'And I'm Timothy West.'
Beautiful.
'We've been husband and wife for over five decades.'
Amazing. Cheers.
'We've been wedded to stage and screen for even longer.'
Great hair, Pru. SHE LAUGHS
'But we share another passion...
'canals.'
Cast off, please. Aye, aye, sir.
'Canals wind through our lives carrying our treasured memories...'
'Of families growing up...'
'Of moments of wonder...'
'And hidden beauty...'
Is this the most remote canal we've ever been on?
Probably is, yes.
'Of love...'
'And laughter.'
Sorry about that. HE CHUCKLES
'Things are a bit harder for me these days...'
I'm not strong enough!
But we get by.
We're at the summit!
Hooray!
Pru has a slight condition.
It does mean she has difficulty remembering things.
BANG!
Oh, my darling. I'm so sorry. I didn't cast you off!
One has to recognise that Pru's domestic life is getting
a little narrower by the day.
Well, it can be a nuisance, but it doesn't stop me
remembering how to open a lock gate or make the skipper a cup of tea.
OK, cast off! OK.
'We'll be exploring new countries.'
It's amazing, isn't it?
'And following new routes.'
I'm lost now.
'But one thing stays the same...'
'We're always together.'
Let's stay right here.
It's so peaceful.
'This time, we continue our Swedish odyssey,
'travelling from west to east across the breadth of the country.'
There's still quite a lot of Sweden left.
Are you up for another adventure?
Yeah.
Swedish archipelago, here I come.
'Having already travelled 240 miles on this epic voyage,
'we've reached the halfway point.'
'Ahead lies the vast Lake Malaren, Sweden's capital city
'and the far-flung islands of the archipelago.'
'That's if we don't get completely lost!'
I don't quite know how I'm going to get into the canal. Oh.
I can't get under that bridge.
The same goes for this one up here.
You'll find a way.
'On this second leg, we'll be following the route of the Vikings.'
"Let not your courage bend, here your life must end."
Right. Thanks a lot.
'We'll experience Sweden's age-old traditions.'
THEY SING IN SWEDISH
Skol. Skol.
'And tread the boards of one of the oldest theatres in the world.'
For within the hollow crown,
that rounds the mortals temples of a king, keeps death his court.
'Our Swedish odyssey may take us far from home...
'but it leads us to reflect on own lives.'
Having a fantastic husband and some lovely children, you know,
I think I'm a very lucky person.
'We've come to Skansholmen, on the edge of the Baltic Sea,
'to pick up a new vessel for the next leg of our journey.'
The boat is called the Skibladner.
The original Skibladner was owned by the Norse god Frey
and it had a remarkable property.
When you stepped ashore, you could fold it up, put it in your pocket
and then when you unfolded it again,
it could carry all the Norse gods anywhere they wanted to go
and the wind would always be behind them.
A bit useful. I wish we had one like that.
I wish we had a car like that. Yeah.
Solve all the parking problems, wouldn't it?
'As we'll be travelling through canals, lakes...'
OK?
'..and even open sea, we need a vessel that's more at home
'in rough waters than our familiar narrow boat.'
Right.
What do you think of it?
Quite grand.
Yes, it is.
Nice galley.
Yeah. Yeah. It'll be good.
What's the cabin like?
I'll go down and tell you.
Um...
Ooh!
This has got a massive double bed
set triangularly across the cabin.
OK.
Well, we can sleep triangularly.
I think.
There's a first time for everything, isn't there?
OK, darling. If you cast off fore and aft.
Aye, aye, sir.
Tim, we're off for'ard. Right.
Two canals, thousands of islands and the Baltic Sea.
Our Swedish odyssey.
The next leg of our voyage across Sweden will take us
from the Baltic through the Sodertalje Canal to Lake Malaren
and the Viking settlement of Birka.
Heading to the home of Sweden's Royals,
we'll then sail on to the capital city.
Travelling out along the Baggensstaket Canal
and past the islands of the archipelago,
we'll reach the very eastern edge of Sweden.
How are we doing?
Just getting the feel of it.
'Over the years, we've successfully navigated our way through
'thousands of miles of waterway.
'But this voyage is unlike any other we've attempted before.'
What is that vessel?
That's a tanker. Yep.
Yes, I'm not used to having something like that
following me up the canal. No.
'I think it's safer if we let the larger vessel go by.'
Not the sort of thing one sees every day on the Oxford Canal, is it?
