AMC’s Acorn bags Bäckström

Kjell Bergqvist in Bäckström

AMC Networks-owned streaming service Acorn TV has picked up the UK, Canadian and US rights to the first season of Swedish crime thriller Bäckström.

Based on books by novelist and criminology professor Leif GW Persson, Bäckström debuted on Sweden-based Bonnier Broadcasting’s C More and TV4 last year.

Now Acorn TV has acquired the rights to the first season, with the six-parter streaming in the UK from February 8 and in North America from this spring. The deal was brokered by Banijay Rights.

The show follows hardened Detective Chief Inspector Evert Bäckström, played by Kjell Bergqvist, and is produced by Yellow Bird for C More and TV4 in coproduction with Film i Väst and ARD Degeto.

A second season, based on Persson’s book The Sword of Justice, has also been commissioned by C More and TV4, with filming due to start in Spring.

The books were previously adapted for Fox in the US as Backstrom. Starring The Office’s Rainn Wilson, the show was cancelled after one season.