People to Meet: Piv Bernth, DR

Piv Bernth is senior producer at DR Fiktion, the drama arm of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation

Forbrydelsen (The Killing) was one of the most successful international drama series of the last few years.

The crime series, which was produced by Danish public broadcaster DR in association with German producer and distributor ZDF Enterprises, was remade by Hollywood studio Fox for US cable-network-of-the-moment AMC and also sold to the BBC.

The women responsible for shepherding the Danish original into production and executive producing the US version Piv Bernth is coming to Cannes to talk about the show’s success  – while undoubtedly looking out for her next hit.

She will be taking part in a conference session titled Towards The Next Generation of Must-See TV, moderated by Television Business International deputy editor Peter White, alongside Sue Deeks, head of programme acquisitions at the BBC, which bought the series. 

Bernth, who has been working at DR since 1998 following an early career in musical theatre, has produced three seasons of the crime drama, the third season will launch next year, but doesn’t expect to produce any further series.

AMC’s adaptation and the BBC’s subsequent acqusition gave the show a new breath of life but Bernth, who has also produced series including Nickolaj og Julie and TV movie Torben Toben, is also ready to move on at MIPCOM.

“We have a lot of people calling and some international attention and we are going to try and make the most of it,” she says.