The Bridge (Danish/Swedish TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Bridge

Series One DVD for the Australian release
Also known as Bron, Broen
Genre Serial crime drama, thriller
Created by Hans Rosenfeldt
Written by Björn Stein
Starring Sofia Helin
Kim Bodnia
Dag Malmberg
Ellen Hillingsø
Puk Scharbau
Composer(s) Johan Söderqvist
Patrik Andrén
Uno Helmersson
Country of origin Denmark
Sweden
Original language(s) Danish
Swedish
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 10
Production
Executive producer(s) Stefan Baron
Klaus Bassiner
Tomas Eskilsson
Wolfgang Feindt
Tone Rønning
Producer(s) Gunnar Carlsson
Bo Ehrhardt
Anders Landström
Editor(s) Sofia Lindgren
Kristofer Nordin
Margareta Lagerqvist
Location(s) Copenhagen, Denmark
Malmö, Sweden
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) Nimbus Film
Filmlance International
Distributor ZDF
Broadcast
Original channel DR1, SVT1
Original run September 21, 2011 (2011-09-21) – present
External links
Website

The Bridge (Danish: Broen; Swedish: Bron) is a Scandinavian crime drama television series, co-produced by Danmarks Radio and Sveriges Television. The series follows a police investigation following the discovery of a dead body on the bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden. It was first broadcast on DR1 and SVT1 during the autumn of 2011.

The Bridge was the first joint creative and financed production between Denmark and Sweden. It was created by Hans Rosenfeldt and written by Björn Stein.[1]

A second series began production in October 2012 with broadcast planned for late 2013.[2]

Contents

Season One [edit]

Plot [edit]

The halves of two bodies, one belonging to a female Swedish politician, are discovered in the middle of the Øresund Bridge, which connects Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmö in Sweden. The body, cut in half at the waist, has been placed precisely on the border between the countries, thus falling under the jurisdiction of both the Danish and Swedish police agencies. After further examination, it turns out that the body is that of two separate corpses, with one half belonging to a Danish prostitute. Saga Norén, from the Swedish side, and Martin Rohde, from the Danish, lead the investigation to catch the murderer.[3][4]

The investigation quickly escalates as a journalist, Daniel Ferbé, whose car was used in the crime, begins receiving phone calls. The caller, who becomes known as the "Truth Terrorist", claims to be committing his crimes in order to draw attention to various social problems. A social worker, Stefan Lindberg, whose sister becomes a victim of the Truth Terrorist, becomes an early suspect. However, events soon lead the Danish and Swedish teams to conclude that the killer has connections to the police. They discover that the crimes have been planned over a period of several years. The trail eventually leads them to Jens, a Danish policeman and former close friend of Martin's, who was thought to have committed suicide after an accident on the bridge caused the deaths of his wife and son.

In the course of the investigation, Martin and Saga develop a close working relationship, although they are very different people. Martin has an eighteen-year old son from his first marriage, August, who is now living with Martin and his current wife, Mette, by whom Martin has three children; after Martin has had a vasectomy, Mette discovers that she is expecting twins. Saga lives alone and does not seem to feel she needs a serious relationship, instead picking up men in bars for casual sex. She appears to have symptoms consistent with Asperger syndrome, resulting in difficulty establishing relationships and feelings of inadequacy in managing people; she refuses a promotion for this latter reason.

After the killer has murdered several people and successfully thrown red herrings in the way of the investigation, his true purpose – to strike at Martin himself – eventually becomes clear. Jens, now calling himself Sebastian Sandstrod, first approaches Mette, who is susceptible to his advances, after learning that Martin has slept with Charlotte Söringer, a woman who is peripherally involved in the investigation. Sebastian lures Mette and her children to a remote spot where he subjects them to a terrifying ordeal, locking them in a room and giving her a hand grenade with its pin removed to hold as long as she can. However, Saga realises that August is the real target. The investigation culminates in a confrontation on the bridge, where she cannot help but tell Martin what happened to August and has to fire at him in order to prevent him destroying his career by killing Sebastian, the killer's final intention.

