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Jens Arentzen

Jens Arentzen

Acting

Known For

Matador
9.1

Matador is a Danish TV series produced and shown between 1978 and 1982. It is set in the fictional Danish town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It follows the lives of a range of characters from across the social spectrum, focusing specifically on the rivalry between the families of two businessmen: The banker Hans Christian Varnæs, an established local worthy, and social climber Mads Skjern, who arrives in town as the series opens. The name Matador was taken from the localised edition of the boardgame Monopoly, also the series' tentative English title. In addition, in contemporary Danish a "matador" is often used to describe a business tycoon, in the series referring to the character of Mads Skjern and his craftiness as a self-made entrepreneur. Directed by famed Danish film maker Erik Balling, Matador was the idea of author Lise Nørgaard who wrote the bulk of the episodes alongside Karen Smith, Jens Louis Petersen and Paul Hammerich. The series is one of the most well-known and popular examples of Danish television and represents the peak of longtime development of Danish TV drama by the public service channel Danmarks Radio. The series has become part of the modern self-understanding of Danes, partly because of its successful mix of melodrama and a distinct warm Danish humour in the depiction of characters, which were portrayed by a wide range of the most popular Danish actors at the time; but also not least because of its accurate portrayal of a turbulent Denmark from around the start of the Great Depression and through Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in World War II.

Matador

1978Series
Once a Cop...
8.3

Policeman Karl Jørgensen was once a prominent detective, but due to a violent temper he's now checking out passports at the airport, smuggling stout to work in his thermos every day. However, Kaj, the boyfriend of his daughter, is suddenly killed by a heroin overdose injected by hooded gangsters. It turns out he was spying on their organisation for his brother, Frank, who was framed by them while smuggling narcotics. When Frank hears about Kaj's death, he escapes from prison to get back at the killers. Meanwhile, the same gangsters threaten Karl Jørgensen's daughter, and soon Karl is involved in a major drug smuggling case. Frank and his buddy rob a bank and shoot a police officer. A country-wide manhunt ensues while Karl is having trouble with controlling his daughter's vigilante activities, with finding out who killed Kaj, with the police detectives on the case and with his own alcoholic and lacking existence.

Once a Cop...

1987Series