Borgen

There's no escape.  'The Killing' has been too successful.  BBC4 is scouting for endless Danish drama to fill the 9pm Saturday slot.  Don't they want thinking viewers, those tough enough to flirt with double-episode subtitling, to have any Saturday nights on the town?  Don't they think the restaurants, cinemas, theatres and pubs need an economic boost?  Clearly not.  Of-course, we also have the likes of 'Wallander' and 'Spiral' to thank, and it's encouraging that we've not (yet) been awash with substandard Swedish and French serials in the wake of those.

'The Killing' has, in both series, featured the Danish political scene quite heavily, and in particularly the struggle between centre, right and left for control.  In terms of gripping viewing, the politics in both series has been eclipsed by the gruesome murders, so we crossed our fingers that this wouldn't be 'The Killing' minus killings.  We did get a body as a promising start, and we got slightly distracted by the appearance of Lund's sidekick and her love interest/villain from TK, (and doesn't the Labour leader Laugesen bear an uncanny resemblance to a youngish Peter Fonda?) but we only spotted one serious TWNH so far: the dead man was married, with children, and a senior politician to boot, and he died in the arms of his mistress in a rented flat.  The mistress calls an ex, also in politics, who takes very peremptory and wholly inadequate measures to disguise her presence in the flat.  Will reality bite and this catch up with him?  It should.

This is made by the same production team as TK, and the twists and turns of political intrigue are all present and correct, but less annoyingly - Nyborg is already being hailed as the new PM by the end of the first episode.  She is not de facto in the leader's chair, however, and her agonising negotiations with slippery colleagues are compelling stuff.  Will she compromise?  Will she win through and live happily ever after?  Or be found brutally murdered and a focus for Sarah Lund's next case?

What we like most, though, is the inclusiveness of these serials.  The cast are not unfeasibly gorgeous or well-dressed (knitted sweaters excepted), the characters not one-dimensionally bad, good or single-minded to further the plot.  Something may be rotten in the state of Denmark, but it's the politics, not the drama.