TV crime drama Top of The Lake - which begins this weekend on BBC Two - is set in the beautiful wilderness of New Zealand's South Island. Starring Elizabeth Moss and directed by Jane Campion, it's already drawing comparisons to cult hits The Killing and Twin Peaks. In the introductory scene of Top of the Lake, a 12-year-old New Zealand girl leaves the gateway of her fortified home, rides through a ghostly forestland and sets down her bike at the edge of a misty shoreline, where she wades into the icy water. Tui, the daughter of a local crime boss, is pregnant, and although rescuers pull her from the lake before she drowns or freezes to death, she soon goes missing. Her swollen belly holds the clues to finding her kidnapper or murderer. A female detective, who has returned home from Australia to care for her cancer-ridden mother, will lead the hunt. Set in the staggeringly beautiful landscape of the South Island of New Zealand, Top of the Lake has been called the Kiwi answer to The Killing. Obstreperous and tunnel-visioned, detective Robin Griffin has been likened to Sarah Lund, the central figure in the Danish hit drama. Because the mystery unfolds in a remote community heavily populated by social misfits, there are also parallels with the '90s cult hit, Twin Peaks. Yet this is a very much a signature creation of its New Zealand co-director Jane Campion. Read more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23203003
