Lisa Ambjörn graduated two years ago from the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts‘ screenwriting course, and boasts already a solid list of TV dramas to her credit.

She has served as head-writer on SVT’s period comedy drama Dreaming of England (Sommaren 85), produced by Art & Bob, which premiered yesterday on SVT. She also co-wrote the sci-fi drama The White Wall produced by Nice Drama in Sweden and Fire Monkey in Finland, which premieres on SVT September 20 and Yle in November.

She is also head-writer of Netflix yet-untitled coming-of-age series directed by Rojda Sekersöz. The series is produced by Nexiko, together with Ambjörn’s own upcoming original series Sick in preparation for SVT.  The project was pitched at Nordic Talents 2018. 

The 6x45’ series Dreaming of England produced by Anette Brantin, was created by Emma Hamberg and Denize Karabuda. The latter was also episodic writer with Sofie Forsman and Amanda Högberg. Kicki Kjellin is concept director.

The feelgood nostalgia series set in the 1980s, follows a teenage girl, Lena, her mother Åsa and the grand-mother Barbro, living in a suffocating small Swedish town, all longing for love, passion and sex. Beyond each woman’s frustrations and aspirations, the series looks with affection at cross generational tensions.  In the title roles are Lotta Tejle, Emma Broomé and Elina Sätterman. 

The series was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. 

Lisa Ambjörn spoke to us. 

First of all what’s your background and how did you get into screenwriting?
Lisa Ambjörn: I started with acting at theatre groups in school, then turned to editing. I moved to London at 23 where I worked on documentaries, but I soon realised that non-fiction wasn’t for me. I preferred to work with scripted content, where I could expose real emotions, take the harshness of reality, without having to expose real persons. 

At 24, I went through a traumatic event - I got cervical cancer. Everything fell apart around me. I felt I didn’t want to edit anymore and turned to screenwriting. I came back to Sweden, applied at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts’ writing course and graduated in 2018.  While doing my bachelor’s degree, I did a six-week internship at SVT Drama. That time was the most formative ever. 

At what stage did you come on board Dreaming of England, created by Emma Hamberg & Denize Karabuda? What was the writing process?
LA: Emma and Denize had been working on the series since 2014 and had written a pilot. SVT liked the idea, but asked me to bring my own input. I grew up reading Emma’s books so I am very familiar with her style; I could orientate myself through her humour and love for human beings.

Art& Bob’s producer Anette Brantin and Anna Croneman at SVT [Head of Drama] were very courageous to trust a newly graduate writer like me.  I helped Emma and Denize restructure the project, keeping their voice and tone, working in the writers’ room with Sofie [Forsman] and Amanda [Högberg] who worked specifically on various episodes. Then I rewrote all the scripts two-three times, inserting the input from concept director Kicki Kjellin. 

Tell us about the challenge of writing three parallel stories, about women from different age groups?
LA: Although I wrote about women from different age groups, the story explores similar struggles. Everyone from SVT and in the writers’ room contributed with their own stories and recollections. One of the most challenging elements was to keep the tone, conflict in every scene, and the rhythm. I’ve never worked on any project with that many locations. This is also what gives it a particular rhythm. 

I was careful to fine tune every element, giving some context without telling too much, and putting the conflict in the here and now, using colour-coding for each storyline.  Every character was written with lots of love and care, therefore you could afford to let them sometimes be annoying. I always feel you have to advocate for each character in their own right, as long as they make sense.

When we had the first reading, we brought in teenagers and they loved all characters, whatever their age. That was wonderful; it comforted us in our goal to create an engaging series for the whole family. 

It's refreshing to see a show that tackles sexuality across three generations of women, especially for women above 60… 
L.A.: Yes, we wanted to show the braveness of wanting love, wanting sex. We’re used to seeing this in young women, younger bodies. Here, we wanted everything to be relatable for everyone. The hardest was to combine comedy with drama. I pushed the characters, to make them braver and more daring. Lotta Teile [playing the grand-mother] was in a film called Slim Sussie that I saw as a teenager. Writing for her was the coolest thing ever for me. 

Tell us about reviving the 80s in a small provincial Swedish town, at a time of AIDS and prejudice…
L.A: We didn’t want to portray the glam 80s, but the ‘little’ people, in small-town Sweden, reluctant to changes and three women trying to find happiness against this backdrop.

I was born in 1989 and did not experience AIDS, but my generation grew up as a reaction and as a consequence of the 80s. The porn industry, language courses, people starting to travel abroad. That was all happening at the time. Also, the little town’s main economic centre is a mental institution. My father used to work in a mental institution in the 70s. I was able to speak to some of my parents’ friends who recalled how it was at the time. But you always want to show the time through a character, rather than showing events contributing to changes in society. 

With this show, we remind people that every decade had its own problems, conflicts, that often keep repeating themselves. 

Can you say a few words about working on the Finnish/Swedish series The White Wall?
LA: I love sci-fi as I feel it’s the best way to raise philosophical questions about what it means to be a human being. I had read the storyline and was excited about it. When SVT said they needed a Swede to give a Swedish voice, someone to write the dialogues in Swedish (it was originally written in Finnish and translated into English) I was thrilled. Sometimes, nuances are lost in translation. I went to Finland to meet the creators. [Roope Lehtinen, Mikko Pöllä, Aleksi Salmenperä]. It was quite stressful as it was close to the shoot. But with Swedish director Anna Zackrisson, we just worked hard with our Finnish counterparts to reach the same goal. 

What is the core of the series?
L.A.: The White Wall describes a parallel future. It’s set in a mining community that puts Sweden at the forefront as a nation, digging nuclear waste underground. Ultimately, it’s about human’s urge to find the truth, wanting to understand everything that happens around us. 

What can you say about the Netflix series to be directed by Rojda Sekersöz? 
L.A.: Co-creators Lars Beckung [exec producer, founder of Nexiko] and Camilla Holter approached me with the project. The series deals with heritage, love and finding your own way, through a picture of upper-class Sweden. I’m in the last stage of writing the scripts.

What are your views on the boom of TV drama today?
LA: It’s so exciting. It was a gift to come out in the industry at this time. I also feel that in some ways, series are even more ‘democratic’ than film, in the sense that more people take part in the creative process. And with the volume of stories available, we contribute to broadening people’s views and representation of society. Series like Skam, Young & Promising, Caliphate, show that we in the Nordics, can tell important stories at quality levels almost matching big US series.