The Bridge Premiere Too Brutal For Denmark

New Year’s Day ushered in the premiere of The Bridge season four, but in Denmark the shocking opening scene had been edited to remove some particularly violent images, whilst the Swedish version remained intact.

The final season of The Bridge offers the most brutal opening yet, with a woman being stoned to death on Peberholm, a small artificial island in Danish waters at the base of the Øresund Bridge. The victim is Margrethe Thormod, Director General of the Migration Agency in Copenhagen.

DR1’s Channel Manager, Pil Gundelach Brandstrup, said: “We chose to edit part of the opening scene, which is quite harsh and explicit. This is because we aired the first episode of The Bridge right after The X Factor, which might put younger viewers at risk who haven’t yet switched off.”

“There are some violent images that have been removed, but it doesn’t change the content of the scene. Danes didn’t miss anything. The harsh images that were removed do not affect understanding, but suggest more than they directly show.”

The seven episodes remaining in season four of The Bridge will air Sundays on DR1 in Denmark and SVT1 in Sweden.