Yay, it's Saturday evening - which means another two episodes of the Danish TV drama Borgen, it's pretty much the only thing on TV I look forward to watching at the moment (apart from the new series of Superscrimpers, of course). My goodness, but the cut's in the BBC's funding have become scarily apparent in the last few weeks - Christmas telly was unusually dire this year with only the outstanding Absolutely Fabulous worth tuning in for - and now that the superb (but oh-so-short-a-series) Sherlock has finished, there is nothing but absolutely nothing, to watch on the BBC at all - except imported Danish programmes.
Somebody at BBC4 should be heartily congratulated for having the foresight to start showing programmes that require subtitles. We've had some wonderful foreign dramas on over the past 18 months or so - most of them of the crime / thriller genre. The ball started rolling with the two Swedish Wallander series, swiftly followed by the first series of The Killing (which to be frank, I found a bit too long-winded for my taste.) Then there was Spiral - a French police series - very good, and made me feel that despite my ungraded French 'O' Level, I did understand a bit more of the language than I'd realised. These were followed by the superb The Killing II (and more gorgeous Faroe Island knitwear), and now, from the same production company, we have Borgen. I wasn't sure I'd get on too well with it at first as it's a political drama, not a thriller, but you know what, it makes for fascinating viewing and gives an interesting insight into Danish life.
I do wonder if the person who decided to show TV that requires subtitles grew up, like I did, in the 1960's when BBC children's TV was dominated by continental imports. Anyone else remember the French 'Belle and Sebastien', the German 'Robinson Crusoe' (with it's memorable theme tune,) White Horses (which came from Yugoslavia,) and the wickedly scary Singing Ringing Tree from East Germany? Ah, happy days.
wow that brought back memories yes the singing ringing tree was scary but i loved it
Posted by: Diane | 01/29/2012 at 10:44 AM
You made me green with envy because I love Nordic crime and miss British telly so much.
However, I popped into the library on the way home and, unusually for me, looked in the large print section and there, just waiting for me, was a copy of Jo Nesbo's The Rebreast.
His stuff is well worth a read if you've not already come across him.
Posted by: Maureen | 01/30/2012 at 04:14 AM