Cast [edit]

Main
  • Sofia Helin as Saga Norén, the lead homicide detective in Malmö
  • Kim Bodnia as Martin Rohde, the lead homicide detective in Copenhagen
  • Dag Malmberg as Hans Petterson, a senior criminal police officer in Malmö
  • Christian Hillborg as Daniel Ferbé, a journalist at Aftonposten in Malmö
  • Ellen Hillingsø as Charlotte Söringer, Goran Söringer's wife
  • Magnus Krepper as Stefan Lindberg, a social worker in Malmö
Recurring
  • Puk Scharbau as Mette Rohde, Martin Rohde's wife
  • Emil Birk Hartmann as August Rohde, Martin Rohde's eldest son
  • Dietrich Hollinderbäumer as Goran Söringer
  • Tuvalisa Rangström as Veronika Holmgren, a client of Stefan Lindberg's and wife of Sören Holmgren
  • Iggy Malmborg as Sören Holmgren, husband of Veronika
  • Maria Sundbom as Sonja Lindberg, Stefan's sister

Episodes [edit]

Season One consisted of ten episodes. Each episode is 60 minutes in length. They were first broadcast on Wednesday nights at 8pm in Denmark and 9pm in Sweden.

Ep. First broadcast
Denmark (DR1)		 Official TNS Gallup[disambiguation needed]
ratings[5]		 First broadcast
Sweden (SVT1)		 Official MMS ratings First broadcast
UK (BBC Four)		 UK Overnight ratings Official BARB
UK ratings
1 28 September 2011 876,000
+ 108,000 DR HD		 21 September 2011 1,030,000[6] 21 April 2012 1,030,000
+ 67,000 BBC HD[7]		 1,262,000
not including BBC HD
2 5 October 2011 660,000
+ 128,000 DR HD		 28 September 2011 970,000[8] 21 April 2012 833,000[7] 1,093,000
not including BBC HD
3 12 October 2011 712,000
+ 57,000 DR HD		 5 October 2011 787,000[9] 28 April 2012 732,000
+ 56,000 BBC HD[10]		 1,020,000
not including BBC HD
4 19 October 2011 589,000
+ 79,000 DR HD		 12 October 2011 865,000[11] 28 April 2012 637,000
+ 56,000 BBC HD[10]		 890,000
not including BBC HD
5 26 October 2011 652,000
+ 86,000 DR HD		 19 October 2011 925,000[12] 5 May 2012 853,000 1,084,000 + 102,000 BBC HD
6 2 November 2011 668,000
+ 48,000 DR HD		 26 October 2011 915,000[13] 5 May 2012 672,000 858,000 + 118,000 BBC HD
7 9 November 2011 668,0000
+ 71,000 DR HD		 2 November 2011 834,000[9] 12 May 2012 1,040,000 + 100,000 BBC HD
8 16 November 2011 610,000
+ 120,000 DR HD		 9 November 2011 880,000[14] 12 May 2012 930,000 + 127,000 BBC HD
9 23 November 2011 803,000
+ 89,000 DR HD		 16 November 2011 945,000[15] 19 May 2012 1,190,000 + 112,000 BBC HD
10 23 November 2011 21.00 803,000
+ 89,000 DR HD		 23 November 2011 935,000[16] 19 May 2012 1,110,000
not including BBC HD

The first airing of the series was screened on Sweden's SVT1 weekly from Wednesday 21 September 2011 at 21.00. Denmark's DR1 followed a week later in their 20.00 slot every Wednesday. By screening the final episode immediately after episode 9, DR1 managed to screen episode 10 simultaneously with SVT1.

On several occasions, The Bridge failed to have sufficient viewers to be placed in SVT1's weekly Top 10 programmes. This was mainly due to competition from commercial broadcaster TV4 with their offering gaining over a million viewers. In Sweden, The Bridge won its timeslot for the first five episodes against weak competition from Hawaii Five-0 on TV4. From episode 6, it aired against the popular reality show Berg flyttar in, which would beat The Bridge until the final episode, when they virtually tied.

