Boardwalk Empre Seasons One and Two remembered

My fascination with the Boardwalk Empire, based on the prohibition era of Atlantic City and on the Bootlegging king Nucky Johnson, called Thompson in the series, the rise of Al Capone in Chicago and, the rivalry between New York based Crime organisations is questionable in terms of personal priorities and the state of the world around with me given the horror in the Philippines, the Tornadoes striking the USA and other more pressing concerns in the UK. However this manages to hold its own against the standard bearer, The Sopranos and the Italian Romanzo Criminale as it enters its fourth season.. As with many similar products there are characters and stories particular to one season while a few manage to survive and continue have significant parts from season to season. Although eh creators have provided us with some end of season shocks, similar to the Downton Abbey Christmas specials and occasional fires, murders, and planes dropping from the sky in Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emerdale.

Because of the need for some continued I am quoting from Wikipedia or using their summary as a reminder to me, edited according to my view of what is of continuing interest and what is not, I also try and note those characters who carry forward to the present seasons as I go along.

The Boardwalk Empire premiered on September 19, 2010 and concluded on December 5, 2010, consisting of 12 episodes. The series was created by Terence Winter and based on the book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson. Set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era, the series stars Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (based on the historical Enoch L. Johnson) political figure who rose to prominence and controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. It is factual that Johnson was involved with several historical figures in both his personal and political life, including mobsters, politicians, government agents, and the common folk who look up to him. The federal government also takes an interest in the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the area, sending agents to investigate possible mob connections but also looking at Nucky's lifestyle—expensive and lavish for a county political figure.

The first season takes place between January and November 1920, beginning with the start of national prohibition and ending with the 1920 presidential election., with a final cost of $18 million was directed by Martin Scorsese and was the most expensive pilot episode produced in television history. The series was given widespread praise, particularly for its visual style and historical accuracy The American Film Institute named Boardwalk Empire one of the ten "best television programs of the year".

On the eve of Prohibition, Atlantic City Treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, arranges a deal with many of his associates to get into the bootlegging business, in order to pay finances for the city. He has employed as a driver returning from World War Jimmy Darmody who is married with a son, and is frustrated that Nucky refuses to give him the respect he believes he deserves. There is back story about the two which Jimmy does not know.

Nucky is approached by a pregnant woman, Margaret Schroeder, asking for him to find a job for her alcoholic and abusive husband. She belongs to the Temperance League who are strongly opposed to secret activities of Nucky and his brother Eli who control the city police. Eli is married and has a an increasing large family.. Margaret is to have a major role in the series until the end of series three although she does reappear for some episodes in the present fourth series but not the first four episodes which have so far been shown in the UK and elsewhere outside of the USA and Canada,

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Nucky goes to discuss operations with gangsters Arnold Rothstein (his Jewishness is significant on terms of the divisions between criminal organisation based in mew York and New Jersey. Nucky also develops business associations with and Charles “Lucky” Luciano of New York, and Jim Colosimo and Johnny Torrio of Chicago. Afterwards, Jimmy befriends Torrio’s driver, Al Capone, and both plan to steal whiskey shipments from one of Rothstein and Nucky’s deals in order to make their way into the bootlegging business. The heist goes wrong, however, resulting in the death of many of Rothstein’s men, and the raiding of the Nucky’s Irish Associate Mickey Doyle’s hideout from the feds, led by Agent Nelson Van Alden. Capone delivers his part of the shipment to Torrio, who orders one of his men to assassinate Colosimo. Nucky fires Doyle and replaces him with a black man, Albert “Chalky” White. All these are key characters although the involvement of Jimmy and Mickey has ended by series four.

Nucky learns that Jimmy was behind the heist, and is advised by Commodore Kaestner to find a fall man. Commodore Kaestner is the old power in the City and a man who takes great interest in Jimmy and Nicky was once his protégée. He lives with a black servant woman.

After learning Margaret husband has ended her pregnancy through beatings Nucky orders his brother, Eli the sheriff, to kidnap and murder the man, framing him for the massacre of Rothstein‘s men. Van Alden is suspicious about the conviction, however, and investigates Nucky and Margaret, becoming infatuated with the latter, despite the fact that he is a married Christian and is very religious..

Eli and Nucky manage to persuade Margaret that Hans was behind the massacre, and Nucky offers to help with her finances, and she becomes infatuated with him. She faces off with Nucky’s jealous girlfriend, Lucy. Margaret becomes frustrated with Nucky’s lack of attention, and she informs Van Alden of a bootlegging operation, which results in the arrest of one of Nucky’s men. Nucky then allows her to become his mistress, and Lucy is forced to live on her own.

A survivor of the massacre, Simon, is found in the woods, and is kidnapped by Van Alden, who intends to get a statement from him. Before he dies from his injuries, Simon manages to convey to Van Alden that Jimmy was one of the gunmen. With the Feds, Rothstein, and Luciano now on Jimmy’s tail, Nucky orders him to leave Atlantic City. Jimmy leaves for Chicago, partially motivated due to his distant relationship from his family, especially his wife, Angela. Angela developed a friendship with the wife of the local photosphere and the two women planned to run away together to France, however the woman goes off with her husband instead leaving Angela humiliated and even more vulnerable.

In Chicago, Jimmy and Capone continue to expand Torrio’s bootlegging business and subsequently threaten the business of another supplier in the area, Sheridan. Jimmy also falls for a young prostitute, Pearl, who is brutally attacked by Sheridan in order to send a message to Torrio, after noticing her attraction to Jimmy. Pearl soon commits suicide from the shame, and Jimmy, bent on revenge, takes out Sheridan and his crew with Capone. He soon befriends another war veteran, Richard Harrow, a man missing half his face. Richard is to have a important role tot his day in the series and become a good friend of Angela and the child of the marriage with Jimmy although Jimmy is stranger to the boy.

