One of Denmark’s most esteemed heavyweight drama players, associated to the hits The Killing, The Bridge, Follow the Money, Piv Bernth is celebrating the biggest year for Apple Tree Productions, which she founded in 2017 with Lars Hermann, after three decades of collaboration with DR, including five as Head of Drama.

After two Netflix shows (Equinox, Baby Fever), The Danish production banner part of ITV Studios, has two high-end public service-supported series that just premiered in Sweden and Denmark.

Launched January 13 on SVT, the Swedish crime drama Blackwater (Händelser Vid Vatten), based on Kerstin Ekman’s best-selling novel has received rave reviews in the Swedish press and its co-writers Maren Louise Käehne and Karin Arrhenius are nominated for the 2023 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize-Best Screenplay of a Nordic drama series (see our separate story: CLICK HERE).

Mikael Marcimain is directing the stellar Nordic cast including Pernilla August, Rolf Lassgård, Asta August, Alba August, Magnus Krepper.

The story kickstarts on a midsummer’s night in 1973, when two tourists are found murdered in a tent by the young school teacher Annie, far up in the mountains of Northern Sweden. The incident intertwines her and her daughter Mia and her partner Doctor Torbjörnsson’s destinies with other protagonists, for better and for worse, constantly shifting between 1973 and 1992.

Chorus Girls (Dansegarderoben) is a female-led period comedy from co-creators/directors Ditte Hansen and Louise Mieritz.

Set in 1975, the series produced by Apple Tree’s Dorthe Riis Lauridsen, turns on a piece of Danish history - the tradition of stage revue, while lifting relevant issues such as sexism and the need for togetherness. The eight women who get their dream job at the Danish show Cirkusrevyen are played by Marie Bach Hansen, Mille Lehfeldt, Olivia Joof Lewerissa, Marie Reuther, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Nanna Finding Koppel, Coco Hjardemaal and Rebecca Rønde Kiilerich.

We spoke to Bernth about her slate and current state of Danish drama.

How does it feel to have two major shows premiering literally at the same time in Sweden and Denmark?
Piv Bernth: Yes it is wonderful. I’m so very proud. Both shows are very different in style, although both are rooted in Scandinavian culture.

How did Apple Tree get involved in Chorus Girls?
PB: When I was Head of Drama at DR, I had developed and produced two seasons of the comedy series Ditte & Louise with Ditte Hansen & Louise Mieritz. When I set up Apple Tree, they already had the idea for Chorus Girls. We presented it to TV 2 Denmark and they really wanted it.

Blackwater was your first book adaptation for Apple Tree. How did the project land on your desk and what were the biggest challenges?
Piv Bernth: Actually it was Anna Croneman [ SVT Head of Drama] who initially called me in the spring 2018 and said she really wanted to do this production, but at the time Kerstin Ekman was reluctant to give away the rights.

Maren Louise [Käehne], co-writer, did an initial TV friendly breakdown of the show and we submitted it to Kerstin Ekman and went to visit her in Stockholm.

Our visit was supposed to last perhaps an hour, but we stayed over three hours. Kerstin is an absolutely wonderful person. She said: I really like this! I trust you guys, so let me see the first episode in a final ‘draftish’ stage. If we can agree on it, you can get the rights and I won’t interfere anymore in the production.

So we wrote several drafts, and sent the final draft to Kerstin. She had a few notes, we discussed them with her and got the rights for the TV adaptation. We were so happy! Kerstin had a great respect of our screen version.

Then Covid got in the way, and delayed the production by a full year, which allowed us to do more research. Maren Louise and I being Danish, we needed to get a Swedish writer to do a Swedish version of the script and this is how Karin [Arrhenius] and director Mikael Marcimain came on board.

Wasn’t Pernilla August originally attached to direct?
PB: Yes. But for personal reasons she stepped back. It was a tough decision for her. But then Mikael is a personal friend of hers. And fortunately, she does play in the series - with her daughters Alba and Asta. That meant a lot to Kerstin.

I think Mikael has done a wonderful job in bringing to the screen the suggestive power of nature and its symbolism that permeates Kerstin’s novel. The birds for instance play a big part and he uses them at various crucial moments in the series.

