SVT preps 90s music period drama

Swedish pubcaster SVT has ordered a new drama miniseries, Viva Hate, which is set in the early 1990s Gothenburg music scene.

The 3x60mins series will premiere at the end of next year, with casting already underway.

It will follow a nihilistic but ambitious young musician that believes only in the lyrics of Morrissey and his band, which lends its name to the show’s title.

Scribe Peter Birro is behind the screenplay and Norway’s Jens Lien is directing.

The show is a coproduction between SVT, Anagram and Film i Väst and will feature music from Morrissey’s band The Smiths, plus The Cure and The Cult.

“Although Viva Hate is set in the early 1990s, this is one of the most modern texts I’ve read in a long time. The mixture of great humor, romance and loveable characters, makes me think this is exactly the right time [for it],” said Martin Persson, executive producer at Anagram, which is behind numerous Swedish film and TV series.

SVT drama is riding high at the moment, with the BBC recently acquiring another period drama, the award-winning Torka Aldrig Tårar Utan Handskar (Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves) from SVT’s restructured sales and acquisitions division SVT International.

The pubcaster this week also unveiled No Worse than Others, a ten-part drama series themed around a filmmaker and a shy deaf teenager. It will be subtitled for both the hearing and the deaf and is billed as the first such series of its kind.