International distribution [edit]

In the UK, the series was shown in weekly two-episode blocks on BBC Four and BBC HD from 21 April 2012.[3] In Germany, it was shown by broadcaster ZDF from 18 March 2012.[17] In Poland, the series was broadcast in double episodes from 2 May to 30 May 2012 on Ale Kino+. In Brazil, the series premiered on +Globosat channel on August 13, 2012 at 22h. The series premiered in Australia on Wednesday, 5 September 2012 on SBS Two,[18] where the first episode had overnight ratings of 101,000 viewers.[19] It was also screened in Israel on September 30 on HOT VoD. Co-producers NRK screened the series in Norway with audiences in excess of 600,000 viewers. NRK are also keen to participate in the production of the second series.[20]

Season Two [edit]

Season 2 has been announced and is due to start shooting in October 2012, with a broadcast date of Autumn 2013.[2]

Soundtrack [edit]

The opening and closing music is "Hollow Talk" by Choir of Young Believers from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Remakes [edit]

United States [edit]

In late July 2012, US network FX ordered a pilot episode to be made of the series for an American audience. It is to be set in the US and Mexico, between El Paso and Juarez, and the discovery of a body on the border of the two countries sets the story in motion. Meredith Stiehm who has previously worked on Cold Case and Elwood Reid of Hawaii Five-O are involved in the production.[21] The series is going to star Diane Kruger (as U.S., Detective Sonya Cross), Annabeth Gish, Ted Levine, Demián Bichir (as Mexican Detective Marco Ruiz), Emily Rios, Duane Whitaker and Larry Clark.

On February 12, 2013, Deadline Hollywood announced that FX had picked up drama series The Bridge for a 13-episode order. It will begin filming in April and premiere in July 2013.[22]

British and French [edit]

Sister production companies, Kudos and Shine France, have announced they are planning a joint Franco-British production called “The Tunnel”. The programme premises concerns the murder of a known French politician in the middle of the Channel Tunnel between France and Great Britain. It will be shown on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Canal+ in France.[23]

Notes [edit]

Citations [edit]

  1. ^ "Borgen 2 And Broen Finish Season With Panache". www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com. 2 December 2011. 
  2. ^ a b Østrem, Veslemøy Hedvig (6 March 2012). "Hva skal vi se på nå?". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Schibsted ASA. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
  3. ^ a b Gordon, Bryony (27 January 2012). "Borgen: Sidse Babett Knudsen interview". The Daily Telegraph (London). 
  4. ^ "The Weekend's Viewing: The Bridge, Saturday, BBC4". The Independent (London). 23 April 2012. 
  5. ^ TNS Gallup TV ratings Retrieved 2012-04-25
  6. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  7. ^ a b The Bridge Ratings – The Guardian Retrieved 2012-04-25
  8. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  9. ^ a b "Extract from the MMS HotTop database, consolidated viewing. Retrieved 2012-06-26
  10. ^ a b Guardian TVS Ratings Retrieved 2012-04-30
  11. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  12. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  13. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  14. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  15. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  16. ^ MMS Weekly Audience Report Retrieved 2012-04-25
  17. ^ "Sendungen und TV-Programm". www.ZDF.de. 21 November 2011. 
  18. ^ "SBSTWO TV Guide for 5/09/2012". Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 6 September 2012. 
  19. ^ "Dallas is a switch off TV Tonight". Retrieved 22 October 2012. 
  20. ^ "NRK vil ha mer "Broen"-krim". http://www.vg.no. 28 February 2012. 
  21. ^ "AMC Cancels 'The Killing' While FX Orders a Pilot for a Scandinavian Remake of Its Own". http://www.indiewire.com. 30 July 2012. 
  22. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2013-02-12). "FX’s ‘The Bridge’ Picked Up To Series.". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2013-02-12. 
  23. ^ Frost, Vicky (2013-01-10). "The Bridge becomes the Tunnel in Anglo-French crime thriller remake". guardian.co.uk (London). 

External links [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bridge_(Danish/Swedish_TV_series)&oldid=550314030"