No, that's quite considerable, mm.
Like us, the tanker is bound for the largest lock in Sweden,
at the entrance to the Sodertalje Canal.
As a natural channel linking the Baltic with Lake Malaren,
it's been an important trade route throughout Sweden's history.
But it wasn't always deep enough to take oil tankers.
In fact, by the end of the Viking era,
parts of the channel had dried up completely.
Mariners were forced to drag their ships across on logs,
and this once-crucial Viking route was eventually abandoned.
It wasn't until the 19th century
that a canal was dug to restore the link.
After 13 years of construction,
this vital trade route was reopened in 1819.
Stand by. We'll get up as far as we can.
Right.
It's one of the widest locks I've ever seen.
I mean, how many craft is it supposed to take?
Are we in?
Very good. Yeah, we're fine.
'The gates might be built on a massive scale,
'but the rise and fall of the water level is incredibly small.'
Tim, are we going up or down? Up.
Up. Right, OK. But only 50cm.
50cm? Yeah.
Well, what's the idea? Why bother?
Well, otherwise you'd be going uphill, wouldn't you?
Tricky for water.
I've never been through a lock like that before.
No, I know. Just took a matter of seconds, didn't it?
'The canal follows the fresh water trail to Lake Malaren
'and the two merge as silently as the changing scenery around us.'
Look, open sea. Well, open lake.
Oh, yes. I thought it was a horizon, but, as you say, it's a lake.
Well, it is, really. It's very big.
It's a landscape.
'1,000 years ago, Lake Malaren was a Swedish Viking hideout,
'and we're heading to their most important stronghold, Birka.
'From there, they'd sally forth on the same route we're taking,
'into the Baltic Sea,
'travelling thousands of miles to trade and to raid.'
Do you think they raped and pillaged much of our population?
Um...
Yes...
Not so much the Swedes, the Danish were... Yes.
..bit tricky.
Oh, good. So the Swedes can be mates, can they?
Oh, yes, of course.
We're sorry, Danes. We love you too.
Especially Hamlet.
According to modern historians, Vikings have had a bad press
and were not mindless killers at all, but ordinary men
driven by the need for land and wealth,
who simply wanted a better life.
Vikings had feelings? Whatever next?
'We're about to land at Birka.
'It's a chance for us to discover the truth about Swedish Norseman.
'Here to greet us is our very own Viking guide.'
Let me give you a hand off.
Wow, it's very high, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
I'm a very... Thank you very much.
You're more than welcome. I needed you.
'First Viking impressions...
'dashing!'
Fine. Quite high, isn't it?
All right. Welcome to Birka.
Thank you. Lovely to be here. Thank you. Good to hear.
Mind the gap.
You're very polite for a Viking.
Thank you very much. I try my best.
I'd like a hand.
Yes, of course Thank you.
'Pru's new best friend is leading us to the island's cemetery.
'Around 3,000 Vikings are buried beneath the mounds of Birka.'
When we find these standing stones on the graves,
in almost all cases it indicates there's a man buried.
It's erect, a stone like this.
On the female graves we can sometimes find more rounded
stones lying on the top.
But these are all almost always men.
It's a bit phallic, symbolically, isn't it?
Yes, I suppose that's one interpretation, yes.
I think some researchers have put that way, too.
'Burned with his corpse
'was everything a warrior needed for his journey to the after-life.
'From livestock to clothes to jewellery
'and, if he was very important, a Viking longship.'
We have a couple of graves which are not burnt and in those ones,
we can, in the best cases, find preserved wood,
leather, clothes, things like this.
Ceramics? Ceramics, yeah.
Combs for the hair. It's the funny thing, we find them
in the graves of women and in the warrior graves.
Combs in the graves of warriors?
Yes, indeed.
So even tough Viking warriors were very caring
a lot about their hair, or about their beard... Of course, yes.
'Andreas is taking us all the way to the top
'to show us the traditional Viking routes to Stockholm and the Baltic.'
Oh! You're obviously used to guiding ladies up here.
Don't mind me.
Where do we go now? On?
Continue just straight ahead, the worst part is done.
You two carry on.
Good.
Wonderful view, isn't it?
Yeah, it's a marvellous view over the lake.
Swedish Vikings were making both plundering attacks
and trading journeys.
There is the channel, the opening where Stockholm today is located.
Right. So they would take the ships from Birka
and they would travel out into the Baltic Sea and then further on.
