Borgen airs as a double-bill from 9pm on BBC Four on Saturdays
The last time an episode of The Thick of It was broadcast was the 12th December 2009. Since that day I’m been waiting quite impatiently for more, especially considering what’s happened in the real political world since then – election, bigot-gate, coalitions, phone hacking etc. Part of the reason for its absence is that Armando Ianucci, the show’s creator, has been making an American equivalent called Veep that will air on HBO this year. Apparently there are now plans to shoot series four of The Thick of It in March.
In-between that time there has been very little in the way of heavyweight drama/comedy that looks at the political system and scrutinises it. After two years, we finally have that programme. The biggest surprise is that it’s Danish.
Borgen, which started in the UK with a double-header on BBC Four last Saturday night, fills the void left by Forbrydelsen (The Killing) and shares many similarities with it: it’s from the same Danish TV company (DR), it features another strong female lead (Birgitte Nyborg Christensen played expertly by Sidse Babett Knudsen) and both have seen American TV producers wanting to remake them in a lazy way (NBC is producing their Borgen with a pilot whilst AMC have already aired their first season of The Killing with a second to follow). Most importantly though, Borgen is just as fantastic as Forbrydelsen.
For starters, it says a lot about women in power, as brilliantly explained by Kira Cochrane (who’s been writing a series of utterly superb articles for The Guardian recently):
Last week in GQ, Tory backbencher Louise Mensch complained that female politicians are trivialised by the focus on their fashion choices, and she has a point. Without a uniform, everything women wear becomes significant. In Borgen, Nyborg is shown trying to struggle into a pre-approved black suit, ahead of a debate; she also worries about having been called “voluptuous” in another dress. She knows her choices will be analysed, that her body itself is a subject of debate. This is echoed in the Obama book, in the passages about Michelle Obama’s outfits; the Lanvin trainers criticised as too expensive, the shorts that were too “common”, the moment White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told her “you’re never going to please some of these people”.
Infact, read the whole thing and then come back to me…done? Good.
The best television fiction can be the equivalent of reading a very good book and not wanting to put it down until the end and there’s a lot of really good examples of these kind of programmes like Forbrydelsen and The Wire. In the case of Borgen, the plot is thrilling. Well, for a programme that claims to be a political thriller that’s what you’d hope for but this is one of the few times when the promise is fulfilled. About half an hour into the first episode I was hooked. All the characters are well thought-up and so far there isn’t a person whose presence doesn’t feel integral to the story.
You also realise how much common ground there is in the way of themes. Coalition governments, party perceptions…it breaks the myth that Borgen is only about Danish politics. Its political messages are completely universal, which also serves to break another myth: that people don’t get foreign TV. They do, as long as it’s good.
Thankfully it seems to have gone down pretty well with TV audiences. The first two episodes drew 629,000 and 460,000 viewers respectively – higher than the first episode of Forbrydelsen ( 393,000) – and the chances are all this critical acclaim/blog flattery has persuaded more people to check it out on the iPlayer.
So if you’re missing both Sarah Lund and Malcolm Tucker, then staying in on Saturday nights will probably be the best part of your week.
