The Tunnel, the finale, Sky Atlantic, review With Nordic Noir capturing the UK's imagination, it was inevitable that British crime drama would soon ape its Scandinavian cousins. The striking hallmarks of shows such as The Killing have been tightly wound plots that unfurl episode by episode, a wonderful sense of setting and a grey palette that instils an edgy atmosphere without an excess of bleakness. But would The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic), a British/French remake of Sweden/Denmark's The Bridge, ultimately compare favourably? The answer is yes. There was a worry that The Tunnel would be a clumsy, flat-footed attempt at the cool, classy original, but all the necessary cogs of Nordic Noir have been seamlessly integrated with an added rawness, predominantly supplied by the two leads, played by Stephen Dillane and Clémence Poésy. The series has been a fascinating puzzle that left us eagerly awaiting the final piece. In the final episode, the dedicated but often detached French detective, Elise Wasserman (Poésy) discovered that her partner Karl Roebuck's (Dillane) son Adam was a pawn in the game of the Truth Terrorist, Kieran Ashdown (James Frain), the serial killer they had been hunting. What set The Tunnel apart from The Bridge, however, has been the sublime acting throughout, with Dillane and Poésy turning in bewitching performances. The dynamic of the two detectives has never lost momentum and the point in which Elise interrupted Karl's showdown with Ashdown (who had lured Karl back to the Channel Tunnel where his whole "game" had begun), was perhaps the most powerful of the series. There's been a touch of the Miller and Hardy relationship that thrived in Broadchurch, but Karl and Elise have developed a more understanding companionship that made the last ten minutes a tough watch. Perhaps Frain wasn't quite showy and egotistical enough as the Truth Terrorist. Aside from a few moments of unhinged glee at his anticipated execution and completion of his plan, it was hard to believe that this was the man who'd conjured up a cold-blooded charade to play out publicly. But it was the only off-kilter performance in the whole series. The cool-toned cinematography has been refreshing, too, particularly when you compare it to the excessive darkness that some crime dramas (notably ITV's Whitechapel) have used to build tension. Pale natural light was used to great effect, especially in Karl and Elise's individual scenes and as the final conversation between them drew to a close. Then, the camera panned to a landscape shot of a train heading into the Channel Tunnel - a blur of pale blues stretching across the screen. It was a beautiful, melancholic closing shot.