While Danish schools have been closed since mid-March and all family members are staying at home in the evenings, new kinds of programming, such as live sing-along broadcasts, are suddenly finding popularity as primetime family content
By Eva Novrup Redvall, PI of the research project Reaching Young Audiences
In Denmark, schools and most work places have been physically closed because of Covid-19 since mid-March. This week saw a gradual opening of some parts of Danish society, but people are still encouraged to stay at home as much as possible to try to keep the country on the by now notoriously famous green curve. As in most other countries, this has led to a lot of screen time. Teaching is now online. Work that can be done from home is on the small computer screen, and in the evenings many families gather to watch something together on the TV screen.
Fig. 1: Drawing by Anders Worm, @wormogram.
Danish television viewing has exploded during the corona crisis. In late March, traditional television viewing was up by 20 minutes per day compared to the same time of year in 2019 (Breinstrup 2020). Particularly the public service channels are thriving, with public service broadcasters accounting for more than 70% of all television viewing after the lockdown in March compared with 65% before (Hansen 2020). When the Danish queen gave a speech to the nation on 17 March it was watched by almost 2.4 of the nation’s 5.7 million people on DR (dr.dk 2020), making it the most watched broadcast since Kantar Gallup started measuring in 1992 (Breinstrup 2020).
Singing together – alone
A lot of the current television viewing is naturally about following the news, and not only the regular news, but also ‘medical news’ in a now highly popular programme called Lægens bord (’The doctor’s table’) or extra editions of the excellent children’s news programme Ultra Nyt (https://www.dr.dk/ultra/ultranyt). However, new kinds of programming have also somewhat surprisingly found large audiences in the Danish stay at home population. While the international press has showed images of Italians singing to each other from their lockdown balconies, the Danish broadcasting corporation (DR) was quick to see a potential in mediated music bringing people together. Since 17 March, DR has offered a morning singing session with the chief conductor of the Danish National Girls’ Choir, Phillip Faber, at the piano. This has proven to be a highly popular way to start the school and work days in many homes and made Faber a national star overnight.
Fig. 2: The DR sing-along broadcast Fællessang hver for sig (‘Singing together alone’), here Katinka performing a spring song by Anne Linnet.
On 27 March, DR launched a prime-time Friday evening sing-along broadcast, Fællessang hver for sig (‘Singing together alone’) where Danish musicians interpret songs by them and others from their homes, encouraging viewers to sing along from their couches or windows. The broadcasts have become the most watched content on Danish television in the past weeks even though it is probably some of the cheapest prime-time content ever made.
A revival for classic television drama
While musical content is currently proving its power as a way to bring a nation together, old fiction is also popular as bingeable family content in Danish homes. With perfect timing, the streaming service Viaplay just secured the rights to all the James Bond films, and – based on my completely unscientific talking to friends and family – several families are now watching the entire franchise back-to-back. However, old Danish fiction can also compete. When TV 2 showed one of the classic films about Olsen Banden (‘the Olsen gang’) it was the most watched film about the gang on TV 2 in 17 years (Hansen 2020).
Several families also seem to use the opportunity of teenagers staying at home every evening to find quality content to watch together. DR has been reviving the classic Danish TV series Matador (1978–1982), about life in a small fictional Danish town 1929-1947, on afternoons at 5pm, but it is also available on the dr.dk player and at DR Bonanza where older, digitised programming has been made available since 2008 as part of a major cultural heritage project.
Fig. 3: DR has decided to rerun the all-time favourite Danish TV series Matador on afternoons at 5pm during the corona crisis.
I talked my teenagers into watching Matador when we were living in New Zealand for three months in 2016 and I was able to argue that – while being excellent entertainment – the series could also be regarded as part of their home schooling, offering knowledge about Danish society and history that fit the curricula of several different classes. I have talked to parents who now use the corona lockdown as a similar opportunity to binge-watch the 24 episodes together. Apparently, several viewers asked DR to rerun the show during the corona crisis, since – as stated by one Danish gossip magazine – the series can bring “a little light and a sense of security” to these difficult times (Krakau 2020).
