In Surprised Praise of… Borgen

“I need my Danish political drama fix!” exclaimed my favourite stage manager.

Not words you hear every Sunday, but okay….

I cannot tell a lie, if I think of Denmark, I think of bacon and Sandi Toksvig, one of my all-time favourite comedians.  If I strain, I then begin to think of Norway, Sweden and a whole host of movies that have come from those two countries which begin with suicide, molestation and alcoholism before the entire thing goes downhill.  I do not think of highly intelligent, clever, well-constructed political drama.  But that’s precisely what Borgen is. Who’d have thought it?

I should also say, as I’m here, and passing through, that whenever the Danish cast speak English, it’s actually quite terrifying both how good the English is, and how incredibly British it sounds.  I just throw that one out there, as it made me feel horrifically inadequate linguistically speaking, despite having recently acquired a Mandarin-language buddy with whom to watch kung fu films and email (badly) with.

But for anyone out there who hasn’t seen Borgen… go watch.