Doyle struggles with his finances after getting fired, falling in debt to the D’Alessio brothers, who want repayment of their loan to his business. He allows them to attempt to kill Chalky and steal Nucky’s money, though the plan backfires and one of Chalky’s men is lynched and killed. Doyle then tells the brothers about a $3000 collection Nucky gets each week from one of his ward bosses, and their robberies halt Nucky’s operations. The D’Alessio brothers are soon approached by Luciano, bringing them into business with Rothstein, who is dealing with increasingly hostile accusations about fixing the World Series.

Nucky prepares for the upcoming election day, hoping to get Warren Harding nominated for and elected president, so that he can get his money earmarked to pave the roads to Atlantic City. After going to Chicago for the Republican Convention, he briefly leaves Eli in charge, though he is soon shot and wounded by the D’Alessio brothers in a robbery. As a result, he allows Margaret to get further involved in his business, and he also gets Jimmy to come back to Atlantic City, who brings Harrow with him. Once Nucky returns, one of the D’Alessio brothers attempts to assassinate him, but fails. He is forced to fire Eli. This becomes and even me significant act later.

Van Alden is soon approached by Billy Winslow, the decoy Jimmy and Capone used during the liquor hijacking, who tells him that Capone and Jimmy were behind the massacre. Jimmy is subsequently arrested and set to be put up for trial. Agent Sebso, one of Van Alden’s men, who is revealed to be working for Nucky, murders Winslow and wounds himself, making it look as though both were attacked and freeing Jimmy from all charges. Afterwards, Jimmy attempts to repair his marriage with Angela, but she continues to feel frightened and remains distant from him. Meanwhile, Van Alden’s obsession with Margaret leads him to depression, culminating in him sleeping with Lucy Nucky’s former mistress) and getting her pregnant. Eventually, he kills Sebso in a baptism, aware of his involvement in Winslow’s murder. Thus Van Aden has commenced on his slippery slope, also stealing Federal funds in order to keep Lucy happy and for a time his wife still committed to him.

Doyle returns to Nucky’s side, revealing his connection to the D’Alessios, and Nucky’s gang kills two of the brothers, preparing for war. Meanwhile, Nucky continues to use Margaret for his political gains, who grows increasingly suspicious of his actions. She contemplates leaving him behind, but decides to stay his mistress in order to support her children. Rothstein is eventually forced to compromise with Nucky, due to the Black Sox Scandal, and he allows Nucky to kill the remaining D’Alessio brothers. Nucky uses the assassination to earn political favour with the public, and on Election Day, Republican Bader wins the mayoral election, and Harding wins the presidential election. Bader reinstates Eli as sheriff.

It is now Jimmy learns that the Commodore is his father, having had sexual relations with Gillian when she was just 13 years old. The Commodore, who Jimmy discovers and reveals is dying from arsenic poisoning, tells him that Nucky previously worked for him as a pimp early in his career, and set up the meeting between him and Gillian. After the maid is revealed to be poisoning the Commodore, he reveals that he and Nucky were caught election rigging in the past, and in an arrangement with Woodrow Wilson, only the Commodore took the fall. When he was released from prison, he found Nucky in control of the city. He enlists both Eli and Jimmy to help him take back Atlantic City from Nucky.

The second season takes place between February and August 1921. Jimmy, Eli, and the Commodore move along with their plot to remove Nucky from power. Nucky has suspected a plot, especially after a Ku Klux Klan attack on Chalky White's warehouse and Jimmy's increasingly distant attitude. The Commodore's faction decides to frame Nucky for election fraud, vengeance for the Commodore's own imprisonment for similar charges.

A heavily pregnant Lucy is forced into living with Van Alden until the baby arrives. She eventually gives birth to a girl, before leaving the child with Van Alden. After discovering his secret, Van Alden's wife, Rose, asks for a divorce. In desperate need of money, and due to having a vendetta against Thompson, Van Alden agrees to supply evidence that could further prove Nucky's guilt.

Jimmy attempts to make allies with powerful criminals, such as Arnold Rothstein and Manny Horvitz. Although Rothstein does not make a business deal with Jimmy, Manny takes a liking to him until the relationship turns sour.

Margaret meets Owen Sleater, who has come from Ireland to assist Nucky. She is attracted to him, but does not act upon these feelings immediately. She eventually sleeps with him after visiting her family in New York. When her daughter, Emily, contracts polio, Margaret is plagued with guilt over her past sins, which include living with the man who ordered her husband's death.

Jimmy reluctantly orders a hit on Nucky upon the insistence of Eli. This event, along with his upcoming trial, forces Nucky to resign. Jimmy has a short-lived and unsuccessful reign as boss of Atlantic City, while Nucky uses the time to get out of his predicament. Manny Horvitz, meanwhile, murders Angela, Jimmy's wife in revenge. Rothstein sets Nucky up with his lawyer, while Van Alden flees to Cicero, Illinois after the death of his former partner is brought up, and Jimmy, high on heroin, murders the Commodore.

After having lost his wife, Jimmy tries to fix all that he ruined, and Nucky marries Margaret so she cannot testify against him. After the charges are dropped, Nucky is able to forgive Eli but not Jimmy for the plot against his life. He then murders Jimmy, insisting that he is not seeking forgiveness. When Margaret learns that Nucky most likely did kill Jimmy, she responds by giving a land grant that Nucky was going to use for roads to Atlantic City to the Catholic Church. During this time the war veteran befriend by Jimmy, a sharp shooter, becomes his hit man murdering people on command in a detached way or so it seems. The death of war veteran Jimmy .more a victim in the series is hard to take along with the young women who have been used, abused and killed.

　

　

　

Borgen part three season one ends

The start of the third week of November 2013 commenced well with finishing Borgen part two before reminding myself of the first three seasons of the Boardwalk Empire before watching the fourth episode of the fourth season and then watching the last three powerful episodes of season one Borgen, after watching an excellent edition of Bargain hunt, catching up on World and domestic.

So now I can devote my time to the last three episodes of season 1 Borgen which were powerfully moving and moved the series from been very very good to exceptional and without doubt the most outstanding political series todate.

