Norwegian TV Goes Underground With Valkyrien

The defunct Valkyrie station on Holmenkollbanen, which was in use between 1927 and 1985, is to be used for a new eight part thriller premiering on NRK in 2017: Valkyrien. The series has a budget of 65 million kroner and is to be written and directed by Erik Richter (Sønner, Varg Veum).

Doctor Ravn (Sven Nordin) is a surgeon desperate to find a cure for his dying wife Vilma, played by Norwegian-Swedish actress Pia Halvorsen. The hospital had given up on her, so Ravn enters into an alliance with Oslo’s underworld and opens a clinic in a disused underground station for those in need, who either have no GP or cannot use public hospitals.

Ravn’s endeavours both to build a clinic and get patients is made ​​possible by the corrupt Leif (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen). Convinced that the end of the world is nigh, Leif has widespread access and knowledge of the city’s underground shelters and secret passages, as well as a significant network in the Oslo underworld and its black economy.

“Special stuff, this. I have not seen something similar, either in theme or setting. Although there probably are within the internationally popular genre nordic noir,” says Sven Nordin.

“This is about medical research, doomsday prophecies, globalization, infrastructure, supplies, organized crime – at how we build the world around us. This I believe and hope can have some international impact – not least among younger viewers.”