TV DK

Yes, it’s a Sunday and what better time is there to talk about television viewing in Denmark.

In Copenhagen we get four channels (well, at least right here in this flat we do). One of them is called Kanal København. It’s turned into one of our favourites, as it’s full of community-based programmes that are rather endearing to watch because they have more than a touch of an amateur production to them. You can see such specials as: Saturday night at the local community hall’s big band get-together, visits to local old age centres that (literally) go on for hours [Super Senior TV], home interviews with pensioners about KBH in the old days, interviews with artists, café owners and trips to Islands Brygge (the swimming centre located right in the harbour). A great one this week was a televised run down of some church’s fete.

Originally, we used to give each other raised eye-brows from our respective sofas and giggle away at the dodgy camera work or the occasional interviewer who seemed suddenly to run out of questions for the guest, which would leave the camera focussed on two tentative, faces obviously hoping something from somewhere would intervene with some inspiration.

Now, I really get into it for another reason. It gives you an overview of a really nice part of the Danish psyche. Firstly, that a channel like this even exists and secondly that there are obviously people (other than us) who tune in to see these very normal, unspectacular events in the day to day lives of some Copenhageners. I suppose an equivalent table of contents in Melbourne would be seeing Mrs Anna Old-School from Kew prune her roses, Mr Gino Italia’s family busy processing their tomatoes into sugo and preserving them in old beer bottles or interviewing the old fisherman on St Kilda pier. A little bit of Kanal København can go a long way but in a very dejlig way, it’s a pleasant alternative to sensationalist current affair programmes or some of the banal American sitcoms that air everyday, and sometimes twice day.

My biggest surprise occurred one night when we arrived late home. NQDII headed straight for bed but I flicked on KK to see a naked man passionately kissing a just-as-naked woman who was in some degree of ecstasy if her moans were anything to go by. I thought it was part of a normal movie until seconds later we had close ups of a very beside-itself penis and an equally happy vagina. I couldn’t believe my eyes but I had to stay tuned to find out what happened next in the plot. After speaking to workmates about it, I discovered one early morning the techies allegedly inserted the wrong video into the player so pre schoolers were given a glimpse of part of their lives to come. If it’s true, I’m not sure what they thought about it but apparently there were lots of telephone calls to the station from frantic parents.