Boxing Clever: the mark of a great show — delighted to revisit Borgen from Denmark

It's got cynical politicians, plot shift curveballs, hipster glasses — and in case that’s not enough, a couple of slimy Brits

Danish TV drama, Borgen

We’re back on episode one of Borgen (Netflix) in our house. The world went mad back in 2010, when Denmark made a drama about politics and people actually watched it. Never mind that the Danish language isn’t exactly beautiful or that events in Copenhagen don’t have a huge impact around the globe —  Borgen was an international sensation. We nearly named our son Kasper, after one of the main characters. (He’ll thank us for passing on that.)

It is, if it’s Borgen. Mind you , t he first few minutes of the first episode fe lt a bit dull. (If it was 2021, we might have swiped on and watched another show.) A female politician from a small party (Birgitte Nyborg) is being interviewed on live TV in the run-up to an election. We cut to an interview with the leader of a larger opposition party she is supporting in the election, who says he will take a harsh line on immigrants. Then, for some reason, we join a drunk and unhappy woman in a posh shop in London. Next, we’re high up in a skyscraper over London, where a couple of slimy English media consultants are telling the Danish Prime Minister that the election is his to lose. Or at least it would be if his wife wasn’t the drunk and unhappy woman making a scene in the shop. Finally, we’re back to Birgitte Nyborg, who is asked live on-air if she still supports the guy who had a dig at immigrants. She says no.

The whole sequence, which takes 2 or 3 minutes, has everything you need to know about Borgen. The topicality, cynical politicians, the standing-up TV interviews, plot shift curveballs, the fast pace eye-catching furniture, hipster glasses — and in case that’s not enough, a couple of slimy Brits.

The best thing is that it’s in Danish. I ended up hating The West Wing because the writers couldn’t resist putting in whip-smart conversation that no one uses in real life. The writers on Borgen might have tried the same, but I’ll never know because I don’t speak Danish. The characters feel real because I don’t know what they actually said.

The reason Borgen works for me is because it’s set in a small European country that doesn’t have any clout on the world stage. (Sound familiar?) We know too much about the US and Britain to fully identify with what’s going on. But Denmark feels like it could be anywhere, coping with immigration, the emerging Far Right (known here as the Freedom Party) and a generational divide.

Borgen doesn’t preach too much, even though you know where its heart lies on most issues. The three seasons are packed with enough incidents and characters for me to forget, so I can enjoy watching it all over again. (Netflix is making a fourth season, due out next year.)

I’m delighted to be back watching Borgen . Hamlet isn’t the only good power struggle set in Denmark.