nosed detective Evert Bäckström who stumbles on one of the hardest cases ever handed over to him, when a skull pierced with bullet holes is found on an uninhabited island in the Swedish archipelago.

Backström is produced by Georgie Mathew of Yellow Bird for C More/TV4, in co-production with Germany’s ARD Degeto and Film i Väst. C More/TV4’s Head of Production Ulf Synnerholm says the series a major new venture into the crime genre for the channels. The premiere is set for 2020.