The Cold Swedish Winter

BBC lefty bias survives even the coldest Swedish winter

I've been doing something extremely rare for me, during this latest lockdown - listening to a BBC Radio sitcom. They are invariably dire, groaningly unfunny. But this one came on one day while I was busy cooking and my hands were too sticky to turn the radio off, so I began to listen. And lo, it made me laugh!

Radio Times review

Radio regular Danny Robins's new sitcom, about a British comic who has married a Swede and is trying to come to terms with Swedish culture, is heavily autobiographical. Robins, who wrote Rudy's Rare Records, really did marry a Swede and her father really is the mayor of a town with a (to non-Swedes) unpronounceable name.

In episode one somebody says, "Do Swedes have a sense of humour?" (They certainly do. Robins, above, is one of several British comics who play Swedish comedy clubs). It has to be said that a large proportion of Robins's humour derives from the British perception of Swedish gloominess. But it's affectionate.

Cold Swedish Winter preview

Adam Riches is to star in his first sitcom, as a failing stand-up who moves to Sweden.