Abstract
Pia Majbitt Jensen and Ushma Chauhan Jacobsen wrote recently about how contemporary Danish TV drama has gone ‘from being a relatively insignificant exporter of audiovisual content to punching markedly above its weight in the international market for television’ (2017: 325). Series like Forbrydelsen (The Killing 2007–2012), Borgen (2010–2013) and Bron/Broen (The Bridge 2011–2018) have found critical success far beyond the borders of this small nation at the Northern periphery of Europe, establishing what Jensen has called a ‘peripheral counter-flow’ (2016). Much of the academic interest has collected around the way in which these Danish TV dramas have been traded (Eichner and Mikos, 2016) and designated as objects of cultural (Creeber, 2015) and aesthetic distinction (Waade, 2017), appealing to niche audiences (Esser, 2017; Hill, 2016) and branding culturally distinct digital channels and platforms (McCabe, 2015; Ward, 2013). This focus on the direction and characteristics of international travel arises because of what the phenomenal success of these dramas tells us about the contemporary dynamics behind complex global media markets (Hansen and Waade, 2017) which are both discrete and integrated, involving local, regional and (trans)national players.
Beyond the Bridge: Contemporary Danish Television Drama recognises the mapping of the field but locates its own intervention firmly within the production culture and broadcasting ecology of public service broadcaster Danmark Radio (DR). DR champions what it calls ‘One Vision’ as part of its production structure, a best-practice framework combining the working methods of the US TV industry but grounded in a public service mindset (for a detailed account, see Redvall, 2013). One of the merits of Beyond the Bridge is how it usefully outlines Danish TV production culture, synthesising the history of production processes (Chapter 1) with contemporary strategies and creative management structured by the ‘scaffolded working environment provided by DR’ (p. 64) (Chapter 2). Scaffolding, in this context, refers to the ‘macro level’ of state media policy; the ‘miso’ involves ‘institutions and agencies’ (like the Film School) which implement those policies and provide practical resources; and the ‘micro’ is concerned with the management conditions at DR which facilitate drama production (p. 71). Scaffolding thus enables the authors to explain the Danish production culture, before moving on to analyse the most prominent drama series made at DR.
To that end, the book relies on a holistic approach to its methodology, incorporating production studies (industry and production documentation, press reviews) with qualitative research (first-hand interviews with industry personnel) and close textual analysis. After defining the scaffolding model, the authors introduce the case studies of five DR-produced series, Forbrydelsen (Chapter 3), Broen (Chapter 4), Borgen (Chapter 5), Arvingerne I and II (The Legacy 2014–2015) and Ørnen: En krimi-odyssé (The Eagle 2004–2006). The aesthetic, genetic and narrative features of each, they argue, are representative of the production culture – defined by DR’s ‘dogmas for television’ (pp. 81–84) – and epitomise a public service ethos which is concerned with wider social, political and moral issues related to Denmark as ‘a participatory democratic society’ (p. 6).
At times, the analyses felt unanchored from the production context, the approach which had been so strongly advocated at the start, relying instead on more general narrative and dramaturgical theories. Often the textual analysis didn’t entirely illuminate the specificities of the Danish production culture, particularly in the Broen and Arvingerne chapters, and the disconnect of having two authors writing different sections started to come into view. The dependence on press reviews from outside Denmark to make sense of the textual qualities required more thought; insufficient attention is paid to how the series are culturally and institutionally positioned within different broadcasting territories which in turn shapes the critical responses and valued judgements. Nevertheless, there was much to learn about how the drama series make visible the cultural and material conditions of DR.
Leaving aside the content, it should be noted that this is an expensive book: prohibitively so at £75. In reading it for review, I noticed stylistic infelicities, grammatical errors and, at a more detailed level, factual inaccuracies: it’s Jonathan not ‘John’ Bignall, Murray Smith is an academic and not a ‘British TV writer and producer’ and Danish-language dramas are scheduled in the United Kingdom on Saturday, not Sunday, evening, to itemise but a few. I accept that the authors are not native English speakers but precisely because of that fact, and given the exorbitant price, there is an issue of how manuscripts are processed through the publishing production chain. Reading work by scholars writing from inside a particular broadcasting territory can be – and frequently is – a truly enlightening and rewarding experience; it is part of what enriches our discipline and expands our knowledge of it. That’s why it matters when one is distracted from the ideas by avoidable mistakes and problems with expression. My gripe here isn’t with the authors but with the publication production systems in which the art of editing seems to have been lost.
Nevertheless, the authors have put together a truly fascinating study, rich in detail about Danish public service broadcasting and its production ecology. The book can be recommended for its insight into the scaffolding behind the nation-based production culture which makes these dramas, one that absorbs lessons from inside and outside the nation. In this way, Beyond the Bridge adds another perspective on why Danish TV travels.