Beyond The Bridge
Contemporary Danish Television Drama
by Tobias Hochscherf and Heidi Philipsen
Average rating:
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
Drawing worldwide acclaim from critics and audiences alike, programmes like The Killing, Borgen, The Bridge and The Legacy demonstrate widespread fascination with Danish style, aesthetics and culture as seen through television narratives. This book uses familiar, alongside lesser known, case studies of drama series to demonstrate how the particular features of Danish production - from work cultures, to storytelling techniques and trans-national cooperation - have enhanced contemporary Danish drama's appeal both at home and abroad. The era of globalisation has blurred national and international television cultures and promoted regular cross-fertilisation between film and television industries. Important questions have emerged from this context surrounding, for example, the 'Americanisation' of foreign television formats, the meaning and practice behind the term 'quality television', and the purpose and efficacy of public service broadcasting. Beyond the Bridge tackles these issues in relation to Danish television, by examining the so-called 'scaffolded production processes' behind the making of quality serials and their thought-provoking content.
Drawing on popular motifs from these celebrated dramas such as foreign politics, organised crime, global warming, and the impact of multinational corporations, this timely book provides crucial insight into the Danish dramas at the forefront of sophisticated, forward-thinking, fictional television.
About the authors:
Tobias Hochscherf is Professor of Film, Radio and Television at Kiel University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Previously he worked as a senior lecturer at Northumbria University, UK. His research interests include film and television history, televisual representations of society and politics, as well as transnational media cultures. Hochscherf is the author of The Continental Connection: German-speaking Emigres and British Cinema, 1927-1949 and has co-edited the anthologies Divided, But not Disconnected: German Experiences of the Cold War and British Science Fiction Film and Television: Critical Essays. He is Associate Editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.Heidi Philipsen is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University ofSouthern Denmark. Her research interests focus on the creative processes and talent development within audiovisual media. Among other publications, she has written a comprehensive study of The National Film School of Denmark: The New Wave of Danish Film - Influences and Imprints from The National Film School of Denmark.
Press Reviews:
"Well-researched and lucid ... written in clear prose, this book will thus be of great interest to students and scholars of media and television studies as well as to producers seeking new ways of creating quality television for an international audience." ―The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
"A truly fascinating study, rich in detail about Danish public service broadcasting and its production ecology. The book can be recommended for its insight into the scaffolding behind the nation-based production culture which makes these dramas, one that absorbs lessons from inside and outside the nation." ―Critical Studies in Television
See the publisher website: I.B.Tauris
> From the same authors:
The Continental Connection (2011)
German-Speaking Émigrés and British Cinema, 1927-45
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
British Science Fiction Film and Television (2011)
Critical Essays
Dir. Tobias Hochscherf and James Leggott
Subject: Genre > Science Fiction
> On a related topic:
Visions and Victims (2024)
Art Melodrama in the Films of Carl Th. Dreyer
Subject: Director > Carl Theodor Dreyer
The changing spaces of television acting (2017)
From studio realism to location realism in BBC television drama
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Contemporary British Television Crime Drama (2016)
Dir. Ruth McElroy
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Docudrama on European Television (2016)
A Selective Survey
Dir. Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann and Derek Paget
A History of Danish Cinema (2023)
Dir. C. Claire Thomson, Isak Thorsen and Pei-Sze Chow
Short Films from a Small Nation (2018)
Danish Informational Cinema 1935–1965