What Denmark Watches

Denmark is a country with a great image - a land of happiness, harmony and social cohesion where all is civilised, ordered and in perfect balance, and all good things flourish. Surely, we might muse idly, it would be good to live in Denmark... Well maybe - but ponder this: the Danes' idea of cracking good television is that mystifying New Year's Eve institution Dinner for One (which suggests that the Danish sense of humour is, like the Germans', no laughing matter) - and, for the rest of the year, liberal helpings of Midsomer Murders. Known in Denmark as Barnaby, MM has bestrode the Danish primetime schedules like a colossus for 12 years, drawing a huge and loyal following and a 40 percent audience share.
Yes, the land that gave us The Killing and Borgen considers the gift amply repaid by an endless succession  of wildly improbable murders in achingly picturesque village settings. And now, in a mind-boggling development, Midsomer Murders is to celebrate its 100th episode by filming part of it in... Copenhagen. The plodding Barnaby and his sidekick will travel to Copenhagen when a body is found there that somehow has links with a Midsomer family (what are the chances?). The episode will even involve actors from The Killing and Borgen - but this is no time for naming and shaming. They know who they are.
Heaven knows where and in what bizarre circumstances the body is found, but I'm guessing one of the rides in the Tivoli gardens might be involved (if only because the Little Mermaid is too small to feature as a crime scene) - or it could be the Carlsberg brewery, drowned in a vat of lager? Barnaby, we can be sure, will be as mystified by the food - raw herring? - as by the case. While he bumbles about and scratches his head, the body count will rise inexorably - but by then we'll be safely back in Badger's Drift, and all Denmark will be sitting back in its beautifully designed armchairs and enjoying the picture-postcard landscapes of Midsomer.