'As we are following the same Viking route,
'Andreas invites us aboard Birka's reconstructed longboat.'
Don't worry. I will not let you fall, I promise.
No, I'm sure. I'm sure you won't.
Are we going on a secret raid?
ANDREAS CHUCKLES Who knows where we'll end up?
'Vikings sailed across entire oceans,
'some in boats as small as this one.'
How many crew on this?
I would say roughly ten people on a boat of this size.
Where did they go to the loo?
For go to the loo, you could go ashore
or you could just maybe go over the...
Over the side. Yes, of course, well...
Like the fish and the beavers and everything else. Yeah, yeah.
Good!
'The poems of Old Norse literature reveal a brutal world where
'Viking warriors are constantly stalked by death.'
"You must climb up onto the keel Cold is the sea-spray's feel,
"Let not your courage bend Here your life must end."
Did you hear that?
"Old man, keep your upper lip firm,
"Though your head be bowed by the storm
"Death comes to all at last."
Right.
Well, thanks a lot.
I think that's very depressing!
'Don't worry. Your Viking warrior has a bit more life in him yet!'
'Well, that's a relief.'
'Yes. Our voyage is far from over.'
We're on the shores of Lake Malaren,
following an ancient Viking route to the Eastern edge of Sweden.
It's morning.
And we should really be eating a true Norseman's breakfast
of pickled herring and rye bread.
This is the biggest strawberry I've ever seen.
Yeah, this is the second biggest.
Lovely.
'Today's first port of call is Drottningholm -
'the baroque 17th century lakeside palace of the King of Sweden.'
Does he mind us going in there? No, I don't think so.
The Drottningholm Theatre which is attached to it
is the oldest working theatre in the world
that's still in its original condition. Brilliant. Older than the Bristol Old Vic?
The same age as the Bristol Old Vic, but of course
the Bristol Old Vic has been changed throughout the 250 years.
Cast off?
Cast off, please, Pru!
All right, you're off.
'We're heading for The Royal Palace of Drottningholm,
'sited on one of Lake Malaren's islands -
'we just have to find the right one.
'Unfortunately there are over 8,000 to choose from.'
These little islands can be very confusing, you know. Yes.
You think you've turned behind one of them
and you realise you've missed it or you haven't got there yet.
Bit harder than canals, isn't it?
Yeah, lakes are different and lakes with little islands are harder.
'Leaving the island of Helgo,
'we'll work our way through the narrow channels of the inner archipelago,
'past Kungshatt to the Royal Palace.
'Heading east we'll pass by more islands -
finally reaching Stockholm.
Lovely traditional sailing boat back there.
Yeah, wasn't it? I wish we could sail.
'Ahead is the small island of Kungshatt,
'upon whose clifftop sits a large copper hat at the end of a long pole
'and it's been there for 400 years.
'Odd lot, the Swedes.'
That is the king's hat.
A Swedish king was being pursued by his enemies.
He jumped off that cliff... Oh, my God. ..and survived the fall
and swam away to safety.
The only thing that came off during the fall was the king's hat,
so the enemies just had to make do with his hat.
And it's a custom, every time a sailor passes,
to salute the hat, which I'm now going to do.
HORN BEEPS
I salute the hat!
It's to bring you luck on the voyage.
'Two miles north from the king's hat is the king's house -
'the home of King Carl Gustaf XVI and Queen Silvia.'
The Royal Palace at Drottningholm.
Are they in residence at the moment? There's no Standard?
No, he's at his country retreat.
Well, I mean, that's his country retreat but another country retreat.
Tough life being a royal.
Yes, but they're very democratic royals.
I approve of them.
It is a bit lovely though, isn't it?
'I don't recall ever parking this close outside Buckingham Palace.'
I'd go down backwards, I would...
'But the Swedes seem fairly relaxed, so we venture on.'
It's very romantic, isn't it? Yes.
'Drottning-holm translates literally as 'Queen's Island'
'and the palace, built here in the 17th century,
'was originally the summer residence for the Swedish Royal Court.
'Influenced by the Palace at Versailles,
'it's also famous for its lavish rococo interiors.
'Drottningholm is a feast for the eyes, but we're most excited about
'the building behind the palace - an almost sacred place for thespians.
'Built in 1766, it's remained virtually unchanged
'for 250 years - a theatrical time capsule.'
It's lovely, isn't it? Isn't it? I know.
