Danish Survivors To Confront Greatest Fear

To coincide with Knæk Cancer Week, TV2 is set to premiere Overleverne (The Survivors), a six part comedy drama created by Ida Maria Rydén (Dicte) and Ina Bruhn (Den som dræber) that explores how people react to a life-altering crisis.

Eight very different people take part in a course where, during five days of conversations and intense physical challenges, they are confronted with their greatest fear: life. While the two course leaders can’t agree whether people in crisis should have their hand held or given a hard push, the students eventually find the courage to leave behind who they were and look forward to who they can become.

The cast includes Marie Askehave and Ole Lemmeke as the course leaders, alongside Kirsten Lehfeldt, Jacob Lohmann, Sebastian Jessen, Ari Alexander, Jeanett Albeck, Katinka Lærke Petersen, Amer Bosnjak, Stine Rosenfeldt Bjerregaard and Rasmus Hammerich.

Executive producer, Mette Heiberg, said: “One in three Danes gets cancer, and two out of three survive. This series explores the limbo that many find themselves in on the other side of the disease. That is to say, when you have been declared healthy and are must live an ‘ordinary life’ again. The problem is that the disease has changed who you are, both privately and at work, and relationships are also affected by the change.”

“The characters in the series have tried to tackle the disease and create meaning from the chaos. To protect themselves and their loved ones, they have lied, avoided or denied the situation they were in… It’s a funny and touching series about life after a serious illness, about people’s reactions to a life altering crisis and about life’s big questions. Because as one of the characters in the series puts it: We must all die – the question is how we live until then.”

Overleverne, directed by Kasper Gaardsøe (DNA) premieres this autumn on TV2 and TV2 Play.