The 8^th episodes commences with the summer vacation for parliamentarians but not for Minister’s and their Civil servants. Birgitte is determined to have a break with the family as the difficulties between the couple and with their children begin to mount.. Because of the problems with security the decision is taken to take the family to the official weekend and holiday residence which the Prime Minister has never used. This is a large country house with many bedrooms rather like Chequers with the British Prime Minister uses for weekend house parties, an establishment which is full staff and with leisure facilities in secure seclusion. However the post nosh fails to impress the children who want Pepsi or a burger and chips and to be able to out to the pictures or the beach as any other family.

Meanwhile back at the ranch so to speak Kasper is facing two major problems. The first concerns the publication by the former labour leader of his political memoirs and which is suspected to concern the sexual behaviour of former leading politicians in the opposition coalition parties, targets including Bent, Birgitte’s trusted adviser and supporter, the Minister of Finance. If I remember correctly his affair was with a leading member of another party, sometime back. There are also accusations of homosexuality at the Minister of Justice despite his marriage and children. Kasper’s advice which the Prime Minister follows is to say nothing to the media and for the Ministers concerned to take no action. She appears on TV saying that it is a trivial matter part of the summer silly season.

However this cannot be said for the questions to Kasper and the receipts about the use of the Minister’s credit card to bail out his wife from an embarrassing situation at the store. He makes the point that two days before his death he had given the receipts to his media adviser to fix the position with the Expenses people, how so did Kasper get hold of the information? Kasper had spent the week trying to get hold of an advance copy of the book having learned that it had been released for ten journalists in preparation for publication day, he had tracked down who had the copy at the TV1 station and approached his former colleagues for help which was appropriately rejected.

Katrine had now realised that her former boyfriend must have gained access when he went to the flat to clear up after she had found her lover dead beside her when she woke in the morning. This immediately soured relations between the two and she did not believe when he tried to explain that on top of everything his father had died.

Previously Katrine had complained that although Kasper and met her parents and other family members she had never met his mother and father who he alleged had alive in Southern France for the previous couple of decades. He also tells Katrine that his mother had committed suicide/died when he was twelve years old. He learns the information when she manages to see him at the office and he is prepared to organise the undertaker but nothing else. He tells the undertakers that he wants a cremation service and an unmarked grave as quickly as it can be arranged. Back at the house he remembers his room and that at the age of twelve (it is assumed) his mother had to go away for a few days and his father had sexual abused him.

When Katrine finds out about the funeral she attends and find that she is the only other person there but Kasper subsequently refuses to explain why he does not want to talk about the matter other than saying his father was a coward and not a nice man.

In relation to the receipts he goes on TV refusing to disclose how he came by them on the grounds that being a good journalist one did not reveal sources and that he had taken the information to Birgitte who had said she was not interested and then to the Labour man because he felt strongly the matter should be investigation by the appropriate authorities. He had resigned and not sacked.

Because she is required to attend to political business the holiday does not go as well as the family hopes and when the daughter is about to miss a party friends they return. Because her son develops the problem of wetting himself she visits the school as a parent not as Prime Minister and he make the point that the boy may be reacting to changed atmosphere in the home and ask pointedly if her husband is happy with the situation that he finds himself in so when she poses the same question his answer confirms that her is not and that on issues is his dissatisfaction with being an academic lecturer rather than a functioning role in the business world he teaches.

Another indication that the relationship is fracturing is over sex where during the early part of the holiday she is interested but is not finding their situation has become mechanical and she admits the situation as the first time in a month she had felt inclined, because by the time I joined the series in the second season they were divorced this aspect did not have the same level of emotional impact as it would first time round, but the situation was emotionally affect such is quality of script, the direction and the acting.

This however is the beginning of the powerful emotional impact of the last three episodes with the eighth appearing to be about an aircraft contract where the price of the selected render goes up by a significant amount of Krone before it is signed. Because of this Birgitte attempts to find out about the planes that are under consideration leaving Bent among those coming to the aid of the Defence Minister saying the PM had to take the broad view, not create encumbrances for her Ministerial colleague and avoid getting embroiled in the details of a contract.

The first problem is when the media get hold of the information that the Defence Minister has been taken all expenses paid shooting trip in Scotland by the company winning the contract and he and the defence people plays this down saying it is part and parcel of the multi million process assuring her there is nothing else to find. However Katrine is persistent and manages to talk to the field sports person at the hotel where the Minister stayed and learns that he received an expensive present of a shooting gun within his personal name engraved and worth a quarter of a million krone. When this is raised with him on TV he pretends that the present was handed into the Ministry as is required when expensive presents are received after he realised its value. However he admits to Birgitte that this was only as soon as he realised the significance. The Minister gets to keep his job and the government survives again.

However this is not the position of the husband of the Prime Minister. He is head hunted and accepts the appointment as Chief executive officers of a company which the personal research undertaken by Birgitte reveals will gain a little as a subsidiary to the main contract, one of many Danish firms in this multi country produced fighter plane. She consults the appropriate official who advise that in the circumstances and because the appointment is being made long after the negotiations commenced the involvement is not a problem. It will be remembered that the husband has already been forced to sell environmental friendly wind turbine shares at a loss because of the contract that was to have been signed by the President of the former Soviet republic.

Unfortunately the renewed fuss because of the gun present means the media is scouring every nook and cranny to find evidence of corruption on the part of the coalition and she is told it would not be appropriate for the husband to take up the appointment. He is angry and devastated and when she insists he walks out of the household and there is no contact for several days.. She begins to think that he is involved with someone and goes to the home of the student who appeared to be interested in him only to find that she is in bed with another student. She is very lucky and the girl chooses not to go to the media about the situation.

The husband returns and admits that he has been spending the time with someone.

In the last episode of the first season, the first year in office is coming to an end and Birgitte is preparing to make the annual address of the Prime Minister to Parliament and she puts her heart and soul into the address which such a great success in terms of its appeal to patriotism and duty that she wins the praise of the former Prime Minister and also from the candidate on the extreme right and it has the desired effect of helping to bring unity and common purpose back to a country which has become overtly materialistic and divided.

