Screening in the 9pm Saturday timeslot the channel reserves for crime dramas from around the world, The Code will be up against some of the UK's top shows, including Top Gear on BBC3, QI on BBC2 and Doctor Who and Casualty on BBC1.

Writing in The Herald of Scotland, critic Damien Love said the Aussie hacker conspiracy series  was "in the Tom Clancy and Dan Brown mould of being all plot" but it was "powered by a good cast".

"One of the pleasures of the wave of imported drama that BBC Four has spearheaded has been the basic, almost physical one of simply losing yourself in unaccustomed landscapes; literally spotting interesting buildings in the backgrounds, washing your brain in other sensations of space and light," he writes.

"The Code, which moves between the city life of Canberra and the red desert harshness of an outback community, ticks this virtual holiday box too."

The Telegraph said the drama's Broken Hill scenes provided "an evocative launchpad for what unfolds as a knotty political conspiracy thriller within Canberra's corridors of power".

The TV blog crimetimepreview.com said the show "shifts at a sharp pace and the cinematography is superb".

Virgin Media called it a "satisfyingly complex drama to get your teeth into" that would appeal to "fans of The Killing and Borgen and The Bridge alike – even if it is in Aussie".

The Code, which was filmed in Canberra in September 2013, screens on ABC at 8.30pm on Sunday.