Deputy Superintendent Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl) and Jan Meyer (Søren Malling)

Such an original piece of work, classy and beautifully plotted, the real draw of The Killing is its masterful and unyielding determination to stay focused on that single murder, that single investigation and that single (not to say singular) police investigator, Sarah Lund.

Yet at the same time it does not shy away from the mass of rippling consequence that comes to so many individuals when an act of brutality comes smashing into otherwise relatively still lives.

I feel, and have always done, that BBC Four is the place to showcase the best of television from around the world, and that language - ie not English - isn't a barrier to the channel's audience.

In some ways, oddly, The Killing's sub-titles actually help.

It allows us to focus and concentrate and really absorb the other-worldness of the programme.

BBC Four is the premier channel for people who like to think, for whom authorship, intelligent comment and entertaining perspective on mainstream subjects is their way of enjoying television.

And, perhaps, in Sarah Lund there is a character who reflects something of these traits in her own character.

Pernille Birk Larsen (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen) and Theis Birk Larsen (Bjarne Henriksen)

Singular, often unpredictable but always inquiring and as a consequence, both interesting and attractive.

There will be some who say that this should be noted even more because she is a woman. I disagree.

Though the actress Sofie Gråbøl¸l explains she treated the role of Lund by acting like a man to start off with, in the drama her gender is, in my view, noteworthy only because it actually doesn't matter.

She is a police officer with an utter fascination for detective work, and in that one compulsion, her personal life suffers - an always watchable trait in our television police dramas.

At the same time, The Killing is most definitely a story of our times in whatever society we live in.

The family dramas, the workplace frictions, the media pressures, the modern politics: I feel we can all relate to that.

So enjoy this chance to watch The Killing again, and prepare yourselves for the return of Sophie Lund in The Killing II later this year, exclusively on BBC Four.

Richard Klein is the controller of BBC Four. He recently wrote about the channel's new role as curator of archive BBC content on the About the BBC Blog.

The Killing series one continues on BBC Four daily at 10pm until September 15th.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

The Weakest Link has been a hugely important and much-loved part of the BBC's schedules for well over a decade, but without Anne's iconic persona and acerbic wit (some of which I've been on the receiving end of as a commissioner), we have decided that we won't be recommissioning any new episodes following her departure.

I was working on BBC Two as its scheduler when Anne first started her incredible run of Weakest Link programmes.

By the end of its final series an amazing 1,693 episodes will have gone out with over 15,000 contestants who will have been asked over 235,000 questions.

I remember seeing the pilot episode and not being at all convinced she was right for the show.

Luckily, Jane Lush, who was the controller for daytime then, and head of entertainment David Young had other ideas and the rest is history.

Of course the series has not been without its controversy, with some of Anne's remarks at times causing a media storm, not least in Wales.

Like me, Anne's from Liverpool, but that hasn't stopped her aiming a few quips at Scousers and it's that side of her which would be impossible to replace.

Fans of Anne will, of course, continue to be able to see her in Watchdog.

I'm also pleased to announce that Anne will be back in the daytime schedules next year as we have just recommissioned another run of My Life In Books.

In terms of what will replace the Weakest Link, well, that's all still up for debate at the moment.

However, we've been really pleased with how some of our new quizzes on BBC Two have been doing, such as Pointless with Alexander Armstrong. A twittering Stephen Fry has already confirmed himself a keen viewer.

I, for one, am incredibly grateful to Anne in making this quiz such a brilliant watch over the years.

If you'd like to take a trip down memory lane, you can take a look at the very first episode that went out, on the Weakest Link site.

We're planning some special episodes to see the series out, which will be filmed in Glasgow in December 2011, and the show will continue to be on air until Spring 2012.

Liam Keelan is the controller of BBC daytime.

The Weakest Link is on BBC One on weekdays at 5.15pm. For further programme times, please visit the upcoming episodes page.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

One of the most exciting new shows is Scrapheap Orchestra, a 90-minute film based around a plan to construct an entire orchestra's instruments out of rubbish.

Not some environmental axe being ground, just a fun and sometimes insightful exercise in unpacking what makes instruments work. How do they produce sound, from a violin to a trombone, a drum to a timpani?

And this final 44-piece orchestra is going to prove that it can play proper as it were, by putting on a concert this summer and playing the 1812 Overture.

Another charmer on offer is a wonderfully spirited reassessment of British painting in the 20th century, British Masters.

While the rest of the world was busy discovering itself in abstraction, the British - from Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon to David Hockney and Lucian Freud - were linking up with a very British painterly sensibility and producing some of the greatest figurative and landscape works of art of the 20th century.

And who better than art historian Dr James Fox to explore what he believes is an extraordinary flowering of this painterly genius?

By way of contrast, Regency is a three part series on that most dashing of periods - the British Regency of 1811 to 1820.

