# The History of Sweden (2023)

> A ten-part SVT documentary drama traces Sweden's history from the Ice Age to the present through dramatized reconstructions and expert commentary.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/155216

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, history
- Created by: Patrick Bratt, Björn Wahren
- Network: SVT
- Cast: Simon J. Berger, Gunnar Wetterberg, Björn Nilsson, Helena Jankovic Malmström, Fredrik Hallgren, Jonathan Lindström, Torbjörn Ahlström, Åsa M Larsson
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29553855/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: earnest, measured, stately, reflective, proud

## Synopsis

The History of Sweden (2023-2024) is a Swedish public-broadcast documentary drama miniseries created by Patrick Bratt and Björn Wahren for SVT. Narrated by Simon J. Berger, the ten-part series of one-hour episodes sweeps across the whole span of Swedish history, from the Ice Age to the present day. Each installment pairs dramatized reconstructions of key events and figures with on-camera commentary from historians, and historian Gunnar Wetterberg appears throughout as a recurring expert alongside roughly a hundred experts drawn from across the field. The engine is simply the chronology itself: each episode distills centuries of political turns, migrations, wars, and social change into concrete moments, showing the people and forces that shaped the nation. Rather than a single protagonist, the series builds its momentum through accumulation, so that the country itself becomes the central figure. The tone is earnest, measured, and quietly proud, with a sense of national self-examination rather than nostalgia. Its signature melody, composed by Ludwig Göransson and Per-Gunnar Juliusson, gives the broadcast a stately, cinematic frame. Viewers who enjoy Simon Schama's A History of Britain or The Ascent of Man will find a similar appetite for big-picture storytelling, and a single season of ten episodes makes it an accessible, self-contained overview of a nation's past.

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