Matador is a Danish TV series produced and shown between 1978 and 1982. It is set in the fictional Danish town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It follows the lives of a range of characters from across the social spectrum, focusing specifically on the rivalry between the families of two businessmen: The banker Hans Christian Varnæs, an established local worthy, and social climber Mads Skjern, who arrives in town as the series opens. The name Matador was taken from the localised edition of the boardgame Monopoly, also the series' tentative English title. In addition, in contemporary Danish a "matador" is often used to describe a business tycoon, in the series referring to the character of Mads Skjern and his craftiness as a self-made entrepreneur. Directed by famed Danish film maker Erik Balling, Matador was the idea of author Lise Nørgaard who wrote the bulk of the episodes alongside Karen Smith, Jens Louis Petersen and Paul Hammerich. The series is one of the most well-known and popular examples of Danish television and represents the peak of longtime development of Danish TV drama by the public service channel Danmarks Radio. The series has become part of the modern self-understanding of Danes, partly because of its successful mix of melodrama and a distinct warm Danish humour in the depiction of characters, which were portrayed by a wide range of the most popular Danish actors at the time; but also not least because of its accurate portrayal of a turbulent Denmark from around the start of the Great Depression and through Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in World War II.

The chaotic and violent struggle to control wealth and power in the North American fur trade in late...

Ten strangers, drawn away from their normal lives to an isolated rock off the Devon coast. But as th...

From the perspective of the beauty salon employee Xiaomi, the film shows the survival plight of thre...

Charles Ryder, an agnostic man, becomes involved with members of the Flytes, a Catholic family of ar...

The Ku family are living in the Republic of China era (1930s) as a prestigious household in a wealth...

The Waltons live their life in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War ...

Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac ...

The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wi...

A story about love and its different manifestations, told through the little boy Marcelino in search...

After being betrayed and losing everything in her past life, waterway master Lu Anran is reborn and ...

Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition is a place where the rules don't apply. And the man who run...

The staff in charge of catering to the desires of a department store's top clientele try to keep the...

Based in the 1930's of Shanghai, China, this drama is a story about love, friendship, patriotism and...

Being able to see ghosts and other supernatural spirits is a heavy responsibility. Prince Lee Rin (J...

Eun Yong, a money business titan and an affluent financial capitalist, has been living a life of a r...

After ten years of knowledge and choice, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, L...

Healer Qu Zhen and Prince Rong Jinsheng join forces to combat a deadly poison spreading through Dash...

After her family is massacred, General’s daughter Xu Chuyun enters the capital to uncover the truth....