31/03/2014 - dk4 is in pre-production with a €24 million TV drama series starring Jens Sætter-Lassen, to be realised by Thomas Lydholm for Wazawi Entertainment

A new Danish royal family is about to move into Copenhagen’s Amalienborg Palace in The King of Denmark, Danish cable channel dk4’s new 24-part TV drama series, which will shortly go into production for Danish producer Thomas Lydholm and Wazawi Entertainment.

Scripted by Danish author Jesper Waldvogel Rasmussen, who also wrote the 2007-2009 television series 2900 Happiness, The King of Denmark – which has been four years in the making – is the story of young Prince Erik, who suddenly has to take over the throne after his father’s death, and his older brother has been killed in a car accident. 

Danish actor Jens Sætter-Lassen (who has performed in the Park Road and Borgen television series, and in the upcoming 1864) will play the lead with Ulf Pilgaard (Lord Chamberlain), Solbjørg Højfeldt (Queen Victoria), Søren Spanning (King Valdemar), Søren Pilmark (Minister of State), Helene Egelund, Jesper Lohmann, Tina Gylling Mortensen, Neel Rønholt, Filippa Suenson and others. 

Although somewhat controversial, according to Lydholm, the real Royal Family – including Queen Margrethe II – has been extremely helpful to the production team, for example by lending them authentic uniforms and an original Order of the Elephant, the highest order of Denmark.

“There is something fascinating about the royal family, which represents us all. But The King of Denmark is most of all the story of a family, which wants to carry on the kin. The series should reflect what a royal life is and what it does to people who have to live it - especially when disaster strikes and everything collapses, humanly and constitutionally,” Rasmussen said.