She now dresses as a power woman and the strains and loneliness and isolation of her position has become all too apparent. In order to gain ongoing support from the Labour Party of the coalition she has been forced to replace her trusted friend and ally Bent with someone of their nomination. It is Bent who after all has throughout reminded her that in the position she cannot have political friends and must be prepared to hire and fire according to the needs the country, her Party and holding her position.

The great blow has been the decision of her husband to seek a divorce, despite her having offered that he could have erotic involvements which she could not provide as long as these were kept discrete.

Earlier having initiated her new policy of Government openness following the problems in relation to the Ministry of defence, she had insisted that everyone publish their diary of meetings, gifts and expenses etc just as she had previously insisted that Minister should not appear on TV, hold press conferences or issue press releases without these being cleared by Kasper who in effect becomes a Director of Communications.

When working late preparing for the speech and become attracted to Sanne the inefficient but kindly secretary who the head of the civil service has claimed he has been unable to move because of the pressure from her Trade union. Kasper has already been warned the Civil service chief of that age old saying about not doing beauties on your own doorstep. After they are caught together Kasper is warned again that having a secretary crying all the time is not something that will be tolerated and he has to cool it making the point that if it was up to him and their situation was different etc... The girl is also moved but this also only reinforces the sense of isolation in which Birgitte finds herself.

Testing out the new openness regime TV 1 wants top do a fly on the wall documentary about the Coalition government works and which will also include the family life of the Prime Minister. Because of the deteriorating situation at home Birgitte realises that they will not be able to go ahead unless there is editorial control over the scenes in the family home and she persuades Kasper to go to the head of the TV station with the request. Kasper plays a good game saying that another TV station has offered to do the programme on this basis and reluctantly the station agrees having previously trailed the development and also having appointed Katrine to undertake the task at the request of Kasper. She had been sent on leave for four weeks after her last bout of defiance and could not come back unless she was willing to be a team player. She was considering not returning hence the request by Kasper obviously feeling he owed her after causing the break up with the boyfriend and she supported him over the death of his father.

When the team member whose nose was put out of joint by the return of Katrine. discovers Kasper involved in the editing of the part involving the home visit which provide a clear insight how something would could appear half hearted or negative is turned into a positive moment by switching the context, he advises Katrine who storms in and resigns on principle. What she does not know and does not give Kasper time to explain is that the Prime had to pull out of allowing any part of the home interview to be shown. The husband had been so affected by having to put on a show that he had spent the whole night in his car rather than go and see a girlfriend. He and decided that his wife had become a very different person from who he had married and he did not want to participate in the continuation of what he saw as the destruction of their relationship, he wanted to keep alive the good experience which they had had..

There are those who will not understand the brilliance which others attach to this programme and there will those where the programme will have struck many deep and painful chords.

Borgen season 1 episodes 5 to 7

The harsh reality of politics, being a leader and of coalition politics is to the fore in the fifth to seventh episodes of season 1 of Borgen, the impressive Danish series about a coalition government led by the first woman political head and which has had political resonance in general.

The fifth episode centres on the attempt to establish sexual equality throughout the country, especially in the boardroom where only about 5% of Directors are female. The coalition introduces a bill to ensure that at least 45% of a board membership are woman catering for situations where the board has an uneven number of members.

Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg allocates the passage of the Bill to the Minister concerned with business, someone who she brought into the Government from outside Parliament because of proven business acumen. This decision upsets the coalition nominated Minister responsible for equality issues. The Minister expresses her strong disapproval and attempts to put her grievance on the TV 1 station but its ordered not to do so by Birgitte who reminds that she her party just got above the minimum percentage number of votes to qualify for seats in the parliament

In turn the Equality Minister makes the point that she should become a member of the central policy committee which has an uneven balance between men and woman as the committee is formed by specific Ministerial positions with a male dominance as a consequence and prophetically she says she is available to step in if the situation of need arises.

Then Birgitte is the faced with an aggressive threat by the leader of the main Danish owned company who threatens take his business interests out of the country with the loss of thousands of jobs and billions of Krone to the economy unless she drops the insistence on Boardroom equality. Birgitte does her homework with the help of Kasper and other Ministers establishes that the man is a very loyal Dane who has tea regularly with the Queen and supports a number of Danish charities, the country’s arts and other important interests. When he returns having given her 48 hours to reconsider continuing with the Bill she calls his bluff and argues that he can ensure he gets the best female directors available and show leadership by openly accepting the move and taking the initiative to make the change. He negotiates a concession on an environmental levy.

Getting his own back, in a way, it is assumed that the business leader is responsible for the leak of information about the false academic background of the Minister and that she does not possess the qualifications she has supplied to the Government and are part of her published information in Whose Who. Birgitte suggests a way out for the Minister to come clean and admit her mistake but the woman clearly does not appreciate that this matter has been uncovered and fails to make the disclosure so the Prime Minister does not have the opportunity to arrange a facing saving solution and is forced to ask for the resignation. However the Minister is allowed to resign because of the adverse publicity about her private life and moral character.

Previously the Opposition newspaper led by the former leader of the Opposition had suggested that the Minister was someone of easy virtue in the past and present despite now being married with three children. Birgitte’s husband discloses that he had slept with Minister when they were both young and drunk although given the falsity of her academic qualification there is no information about the potential fictional authenticity of this aspect of the story.

The Equality minister gain significantly from the fall of the Business Minister.

There are similarities and parallels with the seventh episode which I shall report next.

The leader of the Solidarity Party. a comparatively young woman, Birgitte previously mentored and encouraged her to go into politics, is present when a highly sensitive latest bugging device camera is found in the main room where the Party now meet.

The slimy and unscrupulous Minister of Justice cooks up a story with the head of the Secret Service that the bug was placed in the building when it was occupied by a publishing House with extreme involvements and in effect it had been forgotten to remove the device. However the Justice Minister in an interview arrange without consulting the Prime Minister with the head of he Secret service implies there have been on going matters of concern and later he discloses to the Prime Minister the existence of tape recording of a conversation at a Party when the former activist talks of kidnapping the children of the then prime Minister to agreed to support the USA/UK war intervention in Iraq. The tape is several years old and as the PM points out it was not considered grounds for taking action before. She orders the Minister not use the tape and but to put up a good show when he is questioned by the Parliament. Not only does he fail to accept responsibility and apologise but he continues to imply justification. Birgitte feels she has no alternative but to call on him to resign and suggests he goes and talks over with his family.