'This evening there's a performance of a Mozart opera,
'but there's just enough time for a backstage tour before curtain up.'
Nice to meet you.
Warmly welcome to the Drottningholm Court Theatre.
Nice to have you here.
Lovely to be here. Lovely to be here.
Here time has stood still almost.
So, now I will show you one of many bedrooms, please step inside.
A bedroom? Yes.
Can you explain to us why there are so many bedrooms in a theatre?
Because people lived here, the French actors and the opera singers.
It was digs! Yeah,
It's a nice thought, isn't it?
Go off the stage, take a bow, go to bed. Yes.
Digs in the theatre? Poor old theatrical landladies.
PIA LAUGHS
'We've played in theatres all over Britain
'and always had to find our own digs.
'None of which was exactly palatial.'
Now I will show you something really, really special.
'Drottningholm's heyday was during the reign of the actor-king,
'Gustav III, who was so keen on the theatre he both directed
'and performed in plays himself.
'That all came to a tragic end in 1792,
'when during a masked ball he was assassinated.
'The theatre was then boarded up and forgotten for 129 years,
'until it was rediscovered in 1921 in almost perfect condition.'
OK, Pru?
'Pia is taking us down beneath the stage.'
It's all intact.
The way it was in the 1760s.
Wonderful.
'In over 60 years of acting, I've never seen anything like this.'
So, this is like a ship, almost a sailing ship. Yes.
And actually many of the stage hands back in time,
they were actually sailors.
It's all hand-driven.
So...
What's this for?
Yes, it's a wooden drum as you can see and it's for the trap door, actually.
The trap door? Mm-hmm.
'It not just the stage mechanics that are 18th century.'
A wind machine!
'It's the sound effects too.'
You're going to ..
You do the thunder?
Yes. You will be the Lady of Thunder.
OK. It's hard work, isn't it?
Yes. Help me.
Shall I? SHE LAUGHS
It's a shoot with cannonballs.
Bravo.
'Let's have a storm.'
WIND-EFFECT BLOWS
"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!
"Rage! Blow!
"You cataracts and hurricanoes,
"spout till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
"You sulph'rous and thought-executing..."
Oh, that's very good.
Yeah. Hard work, is it?
PIA LAUGHS
You are exhausted?
So, here we go.
Right.
Here we have the stage. Wow.
Oh, right.
'And now the moment we've been waiting for -
'to tread the same boards trodden by actors in centuries past,
'performing on this stage before courtiers and kings.'
Wonderful.
So, this is something, huh?
It's something.
And what sort of plays did they do at that time?
Ah. In the beginning, French classical drama was very popular indeed.
Pru, you could do a bit of French drama, couldn't you?
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
Ra-a-y. That's what you say.
Lovely.
'Wow, that's my Pru.'
Well, it's a wonderful acoustic, isn't it?
"Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs.
"For within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king,
"keeps Death his court.
"And there the antic sits, scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
"allowing him a little breath, a scene,
"to monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
"And humour'd thus, comes at the last.
"And with a little pin,
"bores through the castle wall.
"And farewell, King."
All right?
SHE CRIES
APPLAUSE
Yes, it sounds wonderful, doesn't it?
Yes. Yes. Brilliant.
'Sadly we can't stay for this evening's performance of The Marriage Of Figaro
'as its time for us to head to our next mooring.'
MUSIC: Le Nozze Di Figaro by Andrea Martin
'We're back on the Viking trail, bound for Stockholm, which is
'only a few miles further east.'
There we are. Stockholm.
The city, yes, it's magic.
Wonderful colour.
All those spires. Yeah.
Looks like a pin cushion.
'And one of the tallest pins is the Stadshuset - the city hall.'
BELLS CHIME
'It's most famous for holding the annual Nobel Prize Banquet.'
It's a wonderful place.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
'Stockholm is threaded by a number of different waterways
'and we still haven't found the right one to take us to our mooring.'
I don't quite know how I'm going to get in to the canal. Oh.
I can't get under that bridge, too low.
I think the same one goes for this one up here.
I haven't the slightest idea what's happening now.
You see...
You see, I don't know whether I'm...
I don't know what I'm doing.
You'll find a way. Mmm.
SHE LAUGHS
No, we can't go that way, it's been blocked off.
Oh.
'I'm trying to get to our mooring in Strommen Bay,
'which is not far beyond that bridge.
'If only we could find the route to get there.'
Nothing through there?
