Christine Hermansen

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.

‘Caroline – the last journey’ is a modern interpretation of Caroline Mathilde’s marriage to Christian VII, her relationship with Johann Struensee and her subsequent expulsion from Denmark. The film is about a power struggle in a large Danish company. Christian is the company’s external manager, but he is more interested in art than economics. The actual managers, Ove and Juliane, run the company with a heavy hand according to the old traditions, until Christian appoints the innovative and progressive Johan as his personal advisor.

The film takes place over a day for two young people's lives. There they meet each other and the a number of people in the streets, each in their own way in a quiet humdrum tone tells about the need to be present. The film is simultaneously both a tribute to the city of Copenhagen and life in general.

Jeppe is a bedraggled day laborer whose great vice is brandy. And when he falls down drunk in the field, a passing baron is tempted to play a prank on Jeppe. The baron's lackeys carry the sleeping Jeppe up to the castle, dress him in the baron's finest bedclothes, and lay him in the baron's bed. When Jeppe wakes up, he thinks he is dead and has gone to heaven. But gradually, the baron's persistent lackeys manage to convince him that he is actually the baron himself. Jeppe soon takes advantage of this to take revenge on old enemies and indulge in old vices...