Ben Hamilton
October 11th, 2019

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If the Guardian did knighthoods … or even knithoods (Photo: Flickr/Aimee Rivers)

It’s not like we needed any more evidence that the British newspaper The Guardian loves Denmark – but this is ridiculous.

The Guardian list ‘The 100 best TV shows of the 21st century’ is made up of 96 Anglophone shows … and 2.5 Danish productions.

It’s two and a half because one of the series is the Swedish-Danish collaboration ‘Bron’/‘Broen’ (‘The Bridge’) in 45th place.

Homage to ‘Twin Peaks’
Twenty-three places further up the ladder is the slow-burner ‘Forbrydelsen’ (‘The Killing’) at number 22, with political intrigue series ‘Borgen’ back in 67th.
Søren Sveistrup, the chief screenwriter on ‘Forbrydelsen’, told DR he was happy with the result, taking the opportunity to pay homage to his all-time favourite, ‘Twin Peaks’, the grandfather of slow-burning series.

‘The Sopranos’, ‘The Wire’, ‘Mad Men’, ‘The Thick of It’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ took the top five places.

Hans at number one
The Guardian has also been compiling other cultural top 100s, including best music album (‘Back to Black’ by Amy Winehouse) and best music composition – and blow us all down again, but it’s only been won by a Dane.

‘Let Me Tell You’, a 2013 song written by Lyngby-based composer Hans Abrahamsen, was inspired by the character of Ophelia in ‘Hamlet’ and to this date Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan is the only performer to have ever sung it.

“The vocals are surprisingly well written. It’s hard to believe that this was Abrahamsen’s first large-scale song-work,” reasoned the newspaper, which also praised the 66-year-old’s 2008 work ‘Schnee’ as another song that could have topped the list.

Another Netflix series
In other TV news, a new six-part Danish-language supernatural thriller series, ‘Equinox’, has been green-lit by Netflix with a budget that is expected to be similar to its first original Danish series, ‘The Rain’.

Apple’s new streaming service will be available in Denmark from November 1 – for a cost of 39 kroner a month. It is expected to have a small back catalogue.

Queen wins nod
‘Dronningen’ (‘Queen of Hearts’) is the Danish representative in this year’s Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars. The Academy will release a nine-film shortlist in December, and then the final five nominees will be confirmed in January.

Volbeat win media case
The competition and consumer authority has found in favour of Danish rock band Volbeat after it refused to accredit tabloid Ekstra Bladet and magazine Devilution to freely attend its 2017 Parken concert and review it. Nine media outlets showed solidarity by refusing to review the concert.

Kingslayer’s wife’s role
Nukâka, the Greenlandic wife of ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, is among the cast for a new Nordic series about climate change, ‘Tynd is’ (‘Thin Ice’). Meanwhile, her husband has been making a documentary in the Peruvian section of the Amazon Rainforest to discover the true story behind the fires that have ravaged the area.

Taylor Swift at Roskilde
The Roskilde Festival has recruited Taylor Swift as its first headliner for its 2020 edition. In related news, NorthSide has announced Green Day, Mew and Lukas Graham as its first headliners, Celine Dion is playing at Royal Arena on August 31 and September 1 next year, and young British talent Freya Ridings is performing at Vega on February 10.

English at last!
Comedy Zoo orgainsed its first ever English-only open mic this Sunday. One performer, Adrian Mackinder, recalled to CPH POST how Zoo told him “all their comedy was in Danish” when he enquired about performing three years ago.

Nolan shooting in Lolland
British director Christopher Nolan recently shot scenes in Lolland for his espionage/time travel thriller ‘Tenet’, which is scheduled to premiere in Denmark on 16 July 2020. In related news, ‘Sideways’ director Alexander Payne has cast Mads Mikkelsen to play a Danish journalist in his next film, a road movie set in the US.