Death Below Zero

The frozen wilds of canada are the setting for a haunting new crime drama.

Scandinavia has led the way in dark crime dramas in recent years, but now Canada is getting in on the act with the brooding new murder mystery Cardinal, set in the icy wastes of northern Ontario and beginning on BBC4 this week.

Billy Campbell, from the US version of The Killing, takes the title role of detective John Cardinal in the fictional city of Algonquin Bay.

The dogged detective’s obsession with solving the case of a missing 13-year-old girl has led to him being demoted from the homicide squad. He was convinced that the girl had been abducted, while his superiors saw her as a runaway.