Showing Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjöwall

Steven Mackintosh stars as Martin Beck, with Neil Pearson as his friend and colleague Lennart Kollberg, in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Murder at the Savoy.

The Martin Beck books, written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965-1975, set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandanavian crime fiction. Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's seemingly liberal, democratic society.

In Murder at the Savoy, adapted from the sixth book in the series, Martin Beck and Lennart Kollberg are called to Malmö in southern Sweden when an industrialist is shot whilst having dinner at the city's best hotel. People in high places want the case cleared up quietly and quickly, but Beck refuses to give way to pressure. Translated by Amy and Ken Knoespel and dramatised by Jennifer Howarth.