Min Gud!
I’m starting to worry.
Having a wobble.
After years of stalking everything Scandi (fictionally that is), I’m
slowly wavering.
There was much anticipation to Adam Price’s (no, not Mr Plaid Cymru – the brains
behind Borgen and a
celebrity chef in his homeland) latest offering on
Walter Presents about a København priest
battling god, a drinking problem and family strives. Two episodes in, and I
found myself looking at my watch rather than enjoying time fly by, and deleted Herrens veje (Ride upon
the Storm) from the skybox. Life’s too short,
and I’m too impatient. These are barren times for BBC Four as well, and I can’t
believe it's nearly a year since we said farväl to the
wonderfully eccentric Saga Norén.
Nowadays, the Southern
Hemisphere is my destination of choice. Talk about going from one frozen
extreme to a sweltering another.
Novels and series set in worn-out outback towns or
sun-kissed suburbia. I’ve already devoured two Jane Harper novels, The Dry and Force of Nature starring Federal Agent Aaron Faulke – and
hyper excited to learn that Hollywood star and Melburnian Eric Bana will take the
reins of the film version. Gripping stories of old feuds and lies threatening
to explode like an Ute in a bushfire. You can
almost taste the fear and dust jumping from the pages.
These days, I’m hooked on Scrublands by Chris Hammer, about a Sydney journo returning to
an outback town shaken to its core a year after a priest shot five locals
to death one scorching Sunday. Dark secrets also run deep in Mystery Road film and mini-series
starring the stunning Aborigine actor Aaron Pedersen as troubled
(aren’t they all?) detective Jay Swan on BBC Four last year. Set a universe away
from shiny happy Ramsay Street, these dramas portray a modern day Australia
troubled with an omnipresent racism and inequality. Pedersen also stars as
Guy ‘Mike from Neighbours’ Pearce’s sidekick in Jack Irish, about a world-weary former
lawyer turned debt collector/troubleshooter. A hit back home, this was
sporadically shown on Fox (UK) channel in the past and deserves a far more
mainstream slot.
Themes which also arose in Safe Harbour (SBS/BBC Four) about a sailing trip gone horribly
wrong for a gang of Brisbane well-to-doers who comes across a drifting boat of
refugees in the Timor sea. A series
that posed the question “what would you do?”, mirroring the Brits’
uncomfortable relationship with those seeking sanctuary across the Channel. One of the main actors is the constantly excellent Ewen Leslie from The Cry and Top of the Lake fame. Over on netflix, I bingewatched Secret City during a trip to Stockholm last year.
This thrilling series is set amongst the power corridors of Canberra, after a
protesting student sets herself on fire leading to an almighty diplomatic row
between Australia and China, plus a high body count on the way.
Not that I’ve completely chucked my thermals in favour of the Factor Fifty. The tad cooler
Northern Hemisphere still packs a few punches, with a welcome return to Shetland for the fifth time on BBC One on Tuesdays. The
combo of the moody Scottish subarctic archipelago, surely the most lethal isle
after Sandhamn, and the moodier
DI Jeremy Perez (Indy-loving
Douglas Henshall) makes a riveting
viewing based on Ann Cleeves’ novels. And over
Christmas, I shunned bad telly in favour of Will Dean’s gripping Tuva Moodyson mysteries – Red Snow, after the first chillingly good
Dark Pines. There’s a whiff of Twin Peaks in this claustophobic liquorice-producing
town of Gavrik in central
Sweden, plus nearby Utgard forest with
its bears, bull elks, psychotic taxi drivers and troll-making sisters.
Journalist Tuva’s constant battle
with her beeping hearing aid batteries adds an extra element of fear and
anxiety during the constant snowstorms, and certainly rings true to a semi-deaf
person as myself. Another unique character ripe for a TV adaptation.
Are you listening SVT?
