With its ingenious plot twists and compelling characters, The Killing has for years kept audiences gripped far beyond Denmark’s borders.

Unprecedented numbers of British viewers tuned in to watch Detective Inspector Sarah Lund solve the complex case of a girl’s murder in Copenhagen in Season One, with BBC4 controller Richard Klein hailing the series as a “game changer” for subtitled drama.

While the action in the first two seasons took place against the respective backdrops of city hall rivalries and national security quagmires, Sarah Lund now finds herself navigating the murky corridors of global finance in her trademark knitted sweaters.

Sofie Gråbøl – the actress who stars as Lund – admitted she would miss playing the impulsive inspector once shooting ends this Friday, newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reports.

“It’s incredibly melancholic, actually. We’ve been working on this project for seven years, and it’s a project that has filled my heart,” Gråbøl told the newspaper.

Filming has taken place this week at a cargo port in Risavika Harbour, west of Stavanger.

The city's airport, prison and a local fish farm will also be used as locations in the final showdown.

In Season Three, Europe has fallen into moral decline in the wake of the global financial crisis, as the continent wallows in indifference, dirty money and, of course, murder.  

“The actors got to know who the killer was when we read through the script for the last episode on August 20th. That's how we usually do it,” said producer Piv Bernth.

According to Bernth, The Killing was always intended to be a trilogy.

”But we didn’t dare say anything about that until we saw that it had a resonance,” she told Stavanger Aftenblad.

Bernth primarily attributes the show’s success to the quality of the story lines.

”It’s a series that’s driven by characters with human reactions. People find it exciting and moving. And then there’s the fact that Sarah, as played by Sofie, is absolutely amazing.”

Season Three of The Killing (Forbrydelsen) premieres in Norway on October 8th on NRK 1.