UK version of popular Danish drama series in pipeline for Sky Atlantic will bring together Folkestone and Calais with subtitles

Admittedly, the view will not be quite so amazing. Nor the homewares quite so stylish. But fans of hit BBC4 Swedish/Danish import The Bridge will be relieved to hear that a UK remake for Sky Atlantic does keep one essential ingredient: the subtitles.

The Tunnel, the working title for a new 10-part Anglo-French co-production based on The Bridge format, is expected on screen later this year, with production on the Sky Atlantic and Canal+ collaboration due to commence shortly.

Folkestone and Calais will fill in for Copenhagen and Malmö, and the series will be bilingual – which producers claim will be a first in broadcasting for the UK and France – with subtitles for viewers less than fluent in their neighbour country's language. (No word on how the characters are going to overcome the language barrier).

Crime fans hoping for an unlikely meeting of their favourite British and French detectives – DCI John Luther and Engrenage's Captain Laure Berthaud perhaps? – will instead have a new pair of investigators to follow.

When a prominent French politician is found dead on the border between the UK and France, presumably under the sea, detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann are sent to investigate. As with the Scandinavian original, the police are forced into an uneasy international alliance after a shocking crime scene discovery.

Adapted by an Anglo-French team led by Spooks, Party Animals and Outcasts writer Ben Richards, and made by Kudos and Shine France Films, The Tunnel is set against the backdrop of Europe in crisis, with the killer using elaborate methods to highlight the moral bankruptcy of modern society.

When The Bridge premiered on BBC4 last spring, it outrated the channel's hugely discussed Danish crime thriller The Killing, with detectives Saga Noren and Martin Rhode fast capturing the imagination of UK viewers.

But revisiting Scandinavian drama can be risky: while BBC1's Wallander series starring Kenneth Branagh has garnered viewers and acclaim, Channel 4's imported US remake of The Killing largely failed to engage a British audience.

"The state and future of the European Union has never been more part of the public conversation," said Anne Mensah, head of drama at Sky.

"We're absolutely thrilled to be working with Canal+ and Kudos Film and TV on this exceptional series. The Tunnel's journey into the mind of a politically motivated serial killer will really build on Sky Atlantic's ambition to be the home of world class storytelling."

Fabrice De La Patellière, director of French fiction for Canal+ said: "This partnership combines Franco-British talents both in the writing and production of the drama … our objective is to develop a major series that is undeniably original and unique."