Instead he arrange with the head of State Security to release the tape to the TV 1 station where Katrine realises will take away from the story of th bugging and is intended to deflect public attention from he real issue, the illegal bugging of a political party

Birgitte is determined the sack the Minister but is persuaded by her trusts supporter and adviser, Bent who is the Minister of Finance, and Kasper as well as other Members of the Coalition who suggest reprimand. This is because the Solidarity Party leader did talk of kidnapping the children fo the former Prime Minister. On learning of the bugging he had launched a major attack on Birgitte and the coalition but when he heard the broadcast tape he immediately change his position defending the actions of the Justice Minister and the Secret Service. The Minister of Justice had cleverly outwitted the Prime Minister.

However she is unforgiving and saying that while she is not in a position to sack him, they will only meet formally and that she regards him as a dead Minister to be replaced at the earliest opportunity.

There is blackmail of a similar nature in the middle of these three episodes of season one when the president of an emerging twenty year old former soviet satellite neighbour of Russia visits because he is taking over the Presidency of a fictitious democratic union from Denmark. The Minister of trade with colleagues announces excitedly that the visit is the opportunity to sign a billion krone deal to supply environmental wind turbines to the visiting state. Coinciding with the state visit where in the evening there is to a state visit to the Opera with the Queen arranging a buffet in the intervals. An internationally recognised poet and freedom fighter from the visiting head of state is also holding protest meetings because of the disappearance of some 90 other dissidents and Amnesty evidence of significant abuses of the standards required for membership of he democratic body, let alone its chairmanship.

The president makes it an issue and wants the man arrested and handed over for his alleged part in the bombing of a police station which killed several senior officers as well as members of the general public. However he fails to provided evidence and when he does it is not substantial enough to automatically consent to the request, There is also concern what will happen to the man if he is send back where the evidence indicates he will immediately disappear for good.

The solution is for the dissident to leave the country but he refuses and pressure begins to mounts from all sides for the Prime Minister to take action, not just from Russian but from other members if the Democracy organisation apart from France as well across the board from political parties at home. Eventually she agrees to the arrest of the man but insists that President tells her what will happen to th man if he is handed over. The president declines and threatened not to sign the contract. Birgitte has one more trick up her sleeve.

But first I want continue to report the issue of the affect of her being the Prime Minister on her marriage and family. The husband is increasingly hostile to the demands on his life, the impact on their children and the limitations on his relationships with Birgitte. He appears to be taken an inappropriate interest in an attractive student who visits the home to ask his support and advice for an application she has made for an internship with a Bank. He uses her to buy a present for their daughter when she get A’s at school, because Birgitte is to be to do so. Throughout the episodes there are situation where it is evident the relationship is beginning to break down. The youngest child begins to wet himself.

Her divorced father comes to visit and where the parent appear to have separated because they wanted to lead different lives and where the after admits that at fist he relished he freedom but this quickly evaporated and now he had taken to excessive drinking as a consolation for the loneliness of his situation. He has never got one with her husband who claims the father in law treats him like a school master and grown upset when the man borrows his dressing gown and drinks his red wine. He makes himself useful and is adored by the grand children but eventually Birgitte is in effect forced to ask him to leave in order to try and save her relationship when the husband threatens t move into a hotel if the father in law continues to stay. As the man has told the daughter to all that she can to keep the marriage, he appreciates that the time has come for him to depart,

We also begin to appreciate more that Kasper and Katrine still have strong feelings for each other but there respective position make a relationship impossible. Kasper becomes jealous when she establishes a sexual relationship with the fitness instructor and the two come to blows when he visits one evening. Kasper is head butted after provoking the instructor into a fight and alter he claims that he does not see Katrine and the instructor becomes a real couple other than through their good sexual relationship. Katrine aware that she has not appeared in public with the young man eventually invites him to her companion at a TV \wards night. However there is an incident where he admits that he doe snot know who the Minister of Justice is or what the fuss has been about and that he had no interest in politics. Katrine cannot stand this situation as Kasper words to her begin to ring true something which the young man also understands that she looks down at his indifference to her interests and walks out of the relationship.

Katrine has been asked by her boss to arrange an interview with the Prime Minister using her known special relationship with Kasper but when she gate crashes his office he rejects her and tells the security to make sure they do not let in anyone unauthorised. The prime Minister however lets it be known that she wants to be interviewed and at the arranged end of visit press conference she asks Kasper to ensure that someone asks the last question she wants raised. He gives it to Katrine who resents being asked given the rejection and raises her own question but she reconsiders, checks the question she had stuffed in her pocket asks the visiting president if it is correct that the contract for the Wind Turbines is dependent on the extradition of the dissident. He says no and has therefore committed himself public ally, leaving the Prime Minister in the position of being able to refuse to hand over the arrested man who is allowed to then leave the country.

However the episode ends with the information that issues about the contract and then raised once the President returns to his country. The Prime Minister has forced her husband to sell the shares he has, at a lost, in the company awarded the contract before the deal is struck and the share price rockets.

Borgen series 1 episodes 1-4

I only discovered the Danish political series Borgen midway during the second series showing in the UK last year and although I was able to view a number of previous episodes I was left with the hunger to experience from the outset and also not to wait for the showing of the third and final series, here in the UK but which was already available on DVD at a price. I then acquired a DVD set of the first two series at a reasonable price and promised that I would view before the third series commenced sometime this year, something that I forgot to do. With the start of the third series on Saturday (November 16^th, 2013) I abandoned the backlog of other cultural experiences still unreported (see 0035) and intended to begin to day for viewing the first episode of Borgen after a long night of sleep and fantasy of a different life to one I am having.

(Borgen is the nickname given to the building in the capital of Denmark which houses the main buildings of the state, The Parliament, The Prime Ministers office and the Supreme Court, and which also appears to include the offices of the main political parties).