Films and TV as part of school
While old series such as Matador are thus enjoying yet another revival, other kinds of content that can be both entertaining and educational are also popular choices. Danish teachers have access to a wide range of audio-visual content and teaching materials about specific feature films, shorts and documentaries through platforms such as The Danish Film Institute’s streaming site Filmcentralen or Filmstriben provided by the Danish libraries.
Fig. 4: The Danish Film Institute’s streaming site Filmcentralen offers access to several short film and documentaries as well as teaching materials targeting children from primary school to high school.
With pupils and students currently having the time to watch entire films from the comfort of their homes, several teachers offer good advice on what to watch, as an obligatory or voluntary media diet. There can be good films to watch as part of the French teaching (as long as it is not Les Intouchables which seems to be the default film for every substitute teacher in my youngest boy’s school meaning that he has already watched it endlessly …).
We recently watched the Oscar-winning Green Book related to his history teaching on racial segregation and there are a number of documentaries on the current viewing list on everything from postmodern poets of the 1980s (as part of the literature teaching) to recent political developments (as part of teaching about society and current affairs). All of this is fun to watch together now that the outside world offers less competition in the afternoon and evenings.
But Denmark is also watching Tiger King … 😊
While the corona crisis has seen the emergence of new kinds of mediated (somewhat national romantic) community singing and attempts to turn screen time into a pedagogical family project, you can all rest assured that there’s also a lot of more standard viewing going on.
Danish viewers are also watching Tiger King. The series has been the most watched content on Danish Netflix for weeks, and apparently Denmark is the country where Joe Exotic’s song ‘I Saw a Tiger’ is the most popular on Spotify (Ludvigsen 2020). There seems to be many different kinds of singing going on in Danish homes …
Fig. 5: According to Spotify, Denmark is the country where the song ‘I Saw a Tiger’ is the most popular.
As in other countries, national television critics are raving about international series such as HBO’s The Plot Against America and teenagers still seem to be endlessly watching old US sitcoms such as Friends.
So the many different screens are currently being used for many different kinds of content, but few people saw the low-scale, stay-in singing of old Danish songs and hits as the major national television programme before the coming of the corona virus … While this blog has been mostly anecdotal, there is definitely plenty to properly research on the media use of children, young people and families during the lockdown in different countries as well as in the time after.
Eva Novrup Redvall is Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen where she is head of the Section for Film Studies and Creative Media Industries and principal investigator of the RYA research project.
References
Breinstrup, Thomas. 2020. ”TV-seningen er eksploderet under corona-krisen.” Berlingske Tidende, 1 April. https://www.berlingske.dk/virksomheder/tv-seningen-er-eksploderet-under-coronakrisen
Dr.dk. 2020. ”Corona-situationen satte sit præg på tv-seningen i marts.” Dr.dk, 2 April. https://www.dr.dk/om-dr/nyheder/corona-situationen-satte-sit-praeg-paa-seningen-i-marts
Hansen, Michael. 2020. ”Danskerne samler sig om public service-kanaler.” Tv2.dk, 27 March. https://omtv2.tv2.dk/nyhedsartikler/nyhedsvisning/danskerne-samler-sig-om-public-service-kanaler/
Krakau, Marie. 2020. ”Midt i en svær tid: DR genudsender Matador.” Billed-Bladet. 25 March. https://www.billedbladet.dk/kendte/danmark/tv/dr/midt-i-en-svaer-tid-dr-genudsender-matador
Ludvigsen, Jacob. 2020. ”Joe Exotics tigersang bliver lyttet mest i … Danmark.” Soundvenue.com, 14 April. https://soundvenue.com/film/2020/04/joe-exotics-tigersang-bliver-lyttet-mest-i-danmark-404199
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and observations Eva – that was a brilliant read. In particular, I love the notion of something like “Matador” being brought out of retirement in this manner – particularly with an educational element to it.
A lovely piece. Thank you.
Hope that you and yours stay safe.
Andrew