Daily Mail- Borgen

Daily Mail Article- Borgen TV Series
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2086798/Borgen-TV-series-Sex-scandals-scheming-politicians-voluptuous-PM-pouting-blonde.html
'Seriously Strong Women- Not a cupcake in sight'

In my TV review column in today’s Live magazine, I suggest that the only way the BBC could possibly salvage  Sir David Jason’s disastrous slapstick sitcom The Royal Bodyguard would be to redub  it in Danish, apply some English subtitles and then run it on BBC4 on Saturday nights instead.

I’m joking, of course. Even those drastic steps would not save Sir David now.

Nevertheless, you do have to marvel at BBC4’s Scandinavian Midas touch. They have this happy knack of unearthing the best TV programmes that region has to  offer and then turning them into huge critical and word-of-mouth  hits over here.

It all began with Swedish crime drama Wallander, of which Kenneth Branagh was such a fan he made his own English-speaking version. 

But the first real signs of a phenomenon came with the  Bafta-winning success of The Killing, the cold and unwieldy Danish murder mystery which, alongside  all the critical acclaim, received lavish praise for its dowdy yet stylish knitwear. 

Jennifer Saunders even paid homage to it with a pullover dream sequence in Ab Fab’s Christmas special.

The Killing became such a crossover hit that people now speak of it in the same reverential tones usually reserved for another TV cult classic, Twin Peaks. 

I actually have acquaintances whose devotion is so rabid they refuse to acknowledge the Danish hit in any other form than its original title, Forbrydelsen.

Obviously, I am about to begin the tricky process of distancing myself socially from such people, especially the ones who have suddenly started wearing chunky knitted roll-necks.

Of course, after such a trailblazer it would have been a major surprise if Borgen, BBC4’s latest Scandinavian import, hadn’t hit the spot as well.

But this slick and sexy political thriller does more than satisfy a fad. The truth is it is possibly even more gripping and, worryingly, even more addictive than The Killing. 

The highest praise I can offer is that I am already so desperate to watch the episodes that are still to be broadcast that  I check the BBC’s press previews website on a daily basis to see if they have arrived yet.

On the face of it, I know that  for most people the prospect of struggling through a dimly lit and subtitled political drama for two hours won’t seem like a rock ’n’ roll Saturday night.

But Borgen is almost as much  of an escapist delight as our own Downton Abbey and, rather than tiring you out, the subtitles  actually encourage you to focus  on the action.

There is an eerie familiarity to the story. While Copenhagen couldn’t look as grubby as London if it tried – even the taxis appear spotlessly clean – the political climate in Borgen shares more than a few twists with our own.

There are coalitions, sex scandals, alcoholics, ruthlessly unethical spin doctors, a previously unknown candidate surging to  the fore in a live TV debate,  and a top politician using his office credit card to blow thousands on  a Mulberry handbag for his wife (which kind of puts the few  pounds Jacqui Smith’s husband spent on special-interest movies into perspective). 

They even have an ageing, rotund and oafish parliamentary has-been who seems to spend most of his time attempting to be funny on whatever TV show is desperate enough to invite him on. (Morning, Lord Prescott.)

Obviously we have to draw the line at the idea of Borgen’s prominent news anchor conducting affairs with two of the foremost spin doctors. Well, unless Kay Burley, Alastair Campbell and Andy Coulson wish belatedly  to get something off their chests.

The other major achievement that sets Borgen apart from most homegrown dramas is that, like The Killing, it boasts strong  female roles. 

While British dramas offer us fortysomething wives and mothers opening their own cupcake or taxi businesses, Danish drama gives us a married mother of two who is running for prime minister.

If asked to name a British TV series that leans so heavily on a female lead, I’m willing to bet most people would still instinctively suggest Helen Mirren’s Prime Suspect, which first hit our screens last century.

Moreover, if you asked me to name a British political thriller which could be said to be in the same class as Borgen, I would scrabble around for a while before falling back on a trusty old favourite – 2003’s State Of Play.

British TV is not entirely useless, of course. The BBC’s recent Dickens adaptations proved we still remake the classics better than any country in the world. 

I’m also willing to bet any Danish version of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! wouldn’t be a patch on ours.

But it is perhaps worth noting that in the same week Borgen arrived on our screens, ITV1 launched its latest drama series, Eternal Law, which is all about a team of angels who have come down from heaven to practise law (alongside the devil!) in modern-day York.

Exactly. Even the finest subtitle-writer in the world would struggle to explain that one.