No, no, there's nothing there, no.
Just a cul de sac.
SHIP ENGINE
Is that for us?
I don't know, is it?
I think we have to go back the way we came for a little while.
"The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
"Now speeds the weary traveller a pace to gain the timely inn."
Was that Macbeth? Yeah.
Oh, come on, darling. Things aren't that bad, are they?
'In Stockholm at this time of year,
'it doesn't get dark until 10.30,
'which is lucky, because it looks like we'll need all the light we can get.'
We're on a voyage, west to east, across Sweden.
And after taking the wrong channel into Stockholm,
we finally reached our city mooring late last night.
Wherever you are, you're only feet away from water.
Yeah.
Lovely, isn't she?
I want to take her home.
Built 1880.
At Whitehaven.
Oh, brilliant. A British... A British job.
Now a youth hostel.
Really? Mm.
I wonder if they're allowed to climb the rigging.
Don't know about that. Health and safety.
We've headed over to the city's most historic district, Gamla Stan.
Originally the site of a fortress built to guard against pirates,
today it's a cluster of 17th
and 18th century buildings linked by a maze of medieval alleys.
This is... This is the oldest part of Stockholm. Right.
Lovely Dutch-style houses. Yeah.
Look at that skyline. Wonderful combination of colours.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
Lovely lamps.
Oh, yes.
Stockholm is a city built on water.
One third of it is made up of channels, bays and canals.
Today, boats and ferries provide an important
and safe mode of transport.
But that wasn't the case 400 years ago, when here in Stockholm
harbour, Sweden suffered her most embarrassing naval disaster.
The Swedish ship, Vasa, pride of the Swedish royal navy...
Indeed, they thought so well of it that at the last minute, they
decided to add an extra gun deck, housing a number of heavy cannons.
The whole city had turned out to watch her maiden voyage,
which lasted a mere 20 minutes.
She'd sailed less than one mile
when a light gust of wind caused the top heavy Vasa to capsize and sink.
Oh, God! How awful!
It was awful. 50 people were killed. How ghastly!
The Swedish navy were so embarrassed about it all that they made
no attempt to rescue the boat and so it remained for 350 years.
Rediscovered by an amateur archaeologist in 1961,
the Vasa was raised to the surface once again.
Amazingly, when the mud was sprayed off,
she appeared to be in near pristine condition.
When she came up, she was fully intact. Yes. She was.
It's amazing!
Like the Vasa,
we too are heading out into the waters of Stockholm harbour,
but hopefully our voyage will be a little longer than 20 minutes.
Oh, look, Tim. The sailing boat. Lovely.
We're back on the route of the Vikings, who once sailed out
through the narrow straits of Stockholm, heading for the open sea.
Leaving the city behind,
we'll follow the Skurusundet waterway south to the
Baggensstaket canal, which in turn leads us to the
islands of the Stockholm archipelago.
For a pair of landlubbers and canal enthusiasts like us,
this voyage towards the sea is almost mythical.
Truly a journey into the unknown.
Now we're turning east on the Baggensstaket canal, on our
odyssey, towards the islands of the archipelago,
so I hope we don't meet any monsters or giants.
I think it's more magic.
I think it's like Swallows and Amazons come to life.
Timmy!
Yeah. Can we get one of those? What? The house? Yes.
If one could live one's life again,
would one come back as a Swede or something, but no, I love the
English countryside and I've been very lucky in being reasonably fully
employed and having a fantastic husband
and some lovely children
and I think I'm a very lucky person.
And so am I.
Lucky to share my life with Pru.
And when one's having a fantastic holiday like this and one's
in a magical environment like this,
it makes me feel almost guilty.
You think of all the people
who haven't got that.
In the 16th century,
King Eric XIV introduced tolls for all large ships coming in to
Stockholm, so smugglers transferred goods on to smaller vessels
and slipped past customs officers by night along this canal
and into the city.
How do you know where we're going?
There's a white lighthouse there that... Oh, right.
It's where I should be making for now.
The canal opens up now into the Stockholm Archipelago.
24,000 islands of which only 150 are inhabited.
The archipelago is a popular retreat for city dwellers, the lucky
ones owning a summarsstuga, or summer house, on their rocky shores.
Known for their wild beauty, the islands have also inspired many
writers and artists, including our favourite Swedish playwright,
August Strindberg.
The Strindberg family business was a ferry
service from Stockholm to the archipelago
and the young writer formed a lifelong love for these islands.