It was a worthwhile decision as the first episode of series one immediately reminded why the programme had such an impact not only in Denmark but has now been broadcast in over 50 countries with over half the viewing public engaged in the home country and in the UK channel four attracting a million viewers unheard for one of the other channels to BBC1 and ITV and Sky Sports. Given the amount of time I am spending I will begin with the basics about Demnark, a constitutional monarchy.

According to Wikipedia Denmark 'dɛnmɑːrk; Danish: Danmark, pronounced 'd̥ɛnmɑg officially the Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, ['kɔŋəʁiːəð 'd̥ɛnmɑg̊] is a sovereign state in Northern Europe, located south-west of Sweden, south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom has two autonomous constituent countries in the north Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. At 43,094 square kilometres (16,638.69 sq mi) a population of around 5.6 million inhabitants, Denmark consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and the Danish archipelago of 407 islands which around 70 are inhabited, are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts with little elevation and a temperate climate. The national language, Danish, is closely related to Swedish and Norwegian.

The Kingdom of Denmark is a unitary constitutional monarchy with Margrethe II as queen regnant, organised in a parliamentary democracy. Ending absolute monarchy introduced in 1660, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, only to be rewritten four times; the latest revision in 1953. The unicameral parliament, the Folketing, resides in the capital of Copenhagen, together with judicial, executive, and legislative powers. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving political powers to handle internal affairs to the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark became a member of the European Union in 1973, maintaining four opt-outs from European Union policies, as outlined in the 1992 Edinburgh Agreement. Both the Faroe Islands and Greenland remain outside the Union.

Home of the Vikings, the unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 8th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea. The establishment of the personal Kalmar Union under Danish rule in 1397 ended with Swedish secession in 1523; one year later, Denmark entered union with Norway until its dissolution in 1814. Several cessions of Danish territory that had begun in the 17th century caused a surge of nationalist movements that gained momentum in the 1830s and concluded with a defeat in the 1864 Second Schleswig War. A new European outlook was sought after the war, resulting in adjustment and cooperation.

Denmark remained neutral during World War I and the German invasion in April 1940 saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945. Denmark abandoned its traditional neutrality by joining NATO in 1949. The post-war period generated an increase of wealth and brought closer European integration. Denmark has been an active participant in international peacekeeping missions. It took part in the UN peacekeeping mission in the Balkans in the 1990s. More recently, it has participated in military engagements in the Middle East at the turn of the 21st century.

An industrialized exporter of agricultural produce in the second half of the 19th century, Denmark introduced social and labour-market reforms in the early decades of the 20th century, making the basis for the present welfare state with a highly developed mixed market economy. The Danish krone has been pegged to the euro since 1 January 1999. Denmark has close cultural, economic, and historical ties with its neighbours, resulting in the Danish-Swedish Øresund Bridge and the planned Danish-German Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link.

Denmark is frequently ranked as the happiest country in the world in cross-national studies of happiness Denmark ranks as having the world's highest social mobility, a high level of income equality and has one of the world's highest per capita income. For 2013, Denmark is listed 15th on the Human Development Index and 9th on the inequality-adjusted HDI. Denmark ranks highly positive on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Legatum Prosperity Index, and as a full democracy on the Democracy Index. Denmark is among the founding members of the NATO, Nordic Council, OECD, OSCE, and the United Nations. There are three Danish heritage sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in Northern Europe.

In a separate article on politics Wikipedia states- Denmark has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties, and four or five other significant parties. No single party has held an absolute majority in the Folketing since the beginning of the 20th century and no single party has formed a government alone since 1982. Since only four post-war coalition governments have enjoyed a majority, government bills rarely become law without negotiations and compromise with both supporting and opposition parties. Hence the Folketing tends to be more powerful than legislatures in other EU countries. The constitution does not grant the judiciary power of judicial review of legislation, however the courts have asserted this power with the consent of the other branches of government. Since there are no constitutional or administrative courts, the Supreme Court deals with a constitutional dimension.

On many issues the political parties tend to opt in for a co-operation, and the Danish state welfare model receives a broad parliamentary support. This ensures a focus on public-sector efficiency as well as devolved responsibilities of local government on regional and municipal levels. The degree of transparency and accountability is reflected in the public’s high level of satisfaction with the political institutions, while Denmark is also regularly considered one of the least corrupt countries in the world by international organizations.”

There are two Parties with major seats in the present Parliament, the Liberal Party which is Left with 47 seats and the Social Democrats on the centre left with 44. The Danish Peoples Party is right wing nationalistic and then four medium size Parties in terms of parliamentary seats with the Danish People’s Party said to be conservative right wing and nationalistic with 22 seats, the Danish Social Liberals as radical but centrist with 17 and the Socialist Party, left wing and green with 16, followed by the Red Green Alliance with seats and previously the Communist party and Socialist Workers Party. There is also a classical Liberal centre right party with 9 seats and a Conservative People’s Party with 8 plus a Eurosceptical Party which has one seat in the EU parliament but none in the national.

Given the number and length of the programmes I will not be able to view everything before Saturday night so I will record the new episodes and then view after the catching up which is now likely to take several days, especially with the contemporaneous writing up of each episode.

Because of the attention I am proposing to give I am taking even more care to identifying the main characters and key story lines than usual. The outstanding star of the series which won a British BAFTA last year is Birgitte Nyborg Christensen, played by Sidse Babett Knuden, who won an award at Cannes. When the series begins she is the leader of the Moderate party which is part of the opposition coalition led by the Labour Party, with the government led by the Liberal Party which has the support of the extreme right Party, the Freedom Party. There is also the centre Solidarity Party and the Green Party. Thus it will seen that the programme makers have carefully avoided any immediate connection between the fictional and the fact although the names of the parties identify the kinds of support and policies of the reality.

The series begins with three events which are to shape the outcome of the General Election taking place and which catapults Birgitte into the Prime Ministership.