Was it your idea to have Pernilla August play the elder Annie and her daughter Asta August the same character at a young age, while Alba August plays Annie’s daughter Mia?
PB: It was our idea from the very start, when Pernilla was still attached to direct. We have actually double-cast all the parts. For the casting director Jeanette Klingberg (Snabba Cash, The Bridge), it was an enormous task! It was simply a double job as all actors had to look alike. It’s been such an asset for the series. We haven’t compromised in anyway - actually, there is only one actor playing himself as older, in a small scene. I’ll let you guess which one!

It’s been a very interesting process for the actors as well. The biggest part is set in the 70s so the actors who found some characteristic about their character, had to talk about it with their counterpart in the other time period.

How was filming under Covid?
PB: Super challenging! The full shoot was 92 days. We were up in northern Sweden for 80 days and the rest in Stockholm. We had a first 60 days filming block, then the summer break and we went back up. Every other weekend people could go back to Stockholm, but they needed to take Covid tests. It was very disruptive.

At the same time, filming at Arjeplog in Norther Sweden was a breath-taking and awe-inspiring experience, especially for a Dane, used to a flat countryside. I couldn’t stop taking photos. I loved it!

Blackwater was Apple Tree’s first SVT premium drama. How does it fit within your DNA?
PB: We founded the company in December 2017. In Jan 2018 we discussed our strategy, the types of series we wanted to produce - then Blackwater came our way. We were like-that’s it!!

Our strategy is to do something not typically mainstream, slightly off-mainstream. Chorus Girls is also like this. It is not an ordinary dance and songs show. There is more to it.

We have a few other series coming up that are also slightly different than the mainstream. We have crime stories that aren’t ‘ordinary' crime stories. The public service layer will always follow us. It is in our DNA, from our upbringing at DR. So we look for stories that haven’t been told before; we try to think what is important and worth it for us to spend our time, and the audience’s time, and a lot of money.

Do you have other book adaptations in development?
PB: Yes but also original stories - you always have to play with a large development slate. Some things always drop out. That’s how it is. In the best place, you have 50/50 of material that come to life and the rest doesn’t.

How many people are working at Apple Tree full time?
PB: We are eight people full time, then free-lancers. We have lowered the average age of the company, to let the next generation in. We do have a lot of experience with Lars [Hermann], our COO, producer Dorthe (Riis Lauridsen] and Elisabeth [Victoria Winther], our associate producer. But we have to pass the baton to the younger ones, and moving our junior producers forward.

How is your relationship with ITV Studios and what does it mean to be part of a UK-based vertically-integrated group encompassing 60 production banners?
PB: It means a lot! You always have very competent people to speak to. They are very supportive and very experienced. And being part of the ITV Studios family means collaborating closely with producers, creatives from all over the world working on scripted, English language and non-English language. We all share our experience and collect feedback. It’s super inspiring. I did feel that when we joined ITV Studios, we were entering a new league and we have! It feels like being with the big guys.

Are you looking into possible collaboration with companies within the group?
PB: We do have a collaboration that has been going on for a while, with ITV Studios America, L.A that was stopped by Covid and started up again. It’s an American/Danish story based on true events. We have a US writer and a Danish director attached. We hope to start casting the main lead in the spring. We also have a big project that we might do in the English-language.

Your first series Equinox and Baby Fever were ordered by Netflix. How has the Danish streaming crisis in 2022 (see our separate story: CLICK HERE) impacted you?
PB: It has impacted us a lot as everything stopped. It was a disaster and very depressing. Now, we have to put it all behind us and look ahead, to get started again. We were lucky to have Blackwater produced in Sweden and Chorus Girls already in our pipeline. We invested a lot in development to be ready whenever the situation would improve. Now we have projects pending with Netflix and Viaplay among others.

Having been at the heart of the golden age of Danish drama, and kickstart the first wave of Nordic noir, how do you see today’s drama market?
PB: One of the things about the streaming conflict in Denmark, was that a lot of people in charge of the remuneration negotiations looked back in the mirror, at the good old days of DR, when we did 1-2 series a year. Now we do 1-2 series a month!

When a DR drama would come out two decades ago, you would feel -wow-this is amazing. It was an event. At the time, there was almost nothing coming out of the other Nordic territories.

Today, everyone has upped their game. Not only across the Nordics but in Spain, France, Germany - everywhere in Europe - even the Faroe Islands, and productions are at a very high level. You simply can’t compare. Now a new TV show is just another drop in the ocean. But this competition makes for a very stimulating environment.