The Julekalender

The Julekalender
Created by	De Nattergale Hans Erik Saks
Developed by	Carsten Knudsen Uffe Rørbæk Madsen Viggo Sommer
Starring	Carsten Knudsen Uffe Rørbæk Madsen Viggo Sommer
Country of origin	Denmark
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	24
Production
Running time	6 hours (15 mins X 24)
Release
Original network	TV 2 (Denmark)
Original release	1 December – 24 December 1991

The Julekalender (The Christmas Calendar) was a Danish TV series that ran at Christmas 1991 (a Norwegian version was made in 1994, and a Finnish version appeared in 1997). It was written and performed almost entirely by a trio of Danish comedy musicians called De Nattergale with financial and technical assistance from TV2, a Danish television company. It was hugely successful at the time, causing many invented phrases from the series to enter popular culture and was later released on VHS, and recently, DVD.

It had 24 episodes (one for each day of December until Christmas Eve), as has been typical of other TV "calendars" before and since The Julekalender.

Viggo Sommer, Uffe Rørbæk Madsen and Carsten Knudsen each had two roles. One role was as a Nisse, a type of gnome or elf associated with Christmas in Danish tradition but not to be confused with Norse mythology. The other role is as a normal, if overly stereotyped, Dane, while Poul Bundgaard played the old Nisse.

The premise of the show is fairly simple: long, long ago, the race of Nisser lived happily in Denmark getting up to mischief with the humans, drinking, and making merry. Then the "Nå-såere" came - evil, vampire-esque creatures with an unhealthy obsession for money and counting, and almost eradicated the Nisser. A few Nisser survived and escaped to America, among them good old Gammelnok (literally, "old enough", the one character not to be played by a member of De Nattergale), who is now on the brink of death, as the music box that plays his life tune needs to be wound up. Gammelnok gathers three of the remaining Nisser (Hansi, Günther, and Fritz) and sends them off to Denmark, to find the old Nisse cave where the key to wind up the music box is. He gives them The Big Book to take with them, an ancient tome that contains the answer to any and all questions, warning them to take great care that it does not fall into the hands of a Nå-såer. If this were to happen, all would be lost. They are also warned to take care, as the Nå-såers nowadays have taken the appearance of normal humans, but when they consume alcohol, they regain their original appearance, with fangs, and thick-rimmed glasses. The three merrily set off, and this is where the first episode begins.

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