The first event is the decision of the Labour Opposition leader to introduce and even tougher stance on immigrants insisting illegals will be deported and others restricted in what they do in terms of work and benefits. The announcement of this development is replayed during a pre arranged interview with Birgitte on the main TV station TV1 by the young ambitious Katrine and who presses Birgitte into distancing herself from the Labour Party, potentially ending the chances of the opposition coalition gaining power from the governing group.

Her media adviser Kasper is horrified with her response and with the TV Journalist for breaking convention by raising subjects not agreed beforehand, Later she attends a party arrange by the Labour Leader who refuses to retract the position with the consequence that she refuses his offer of two additional Ministry positions to those previously offered. The adviser also approaches the Governing coalition leadership to ensure if there is an arrangement possibility. Birgitte realises that her decision makes her unpopular with some party members and her position as leader has come into question.

Meanwhile the wife of the Prime Minister who feels neglected by her husband, and looks to have a drinking problem is not allowed to purchase an expensive handbag having maxed out her credit card with other purchases and the Prime Minister finding that he has left his wallet behind and anxious to prevent the scene developing used his government business card to meet the immediate situation. This is an untreatable abuse of position although he arranges for the money to be immediately reimbursed in a situation where in fact the transaction is not officially processes i.e. account has to be settled two weeks ahead. His media adviser, fixer, promises to sort out the problem.

This is a married man with two children having a secret affair with Katrine, announcing he wants to divorce his wife and marry her which they celebrate in his apartment in the capital. The following morning Katrine finds her lover, dead from an heart attack and contact her previous live in partner, Kasper who insists she leaves and removes all trace of being present. He then does a clean up job of her presence and discovers the file with the information regarding the misuse of public money. He tells Birgitte of his find but she insists the information is not used as this is not the kind of politics she wants to support.

Everyone is building up to the final TV debate which involves all the party leaders. Unbeknown to Birgitte Kasper on impulse has revealed the information to the Labour Leader who decides to use his final two minutes at the end of programme to reveal the information causing the Prime Minister to threaten legal action and to walk out of the studios. The revelation leads to a dramatic changes in the actual election from the polls but not in favour of the Labour Party and its leader who is dismissed from his position by his own political colleagues and supporters. Birgitte also instantly dismisses Kasper from his position removing his credentials the following morning.

The is a major swing to her party who gain 15 seats under the proportional representation system. This is because before the expenses revelation, she abandons her prepared script and makes an impromptu speech attacking professional politics, the media management etsct and calling for a new more honest approach, expecting this to be her swan song. She returns home from an elated party meeting in the early hours of the following day with the news that she is wanted as a new Coalition Prime Minister

In addition to these main events that are two areas which play parts of varying significance.

We meet her husband, a college lecturer, who had agreed to his wife’s request that they give matrimonial priority to her career for five years over his and then vice versa. They have a good relationship but only because he has been prepared to take a back seat in term of caring for their two children, a teenage girl at school and a younger son.

The other concerns the TV station where Katrine is number two to Hanne Holm, the main interviewer and presenter, a mature woman who had a drinking problem and where a main rival leaks to the management that the woman is drinking again just before the final televised election debate. Instead of asking him to take over he appoints Katrine. Hanne blames Katrine confronting her in a gym. A very good engaging start with authenticity bred through and through.

In the second episode we immediately learn that although the Moderate Party increased the number of its seats from 86 to 91 Labour is the largest single party and that all Birgitte is able to do is expect the Queen to appoint her as the person in charge of forming a coalition government and that this quickly becomes not as straightforward as it might appear as although she invites all the Party leaders to bring delegations to her about participating in a coalition, the ruling Liberal party send in someone junior for talks about talks thus signalling they have no intention of attempting to join a Cabinet with her as Leader. While the Leader of the right wing Freedom Party accepts the invitation for a Danish and coffee he makes its plain that he opposes everything she stands for and vice versa. The Labour Party put off a meeting and the following day she learns why, that its leader, despite the unpopularity of his last minute intervention has fashioned deal behind her back where he remains Prime Minister with the support of other parties and offers her an increase in the number of Ministries and their importance. However just when it looks as she has lost and must report the situation to the Queen, a leading member of the Socialist Party comes with information which successfully topples their leader because of internal emails in which he makes racist remarks.

The party has two deputy leaders one is of a long standing fourth generation of political leaders who has been sidelined by his leader and who is to be offered a Ministry outside of the cabinet.. The other is a political yes man without leadership qualities. However in the ballot for the new Leaders, it the light weight to come to fore and expects Birgitte and his party to accept his deal which she rejects because he lacks the qualities to be Prime Minister.

Just when she is about to advise the Queen that she needs to be appoint a new Government forming chair person there is what appears to be a significant development. The former Prime Minister goes on TV with his wife to explain her addiction to Alcohol, his failure to support his wife and how the problem re the use of the Government credit card came about. As this goes down well with the public he calls Birgitte to arrange a meeting which he cleverly arranges to take place in the office of the Prime Minister. She nearly swallows the ploy including the offer of a new Ministry for Overseas Development.

It is her faithful and long term Party supporter and adviser, Bent, who persuades her against accepting this political bluff and presses her on taking power as the opportunity has arisen and she summons a meeting with the Labour Party and the Green Party and makes them offers of positions for their parties offering the Green Leader Energy and Climate and a new ministry of International Development. The episode ends with the new cabinet, 50% women being presented to the media with Birgitte as Prime Minister.

Katrine continued to struggle to cope after the death of her lover and she asks Kasper to accompany her to the man’s funeral where his wife talks of parliament being the other woman but of his loyalty to herself and their children. As the episodes ends after she has shared her distress with her mother, she finds that she has become pregnant. Hanne Holm before leaving tries to advise Katrine on what is really going on behind the scenes politically and apologies for she had said and accused her of.

There are swings of emotion among Brigitte’s household as pride is tinged with awe at the prospect of her becoming the Prime Minister, relief when this does not appear the situation as well as fear when she does . There is also a hint of the problems to come when one of the most attractive students where her husband is lecturing and when she calls to collect him with her children is clearly setting her cap at the tutor.

