HFMK03024U FM, Module 2: Culture, genrer and aesthetics: Danish Television Drama

In the 2010s, Danish television drama has found remarkable international success in spite of being subtitled content when crossing borders. Series such as Forbrydelsen/The Killing have been discussed as part of a new Nordic Noir-brand, and the interest in the Danish series has led to a rise in the overall ambitions and the number of national productions, now not only coming from the in-house production unit of the public service broadcaster DR, but also from a range of other players.

This course offers a framework for understanding the current television drama landscape by focusing on Danish TV drama since the mid 1990s when DR decided to focus on the long-running series for Sunday nights that ended up finding impressive domestic audiences during the 2000s. The early history of Danish television drama is briefly traced, before moving on to analysis of the nature of the series and their screenwriting, production, distribution and reception from Lars von Trier’s Riget/The Kingdom (1994) to Maya Ilsøe’s Arvingerne/The Legacy and Ole Bornedal’s 1864 twenty years later.

The course introduces a wide range of theoretical and analytical approaches to studying television drama, and guests from the industry will offer their perspectives on the state of affairs in a rapidly changing world of television. Drawing on the on-going research project Mediating Cultural Encounters Through European Screens (mecetes.co.uk), the course will also discuss the output and impact of a small, national production culture in a wider European context.