Scandimania - C4, Sundays 8pm

degsyhufc · 03/02/14 - 00:15

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/scandimania

Sweden, Denmark and Norway have been voted the happiest countries in the world. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is off to find out why

Apparently this is more of a travelogue than a food show so a bit of a departure for HFW, also he does fit some cooking in.

RT review
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/csmk5c/scandimania--series-1---episode-1

msim · 03/02/14 - 01:39

I wonder where that cabin and outdoor hot tub was. Looked idyllic!

davor · 03/02/14 - 01:43

Beautiful scenery, laid back civilized people, and apparently tasty food, which came as a surprise to me to be honest. Love Scandinavia! The only thing I didn't really like are their whetherboard houses. I prefer solid houses.

Aarghawasp! · 03/02/14 - 01:52

Interesting!

Darthchaffinch · 03/02/14 - 02:12

Will have to check this out; cheers!

Welsh-lad · 03/02/14 - 02:58

It seems like a beautiful country, with such a chilled out philosophy.

I'm sure there are problems there, but it does seem prosperous and optimistic.
He's in Denmark next time - so more envy and grass-is-greener thinking from me probably.

Staunchy · 03/02/14 - 04:00

Can't wait for the Norwegian one, hopefully he'll be going to Finnmark for the reindeer and salmon, yum yum.

CaptainObvious_ · 03/02/14 - 04:04

Wow, I will be watching this asap, I've always fancied Scandinavia myself tbh.

thanks for the link

davor · 03/02/14 - 04:11

This is a good programme indeed. I might extract all the episodes into a file to save it for future watching.

degsyhufc · 03/02/14 - 05:15

It was a good start to the series and it looks as though HFW has made the transition to social commentary quite well.

If you want more of a fix then Valentine Warner Eats Scandinavia is regularly repeated on Good Food. Obviously more of a foodie take on the region.

He also visited the restuarant that was in tonight's show.

Chris Mark · 03/02/14 - 05:24

I feel that in many ways Britain has more in common culturally with Scandinavia than most other places in Europe. In England and parts of Scotland in particularly there was a lot of Norse settlement in the Viking age, besides the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse were both Germanic peoples with a very similar language and culture. Beowulf the Anglo-Saxon epic is based in Scandinavia. Shetland and Orkney both have a strong Norse cultural presence too. The Scandinavian languages also have many similarities with English as well.

It was an interesting programme, the Swedes in my experience are very civilised, polite and considerate people. The same is true with the Danes, I've been to both Stockholm and Copenhagen.

dd68 · 03/02/14 - 23:31

I remember reading a few years ago that they had the highest suicide rates, so something has obviously changed

Woodentop · 04/02/14 - 00:14

He's looking into the phenomenon that is Nordic noir next week and will be particularly interested in this part.

cavalli · 04/02/14 - 00:21

Interesting, I've always had a vague notion of the Scandinavian countries being bleak and a bit depressing for some reason

Will have to watch this and edumacate myself.

ilovewallander · 04/02/14 - 00:24

I missed this as I didn't know it was on! I'm glad to see it's being repeated on channel 4Seven on Friday 2.05am so I've set my Sky box. Thanks for the thread

degsyhufc · 04/02/14 - 00:33

If you have Sky On Demand then it's available on 4OD

allie4 · 04/02/14 - 01:11

cavalli wrote: »

Interesting, I've always had a vague notion of the Scandinavian countries being bleak and a bit depressing for some reason

Will have to watch this and edumacate myself.

Don't overload the brain, Homer!

:D:D

I've been fascinated in Scandinavia since getting in to Swedish lit and all the Danish and Swedish TV we've had. Wonderful stuff!

Darthchaffinch · 04/02/14 - 01:18

dd68 wrote: »

I remember reading a few years ago that they had the highest suicide rates, so something has obviously changed

It's 44th, after uk, US and others.

Good program.

piimapoika · 04/02/14 - 03:23

I must confess I had never taken Sweden and the Swedes particularly seriously, as they call a strawberry a Jordgubb, the Marriage of Figaro is Figaros Bröllop, and they have a fashion house called Acne. Very childish I know. An excellent programme.

Staunchy · 04/02/14 - 06:58

piimapoika wrote: »

I must confess I had never taken Sweden and the Swedes particularly seriously, as they call a strawberry a Jordgubb, the Marriage of Figaro is Figaros Bröllop, and they have a fashion house called Acne. Very childish I know. An excellent programme.

And a chocolate bar called Plopp (which is delicious) ;-)

Darthchaffinch · 04/02/14 - 10:03

Staunchy wrote: »

And a chocolate bar called Plopp (which is delicious) ;-)

No it isn't!! Plopp is an accurate name if you ask me!! Even my kids hate it!

the_lostprophet · 04/02/14 - 23:36

Chris Mark wrote: »

I feel that in many ways Britain has more in common culturally with Scandinavia than most other places in Europe. In England and parts of Scotland in particularly there was a lot of Norse settlement in the Viking age, besides the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse were both Germanic peoples with a very similar language and culture. Beowulf the Anglo-Saxon epic is based in Scandinavia. Shetland and Orkney both have a strong Norse cultural presence too. The Scandinavian languages also have many similarities with English as well.

It's true - we have a real cultural affinity with them and a similar humour. You only need to watch The Killing, The Bridge and Borgen to realise that. Most of them are quite fond of us too.

I only learnt in the past few years though how similar to English their languages are (or even 'language' as the three Scandi languages are so similar as to be more like dialects of one language) - to the extent that they often sound like a funny pseudo-English.

I have always been intrigued by Scandinavia since I was a little girl for some reason. Am going to catch up on this show.

PS. Anyone who hasn't been watching their various crime/politics shows on BBC4 that I mentioned above has been missing some of the best TV ever made. Absolutely riveting and thrilling stuff - very stylishly done.

degsyhufc · 04/02/14 - 23:49

Meh, will just wait for the English remakes

the_lostprophet · 05/02/14 - 01:06

degsyhufc wrote: »

Meh, will just wait for the English remakes

I haven't seen them (on principle!) but they won't be half as good as the originals. I don't get why so many people in this country have such an aversion to subtitles. Even if someone isn't a great reader there is never more than about 10 words on the screen at once to make it easy, and most people say they get used to them after a while. It seems mad to me to miss some of the best shows ever due to subtitles. The Bridge series 2 (which just finished on BBC4 last Saturday) actually rated amazingly well for a BBC4 subbed show though so at least some people are giving them a go.

The Scandis have such a flair for writing crime shows these days - they say they learnt from us but they have now overtaken us. They allow the characters to breathe and develop at a natural pace; the acting is very subtle rather than over the top as it often is with British and American shows. I can't praise their actors enough - so cool and talented. Also the cinematography is stunning - the opening theme of The Bridge (with the 'Hollow Talk' song by Choir of Young Believers) and the Oresund Bridge (Øresundsbron) is very haunting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIiQW0ipHjU

And I still get goosebumps listening to the theme for The Killing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu98hFJNWss

I'm really glad I started watching series 1 of The Killing because that's what got me into the others.

I have also learnt a lot culturally from watching those shows. It's so nice to hear other languages being spoken and to see how the people there act towards each other - how similar/different it is to the way we interrelate. Have picked up a fair bit of Swedish and Danish too.

anyonefortennis · 10/02/14 - 01:08

Copenhagen looks like a lovely city.

anyonefortennis · 10/02/14 - 01:12

20 course dinner at Noma.

You'd be there til brekkie.

Hey there!

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