The mainstream is where BBC Four plies its trade, except the channel reflects that mainstream back in a nuanced, opinionated and provocative way.

And I'm delighted that the irrepressible Dr Lucy Worsley will explore a decade of riotous creativity, passions and, by no means least, outrageous behaviour.

At the heart of her series stands the compelling central figure of George, the Prince Regent himself. Have fun! Lucy certainly does.

It is spring, after all, and I was keen that the channel reflected what a wonderful moment in the year this always is - a new start, Easter and rebirth acknowledged and now a wonderful, glorious warming of the earth around us.

So to This Green And Pleasant Land, part of BBC Four's landscape moment.

Until relatively recently the idea of depicting what the countryside actually looked like was considered, if considered at all, frankly, bizarre.

This Green And Pleasant land recounts how gradually the glories of our natural surroundings took centre stage.

Look out, in the same season, for Tom Fort's heart-warming film about one of my favourite roads, the A303. It is a journey that spans 94 miles, four centuries and one man's motoring love affair.

To accompany this, we have not just Julia Bradbury back in her walking boots tramping along canals in Canal Walks, but a whole week on Iceland - with some fabulous scenery and scary tales from the Viking age.

There's also a whole season on plants and flowers headed up by our new series Botany: A Blooming History.

And there's tons more. In Afterlife, we're building an installation in Edinburgh's Zoological Gardens, filling it with loads of household goods and food and then turning up the heating to watch how things rot, decompose and, amazingly, go on to form the cornerstones and new building blocks of new life - very BBC Four.

Plus there's a film about Terence Rattigan, Rattigan by Benedict Cumberbatch, a season on how Britain filmed and documented itself, and a Luxury season.

And Timothy Spall's back on his boat, with his partner Shane, continuing his idiosyncratic sail around Britain in Timothy Spall: Somewhere On The Irish Sea.

But enough of the lists, the best news is that The Killing is back.

After screening the most talked-about crime thriller in British television for years - The Killing 1 - I am delighted to say that this intense, complex and enthralling drama series is back, Shetland sweaters, Sarah Lund and all.

So relax and enjoy the turning of the seasons with BBC Four.

Richard Klein is the controller of BBC Four.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

In the meantime, we also have two new dramas starting on BBC One afternoons which you might be interested in catching.

Next Monday, 32 Brinkburn Street kicks off.

Starring Eva Pope and Jack Deam, the drama is set around a dark secret at the heart of two generations of the same family, living in the same house in 1931 and 2011.

Moving between two very different eras, we've worked hard to bring something unique.

If you want to know more about Brinkburn Street, then take a look at the set designer Andrea Hughes' post, which is coming up on this blog on Monday.

Andrea gives a fascinating insight into how she researched and found inspiration for the 1931 set.

I think the series trailer here sets the scene perfectly:

Finally, from Monday, 4 April we have Justice, a new fast-paced contemporary drama set in Liverpool, starring Bob Pugh, Gary Mavers and Gillian Kearney (plus legendary boxer John Conteh - watch out for him).

Inspired by a real community justice centre in Liverpool, you can see a sneak preview on the BBC Press Office website.

I know many of you who commented on Sanjeev's post (julieapp #1, traceyanne #377, WiganBob #394 and maurobsop #416 to name a few) were disappointed that our dramas aren't shown in peak hours, so please don't forget to set your recorders, or catch it on iPlayer.

Also check your TV guides, as many of our dramas do get repeated later on - Land Girls is being repeated soon on BBC One - so keep a look out for that.

Liam Keelan is the controller of BBC Daytime.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

I am the controller of series and serials for BBC Drama production and, just occasionally, I get the chance to help push a passion onto the screen.

As the title suggests, South Riding is a portrait of a community.

But, as Andrew Davies has so brilliantly realised in this three-hour adaptation, this is a community into which blows one of the greatest literary heroines ever created.

Sarah Burton, superbly played by Anna Maxwell Martin, is as real a character as ever lived: modern, quixotic, romantic, intelligent, infuriating, elegant, colourful and as wrong as often as she is right.

She bursts into the story - and onto the screen - like the "little firecracker" the older, wiser Mrs Beddows describes her as.

Having lost her fiancé in the First World War she has turned her back on the past to become a teacher, throwing herself into the cause of female education.

Full of hope, she thinks she has it all worked out, but life has other plans and she finds herself sideswiped by love - love for a man who ironically cannot escape his own past, and it is this love that almost undoes her.

The great novelist and journalist Winifred Holtby wrote the novel in 1934 and died in 1935, only for it to be published in 1936 and become a huge success.

Often novelists write about the recent past but Winifred - maybe seeing her world with an intensity born of the fact her health was failing - set this novel right slap in her present.

