Murder In The North (listen now) is one of a trio of new true crime shows launching this month, all adapted from Nordic podcast smash hits.
Detailing different crimes in different countries, the show features a single storyteller recounting a dark tale with beautiful sound design and music. The perfect bedtime listen - for those who can stomach the stories themselves!
We spoke to one of the writers on the original show, Janne Aagaard about what we have in store...
Content warning: reference to sexual abuse, murder.
How did you get involved with the original show, and then this adaptation?
During the pandemic, the producers behind Murder in the North reached out to me. I hadn’t written crime for a few years and didn’t really see myself writing again. But once I dug into all those court cases and crimes I covered many years earlier as a tabloid reporter I was bitten. From then on, I haven’t stop researching and writing true crime. Contrary to what you might think, we don’t know a lot about the other Nordic countries, and through these stories we learn something about them and we learn in which ways that we are similar or different. You can almost say that this is almost like a cultural travel show, just with murder.
Who was the person that has stayed with you most, when researching these stories?
It has to be the case about 10 year old Susan from Brøndby. A little girl went out to sell lottery tickets one Friday night during the summer after dinner and never came back. I covered the case when I was a crime reporter with a Danish tabloid, I following the case from when she meant missing until the guy who did it was convicted a year and a half later. It turned out the perpetrator was a neighbour who lived a few doors down in the social housing they lived in. He invited her in, molested her and then killed her. He had her for a week in his flat until he put her down in a communal basement area where she was found.
I was very close to her father’s family because his cousin was working at the tabloid at the time. I think as a crime reporter that was very tough - seeing people’s sadness and sorrow, and grief... so very hard to deal with.
Why should British listeners tune in to Murder In The North?
I think most British people would think the Nordic countries are very peaceful with very little crime. It is however a truth with modifications. We Danes, Swedes, Nords, Finns and Icelanders kill each other in just as inventive ways as the British do. Being a social democratic and weaponless society still doesn’t stop us from killing each other unfortunately. Murder In The North is available every Tuesday. Follow the show to get three episodes right now!
