Next up in our series of Christmas present ideas comes from regular contributor and Euro candidate Giles Goodall.
Just in the nip of time for Christmas – with a release date two days after the last ever episode airs on BBC4 – comes the box set of all three series of Denmark’s hit political drama. Which self-respecting, Europe-minded, coalitionist Lib Dem could be without the Borgen Trilogy?
After the heady days of a surprise election victory, novelty of entering government, and mounting pressure of compromising on your ideals in the first two series, Borgen quickly became a firm favourite with British politicos – and Lib Dems in particular. We watched as our political heroine – a charismatic, fresh-faced radical-centrist – rose and fell. And wondered what it all meant for our own coalition experience.
Besides the neatly written scripts, top acting and skilful interplay between the political and the personal, Borgen seems to chime with our times. We recognised our own hopes and dreams in the series, as well as the frustrations and the disappointments. We identified and sympathised with the characters – even if we didn’t particularly like or agree with them.
Perhaps the series’ greatest service to Britain – where it was a completely unexpected hit – has been to bring a bit more of the European into our political and cultural lives. Negotiation, compromise and subtitles are relative novelties for Brits, but perhaps they can help us understand the rest of Europe – and ourselves – a bit better now.
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Back to Butterley Tunnel on the Cromford Canal
Are we programmed to die?
Fraser's weekly ward surgeries tonight! #dundeewestend
An online conspiracy?
Alex Hosking
graham
Daniel Stylianou
Craig Levene
Paul Barker
4 Comments
I agree Carol, a great series and of relevance to our current political situation in many ways. However, I wouldn’t like the analogies to get too close. In the new series the New Democracy party’s breakaway from the Moderates over their support for the Liberals (no relation), looks uncomfortably, in Lib Dem terms, like the SLF having split with the Orange bookers for entering coalition in a conservative lead government. Scary!
I must remind myself , its only a TV programme 🙂
I agree completely with Giles. Borgen is intelligent, well-crafted drama that respects democratic politics without being deferential or uncritical. Politicians are depicted as real human beings with real human frailties, and win our understanding and respect even if we disagree with their difficult choices.
We British should reflect on why we cannot produce a TV drama about politics of this quality. The best we can do is the post-modernist cynicism of Mock the Week.
I am old enough to remember the TV series Bill Brand. What went wrong since then?
I agree with Simon! (And Giles etc.)
Just wanted to record that for posterity 🙂
At the risk of accusing myself of corruptly favouring Amazon, I would like to recommend
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1844086828/?tag=libdemvoice-21
It seems that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they are girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century combined. More girls are killed in this routine ‘gendercide’ in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century