The third episodes begins some two and a half months into the Premiership Birgitte is facing a budget crisis as two members of the Workers party Labour are defying their leadership over the agreed budget demanding something more for pensioners. When she agrees this the demand is for a new Motorway which the Greens and one other party object to for environmental reasons.

Because of all the pressure she hires an academic as her media manager but because he takes the moral high ground and attempts to be rational he becomes easy meat, especially for the new political editor of a popular daily none other than the former Labour Party leader sent on doing everything he can down to bring down Birgitte out of personal hatred rather than for political reasons. Hanne Holm is also working for the newspaper.

After Christmas, the paper leads with a story alleging an affair between the Prime Minister and the New political adviser and where he attempts to rebut on TV he strays into political matters attacking the basis of the readership of the newspaper. She sacks him and reappoints Kasper who meanwhile has been working for TV1. It is Kasper who warns her not to yield to the rebels Worker Party man because his agenda is different. Some years before he got into difficulties over expenses and had been protected by his party leader. Without the party leader in place he feels vulnerable and sees his himself as bringing down the Prime Minister’s administration and helping the former Labour leader to regain power. It is Kasper who makes her aware of the machinations and says that if she gives in on the motorway he will asks for something more which he does when tested.

It is at thus point she attempts to do a deal with the New Right, a party supporting the Liberals and where its female leader is described by the Liberal leader as always doing what he says. Birgitte has already done a deal with the Liberal leader by gaining from him extra time for the budget negotiations on the promise she will veto the call for a special commission. She meets separately with the leader of the New Right Party and offers her the money gained for the Motorway, to improve the police and the army. Hanne Holm reports the development as a triumph for the Prime Minister getting her budget through and also dividing the opposition.

Katrine is faced with a great choice over her pregnancy where both Kasper and her mother are convinced she should have an abortion, her mother seeing the child as another indicator that her daughter still does not accept that he lover is dead and that she has to move on in her life. And finally she has an abortion.

Kasper has drafted the New Year Speech for the prime Minister full of platitudes but also making reference to new life, intended as an olive branch to Katrine too late as she gets the message after the abortion has taken place. We see something of back story between them His parents live in the South of France and she was never introduced them while he has met her family who live on a farm close to the capital. We do not yet know why they separated.

There is also growing tension in the household of the Prime Minister as she is rarely home before the children are in bed. She can only give an hour to Christ present buying and even the this has to be cut short. They are still strong together but cracks are beginning to appear.

The fourth episode is most powerful with the first collision between the political and journalist truth of the main characters.

Katrine is approached by a mysterious figures who announces that he has information which could bring the government down. It much later on transpires that he holds a senior position in military intelligence. His first claim which he supports with flight information and a photo is that the USA has used an airbase in Greenland for a rendition flight transfer from the middle east en route to Guantanamo Bay. They run with story and the Secret Service plays heavy handed charging various members of the TV company and telling them not to pursue the story. The matter is taken up with the USA who say the flight was an emergency one.

At the core of this story is the relationship between Denmark and Greenland with Wikipedia describing as Kalaallit Nunaat [ka'laːɬit nunaːt] is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and later Denmark) for more than a millennium. In 2008, the people of Greenland passed a referendum supporting greater autonomy; 75% of votes cast were in favour. Greenland is, in terms of area, the world's largest island, over three-quarters of which is covered by the only contemporary ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of 56,370 (2013), it is the least densely populated country in the world, (The population is therefore 100 time smaller than the sovereign state but is over 50 times larger in terms of land area)

Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from Canada. Norsemen settled on the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century. Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century. In the early 18th century, Scandinavia and Greenland came back into contact with each other, and Denmark established sovereignty over the island.

Having been ruled by Denmark–Norway for centuries, Greenland (Danish: Grønland) became a Danish colony in 1814, and a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark. In 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1983, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC, and Greenland officially withdrew in 1985. In 1979, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland, and in 2008, Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government. Under the new structure, in effect since 21 June 2009,[9] Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing, judicial system, company law, accounting and auditing; mineral resource activities; aviation; law of legal capacity, family law and succession law; aliens and border controls; the working environment; and financial regulation and supervision. The Danish government retains control of foreign affairs, national defence. It also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion, slated to diminish gradually over time as Greenland's economy is strengthened by increased income from the extraction of natural resources.”

In order to appease the Greenland sensibilities the Prime Minister sees the Greenland equivalent who understands the situation perfectly in terms of having no say over National Security matters. The USA government pleased at the handling of the situation suggests a presidential visit and Birgitte decides to make a visit to Greenland which is in effect kept to a day return much to the anger of the ethnic political leader, who counters the information fed by the press adviser and chief Civil Servant by persuading her to stay over night and go out and meet the people and understand a little more of the reality of his country.

The decision not to pursue the allegations against the USA also angers the man who risks his life disclosing the information especially as he can prove that two of the men being transferred are farmers who Amnesty International or similar body has listed as having disappeared. He also draws attention that always the SA government gets round the potential problem by claiming emergency flight and landing status for this and other flights which can be checked. He agrees to be interviewed live on camera but then fails to arrive revealing that it has been made clear to him that aspects of his background will be presented in such a way to destroy his reputation and credibility but worse from his viewpoint creates a major problem for his daughter who is about to seek a job as a teacher. Faced with this reality Katrine with the support of her management decides to hold fire.

However his actions have not been without positive consequence because Birgitte ensures that Greenland will participate in future negotiation over changes to the area controlled and decisions taken by the USA government. However the USA president cancel his visit due to pressure of domestic business.

Birgitte shows that although she is inexperienced in the use of political power and the machinations of others, including those in her own party and coalition government she is able to hold onto her own and the principles of her party, However she admits ruefully that she is making terminological inexactitudes in terms of the interests of her country,

The episodes sees Kasper holding a position of great influence and knowledge re establishing a relationship, as best friend, with Katrine but they also have a problem in that she cannot reveal aspects of her work, because of his position and vice versa. Birgitte on the other hand suggests that given a gap of three weeks between having sex with her husband they plan to have relations on to a couple of set nights each week. Sex by appointment with the Prime Minister. The children are showing support but also missing her even more than previous, often without seeing her apart from breakfast.