August Strindberg had a summer house here on the archipelago
and wrote some poems. I've got a book of his poems there.
Read us one.
Reading Strindberg to one's actor husband on holiday.
It's wonderful.
This is one called We Waves.
"We, we waves, we are rocking the winds to rest
"Green cradles, we waves..."
As well as writing about this landscape,
the multi-talented Strindberg painted it too.
"Wet are we and salty, leap like flames of fire
"Wet flames are we, burning, extinguishing, cleansing
"We, we waves, we are rocking the winds to rest."
Not today, though.
Strindberg's writing
and painting expresses a certain Swedish melancholy.
The Swedes have that strange streak
of dark morbidity about them.
It's so... It's so amazing in this
beautiful idyllic countryside.
There is certainly a Swedish tradition of the moody loner,
most recently found in the crime thrillers of Nordic Noir.
Now popular all over the world, the Wallander series was one
of the first and features a murder detective with a tortured soul.
Krister! Hello! Hello!
I'm sorry for the weather!
Fellow actor Krister Henriksson plays the title role
and joins us to share his thoughts about the Swedish psyche.
Welcome aboard. So nice to meet you.
The British have an idea about the Swedes as being dark,
unforgiving, inward looking,
and gloomy.
It's not true, is it, or...?
Yeah... But I think you become what is around you.
We are surrounded by darkness all the time.
I mean we have one month in June, summer, when there is light.
For the rest of the year, it's dark.
And then you become dark in your soul. Yeah.
The changing seasons and the landscape influences
so much of Swedish writing, including the Wallander series.
You know, it's a landscape which is very, very lonely and then you
have the sea, this Baltic Sea, and on the other side you have Poland.
It's far, far away.
When you were there, going in that landscape,
you in a way became Wallander.
You felt that loneliness. Yes. What the landscape did to you. Yes.
I think that's what creates you, this scenery is around you.
You in a way become like the landscape. Yeah.
Yeah. How intriguing.
Yes. Yeah. Yes, I understand what you're saying.
To become like the archipelago, wild and beautiful, but lonely,
and in winter, dark and desolate.
It's lucky then that we have a few more days of summer left.
What do you call this when the surface is...? Shimmering?
Shimmering. Shimmering.
It reminds me of a troubadour who lived here in the archipelago.
He wrote beautiful songs, songs which everyone in Sweden knows.
One of them is... I sing for you, Pru. Yes.
All right, I'm listening.
# Sa skimrande var aldrig havet
# Som nar du gick vid min sida
♪ Vid min forsta kyss. ♪
My first time I kissed you, darling.
And the sea was shimmering when I did that. Aw...
Lovely. Lovely.
Lovely! Thank you! I'm very flattered.
The sea was never more shimmering than
When you walked by my side into the sunset
The evening never more enchanting than
When you drowned all my sorrows darling
In your first kiss.
Well, that's lifted the spirits, Pru's anyway,
as we head onwards, towards the eastern
fringes of the archipelago and our final destination.
We're coming to the end of our Swedish odyssey.
It's been quite an adventure -
travelling 350 miles through canals and lakes and even across seas.
It's the longest boat journey we've ever undertaken,
and being so far away from home has put things in perspective.
Obviously, things do change when you get older,
when you get quite a lot older,
and you behave slightly differently or you
expect things to be slightly different, um...
but looking back,
we've had the most wonderful life, really,
and are still having a most wonderful life.
We have a family that we love and are very close to us,
and a lot of friends, and most of all, we have each other.
Not like you to dwell on the past.
You're the one who's always looking to the future.
We've been following the Viking trail ever eastwards.
Longships sailed this way 1,000 years ago
on their legendary voyages deep into the Russian heartlands.
But we're not going quite that far today.
Our journey's end is Sweden's last inhabited island.
We're going to the island of Sandhamn, where we will meet
a lady called Viveca Sten, who was trained as a lawyer,
writes crime novels and is an expert on cookery...
..which is quite good, isn't it? Yeah.
How does she fit it all in?
I don't know. We'll see.
Viveca sets her novels on the island and knows it intimately
as her family has lived on Sandhamn for almost 100 years.
Hello! Hello!
Hello! Welcome to the Swedish archipelago.
Thank you. Welcome to my home.
Thank you. Hello. Hello. How are you? Very well.
So let me introduce you to Sandhamn, my beloved island.
