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Art of Scandinavia

Season 1
It’s a land without light for months on end, with a reputation for gloom and of bleak landscapes that inspired 20th-century existentialism. But, art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon discovers, while its a fitting home for Munch’s The Scream, Scandinavia is also a land of eroticism, fairytales, futuristic thinking and an idealism that’s given us bicycle-riding monarchs, Lego and modernist social design.
20163 episodesTV-14
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - Dark Night of the Soul
    March 13, 2016
    50min
    13+
    A place of perpetual midnight and darkness, so far north it was often left off the map of world civilizations. Scandinavia’s art, literature and philosophy have often been overlooked in favor of that of the warm, sunny, south. Art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon dons his thermals to discover what we’ve been missing, starting with that chilling glimpse of Norwegian nightmare, The Scream by Edvard Munch.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  2. S1 E2 - Once Upon a Time in Denmark
    March 20, 2016
    50min
    TV-14
    From The Emperor’s New Clothes to The Little Mermaid – brightly painted automata re-enact the masterful fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen on an eye-catching ride in Denmark’s Tivoli Gardens. It might look cheerful, but, as British historian Andrew Graham-Dixon discovers, Anderson’s fictions are disturbing: tortured lovers, deranged tyrants and the premature death of innocents.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  3. S1 E3 - Democratic by Design
    March 27, 2016
    50min
    TV-14
    They were scared of the future. There was only one thing to do: take control of it… Andrew Graham-Dixon introduces us to a Sweden whose artists faced the 20th century with anxiety and dread, but designed their way out of the problem – creating what they hoped would be a perfect world. A fascinating insight into one of the most extraordinary social and artistic experiments in modern history.
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Details

More info

Content advisory
Sexual content
Subtitles
None available
Directors
Ian Leese
Producers
Patrick DickinsonPaul Tickell
Cast
Andrew Graham-Dixon
Studio
BBC
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