Charles & Harry is a mini series that NRK sent this Christmas. It details the 6-8 months period in the life of Prince Carl of Denmark and Princess Maud of Wales before they became the King and Queen of Norway. It therefore also includes a gallery of the royal family in Copenhagen and King Edward VII in the UK.
The series have received critique for being 10% facts and 90% fiction. Nevertheless, even though I was gnashing my teeth some of the time, it is an interesting series to watch.
I rather liked the family dynamics of the Danish court, and the more carefree depictions of family life in Bredgade.
I also liked how they got some the actors to look like the persons they were meant to portray. Although, I am convinced that Jacob Cedergren would also have made a fabulous Czar Nicholas II.
Unfortunately for royal watchers elsewhere, it is chiefly in Danish, with some Norwegian & Swedish thrown into the mix. There are bits and pieces of dialogue in English and French (the previous Princess Marie was by all accounts in the series not pleased about being in Denmark) but it is subtitled in Norwegian. It puzzles my mind, though, how, when the series is written and produced and sent by the same company, they can manage to mistranslate Danish to Norwegian in the subtitles.
NRK is apparently in talks of selling the series to other countries.
Watched the series with great interest and, frankly, just lòve the way how the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian languages (+ the occassional english expression 🙂 ) have been mingling here !
Must admit I am rather pleased with the overall outcome, although I do have several critical remarks to make…
Suppose they have to take liberties with the truth to make good television, and admittedly, it’s annoying for those who are ‘deadly serious’ about historical facts, but unfortunately, deadly accuracy is not the first thing on the programme makers minds.
All in all, a pleasant series to watch for anyone who loves royals & history, especially those who have a soft spot for the scandinavian royals & their history!
Combined with re-reading the (excellent!) Bomann-Larsen volumes it makes for some very satisfactory ‘visual’ history lessons!