In the winter, only 89 people live here. Good heavens!
In the summer, you have 3,000 summer guests and 150,000 tourists,
every summer, so you can imagine the difference.
Gosh, yes.
It wasn't always so popular.
In fact, it was barren and uninhabited
until the late 17th century,
when the King of Sweden ordered a customs toll-house
to be established, and the island began to develop.
So this is the absolute eastern edge of Sweden.
Absolutely. You know what?
If you miss Sandhamn, you will end up in Estonia.
Ah! Yes. It's a sobering thought.
There's only the Baltic Sea out there. This is the last outpost.
Most of the houses here were actually brought from other islands.
Then they would reassemble them once they arrived here.
So that house is almost 250 years old.
Isn't this the absolute loveliest alley that you can imagine?
I think it's so pretty with the flowers.
Beautiful.
And that house is from 1700 something.
Oh, goodness.
It almost doesn't look real, does it?
No, it's a toy village.
The nice thing about this island - there are no motor cars.
That's right. There are no cars! No, exactly. You have a few...
Until you said that, I hadn't noticed.
It's nice, isn't it?
Wonderful, hooray!
OK? Right. Yes, fine.
'To celebrate the end of our voyage, Viveca has invited us
'to a traditional Swedish crayfish party on the shore behind her home.'
These are my children and their friends.
Hello. Hello. How do you do? How do you do? Hello. Hello.
'A ritual since the turn of the last century,
'the crayfish party symbolizes the end of the summer.'
'It's a beautiful, tranquil place,
'but thanks to Viveca's novels, it's gained a certain notoriety.'
Doesn't look like a place with enormous numbers of murders
but then... I have a neighbour who did the math, and he told me that,
so far, I've killed off 5% of the population of Sandhamn.
A little way to go yet!
If you consider the fact that there are only 89 people
living on the island, I think the numbers are not bad. No.
And I've only written seven crime novels, so I'm still working on it.
We were talking to Krister Eriksson
and talking about the sort of essential darkness
in the Swedish soul. And, er...
So does this mean that they have a natural affinity with murder,
with corpses, with death?
It's a very good question. I think, maybe,
part of the answer is that we live in a very peaceful country.
We haven't been to war for 200 years.
And maybe, the fact that it's so very peaceful
means that there's an affinity for reading about violence and murder.
Yes.
People tend to enjoy reading about horrible stories and crime novels...
Yes. ..and all kinds of...
They know it won't happen to them. Exactly,
because you know that you're still sitting in your cosy living room,
snuggle with, you know, a cup of tea next to you.
And that means that you can expose yourself to the horrors
that you read about.
Everybody needs a violent outlet of some sort, don't they?
Absolutely.
Do they, darling? What's yours?
Well, acting, for goodness' sake!
LAUGHTER
I haven't hit you lately at all, have I?
We need a Schnapps song. Are you ready?
'Swedish crayfish parties are typically accompanied
'by a lot of Schnapps and singing.'
# Helan gar Sjung hopp faderallan lallan lej
# Helan gar Sjung hopp faderallan lej
# Och den som inte helan tar
# Han heller inte halvan far
♪ Helan gar! ♪
'The words to Helan Gar essentially mean "Down In One".'
Skal! Skal! Skal!
♪ Sjung hopp faderallan lej! ♪
Skal! Skal!
I can't reply with any English drinking songs,
but I do know a verse or two from The Tempest -
a play set on a magical island in the midst of a mythical sea.
Our revels now are ended.
These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits
and are melted into air, into thin air -
and, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
leave not a rack behind.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on,
and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
Bravo! Beautiful. Beautiful. Bravo!
Beautiful. Beautiful.
Skal! Thank you. Skal! Skal! Well done. Skal from me.
Where are we going? Out here? Out here, yes.
Ooh! It's all right. I'm not going to drop you.
Sorry? I'm not going to drop you.
I think I might need a hand, actually.
'Our revels are now ended.
'Our journey has reached its furthest point.'
It's beautiful.
We're on the edge of Sweden.
Out there - the ocean, vast and unvisited.
Are we going to sail in to it?
I don't think so. Not today.
Let's stay right here. So peaceful.
Next time, our two greatest passions combine -
canals and the theatre.
Off to Stratford - the actor's spiritual home.
Travelling through Shakespeare country.
I'm Titania -
lulled in these flowers with dances and delight. Who's going to dance?
Subtitles by Ericsson