WRITTEN BY: Annika Pham
The event series in development, is based on a screenplay by Maya Ilsøe, credited for Margrethe-Queen of the North and the multi-awarded series The Legacy.
One of Denmark’s most influential figures in Danish history, N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) was a theologian, historian, writer, as important at home as his contemporaries - writer Hans Christian Andersen and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard - although not as well-known internationally.
His educational writings in particular led to the ground-breaking folk high-school movement, whose influence and legacy extended far beyond national borders.
The series -planned as a 12x57’ multi-season show - is based on extensive research from Ilsøe, whose earlier exploration of the illustrious Dane for her 2009 Christmas calendar series Pagten (The Pact), earned her the N.F.S. Grundtvig Prize.
The story is set in 1801, when Copenhagen was a city of 100,000 inhabitants, with rampant poverty and social inequality. "The majority of Danes were considered uneducated, lazy and bordering on stupid. But Grundtvig was aware that the peasantry - sizeable at the time - had great potential”, explains Ilsøe for whom Grundtvig is “the story of the man who gave the people a voice.”
The project is the perfect public service material for TV2 Denmark, and the latest example of Nordisk Film Production’s bigger foray into large-scale productions with local audiences as primary audience.
“Our wish is to create a significant and important TV series about Grundtvig and tell about the shaping of Danish people”, said Nordisk Film Production’s CEO Katrine Vogelsang, who greenlit some of TV2’s biggest fiction brands such as Badehotellet, Rita, to The Sommerdahl Murders, in her former job as TV2’s head of drama.
The series is being produced by Nordisk Film Production’s Thomas Heinesen (A Fortunate Man, A Horrible Woman), with TV2’s head of drama Mette Nelund and senior executive producer Pernille Bech Christensen.
Heinesen said he has applied for support from the Danish Film Institute’s Public Service Fund, and is hoping to get additional coin from the major Scandi broadcasters and private funds.
Filming is expected to start in 2025.
RELATED POST TO :
PRODUCTION /
DRAMA SERIES /
DENMARK