Yet she still managed to give it an epic sweep and a tone that is hopeful, determined, campaigning and optimistic.

When I read it as a girl I connected with the love story but now, just as much, it is the themes that move me.

It is astonishing to be reminded that, when young women are doing so brilliantly at school and at university, only 70 years ago, a proper aspirational education for all girls was a novelty.

As one of the Holtby family told me at a screening a few weeks ago, Winifred was, at the time, disparagingly referred to as "clever".

She also reminded me that, in the 1920s, "farmers' daughters didn't go to Oxford".

But, as Winifred shows us, female education isn't about feeding the mind of the bluestocking but about making women a relevant, dynamic part of society.

I hope that you find this a thrilling, involving, passionate drama but I also hope it brings you to read Winifred's brave, moving, pioneering novel.

Kate Harwood is controller of series and serials for BBC drama.

South Riding is on BBC One and BBC One HD at 9pm on Sunday, 20 February.

For further programme times, please see the upcoming episodes page.

Watch exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew, and a special video on the costumes on the South Riding programme page.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Going back to February 2008, BBC Daytime no longer continued to broadcast the Australian soap Neighbours. At the time this felt like a major loss to the schedule -after all it was the highest rating show in Daytime and had been part of the schedule for more than 20 years!

Although it didn't feel like it at the time, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to BBC Daytime as it freed up schedule space and, more importantly, money to invest in making daytime feel much more distinctive than our rivals.

So what's been done in the intervening period and what more is being done to address the Trust's particular emphasis on thinking there are too many property and collectibles programmes.

It's fair to say the three genres we've focused upon more than any other since 2008 are current/social affairs, consumer and UK-originated drama. In fact, we have increased consumer, social and current affairs programmes in Daytime by 140% - a rise from around 80 hours to almost 200 planned for 2010.

Among the many examples we're rightly proud of are Rip-Off Britain, a consumer series fronted seasoned journalists Angela Rippon, Gloria Hunniford and Jennie Bond, Missing Live, a campaigning series to reunite missing people with their families and which was commended in the House of Commons, and the award-winning The Estate We're In, which is on air at 09.15 at the time of writing, and which Philip Johnston in yesterday's Daily Telegraph called "a programme for our time... it touches on Broken Britain and the Big Society".

Another big push has come in the area of UK-originated drama. For some years we've been the only broadcaster to produce drama in Daytime and Doctors has a long history of covering a broad range of social issues, winning several awards along the way. Have a read of Diane Keen's post on this blog about the show's 10th anniversary on this blog.

Over the last year this has been joined by event drama which I really believe has changed perceptions of what we do in Daytime.

Missing, starring Pauline Quirke, undoubtedly raised the issue of missing people to a wider audience and drew greater attention to the campaign overall. Jimmy McGovern's single plays Moving On touched on many issues our audience really care about and is back this autumn with double the number of episodes.

Finally, Land Girls was a first for BBC Daytime in that we'd never before produced a period drama in that part of the schedule - this too was paired with a factual series (The Week We Went to War) and was recognised with a Broadcast award earlier this year.

Several of the programmes I've mentioned, including Land Girls and Moving On, have received such acclaim that they've been repeated in peak-time. Factual programmes such as Fake Britain, Real Rescues and Dom's on the Case: NHS have also been promoted to peak time and have performed very well for the channel.

The Trust rightly gives us credit for the range of programmes in Daytime: we launched more than 50 different shows last year compared with fewer than 10 on each of our commercial rivals.

A large influx of new programmes, such as those mentioned above, does of course mean we have to lose others from the schedule to make space. Most recently Car Booty has been decommissioned alongside property series such as The Unsellables.

The Trust has also acknowledged that Daytime has already started the process of changing its mix of programmes - the challenge remains to continue to provide the broadest range of programming of any broadcaster.

Despite challenging budgets (a daytime series budget is roughly a quarter of a peak time series) the aim in daytime will always be to produce the highest quality programming other broadcasters wouldn't go near.

Sanjeev Bhaskar's new drama The Indian Doctor, set in Wales in 1963 and part of a wider season of programming on 60s, is one example in the autumn.

The next series of Moving On kicks off with John Fay's Sauce For The Goose, a powerful study of senile dementia with a stunning performance from Anna Massey.

It's followed by Shaun Duggan's Losing My Religion, a riveting film about Catholic hypocrisy and it concludes with Esther Wilson's I Am Darleen Fyles, the two stars of which are actors with serious learning difficulties.

And, as Jimmy McGovern said, "This series just wouldn't have been possible without BBC Daytime's commitment to commissioning drama that takes risks. Drama with something to say. Drama that is inexpensive. Drama that is excellent value for money."

Expect many more to follow.

Liam Keelan is the controller of BBC Daytime.