"Atlantic Crossing" TV-Series for the Crown Princess Martha of Norway


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Perhaps it was easier for him to be with Märtha because he knew she was married and in a sense did not expect quite so much of him? (In contrast to the very needy Missy, Daisy, and Winnie. And high-minded, demanding Eleanor.)

He says it in the show: "You're the only one who doesn't want something from me." Which of course she does, but it doesn't seem to put him off much.

I think Franklin was quite needy himself, but spoiled only child that he was, he wasn't terribly sure how to deal with other people's (emotional) needs on a very personal level. Fortunately at a civic and international level he did splendidly.
 
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No, Roosevelt was indeed a rather cold person. I think that his illness didn't help, he needed to be so tough to fight on with such problems.. and that didn't leave much for others. But I do wonder at times how he managed to be a busy President with all the "romantic affairs" he seemed to have....

Yes... he was indeed a cold fish, a spoiled mama's boy...and one of the three greatest U.S presidents. I thank God we had him.;)
 
For those of us in Australia this will be available via SBS on demand from May 6th

I'm not sure where I can watch it as its not on Amazon Prime or any of my other subscriptions.
 
It actually makes me wonder a bit. Aside from FDR offering and Haakon, Olav, and of course Märtha being grateful, is there some reason she didn't go to Canada like Juliana and her children? The whole story would have been quite different.
 
Did Canada have any extra ships?

They could have reached the US and gone to Canada by land. Some of Norway's gold reserve was there. But perhaps housing one set of refugee royals was stress and expense enough for a country already at war? Although Britain managed.
 
Roosevelt's relationship with Daisy was the subject of the Film Hyde Park on Hudson, starring Bill Murray and Laura Linney. It also featured King George VI and Queen Elizabeth's visit to Hyde Park.
 
Haakon went to Canada several times because Canada became the main location to train Norwegian soldiers especially to train them to fly. They Initially went to Toronto and then a base in northern Ontario and even to Saskatchewan. Look up Little Norway Canada and you will see the interesting history.
 
They could have reached the US and gone to Canada by land. Some of Norway's gold reserve was there. But perhaps housing one set of refugee royals was stress and expense enough for a country already at war? Although Britain managed.


I meant that perhaps Canada had no ships to give Martha. If she was going to get a ship from FDR, she had to be in the US.
 
I meant that perhaps Canada had no ships to give Martha. If she was going to get a ship from FDR, she had to be in the US.

A Canadian ship trying to cross the Atlantic would have been attacked as a enemy by U-boats aiming to sink it, so they definitely had none to spare. Yet somehow, Juliana and her girls got to Canada. If she were going to Canada, Märtha would have had to find similar alternate means. Like a neutral ship.
 
Thank you Prinsara for sharing this very good review of "Atlantic Crossing" by Norway Pål, Pål Bjarne Johansen. I like that he comes from the perspective of a Norwegian, sharing background history and opinion on whether certain episodes of the series are based on fact or fiction. Pål also offers several additional sources of fact check at the bottom of his YouTube page.

I also enjoyed the PBS Masterpiece Q&A session with cast and crew, including stars Kyle MacLachlan and Sofia Helin and the creator, writer, director and producer Alexander Eik. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/clips/atlantic-crossing-qa-with-the-cast-and-crew/
 
Good evenhanded series analysis (imho).

Very nice analysis. I would agree with him...an enjoyable series to watch...well made, enjoyable acting... but not to rely upon as factual history:) I loved that they kept the Norwegian dialogue in for English audiences...much better than having them speak English with accents.
 
On the other hand Skaugum did catch on fire and had to be rebuilt to its current state, exactly as Märtha said. While that might not have inspired Lend-Lease, it was quite clever of the writers, and I'm a little disappointed it wasn't also pointed out by reviewers along with the artistic license.

I think an entirely English production of Norwegian history would not have gone over very well in Norway. ;)
 
An article written about Atlantic Crossing during its run in Norway:

https://www.newsinenglish.no/2020/11/23/storm-rages-over-atlantic-crossing/

Now, just over halfway through its eight episodes, audiences have grown substantially, with more than 900,000 tuning in last week. The rising interest is pegged to the sudden media glare over the series, amidst charges that it’s full of factual errors allowed by producers who took too much artistic license.
[...]
Among the harshest critics are historians and authors who’ve written books about World War II and how Norway’s royal family fled the country shortly after Nazi Germany invaded on April 9, 1940.
[...]
Recent headlines have been merciless: ‘Atlantic Crossing’ puts NRK’s credibility in play, claimed one in newspaper Aftenposten over the weekend. False story-telling disguised as drama read another, while a commentary written by history professor Tom Kristiansen and royal biographer Tore Rem was headlined: NRK gives viewers a fundamentally untrue story.
[...]
At the core of all the fuss is Crown Princess Märtha’s actual role in the war, her close relationship with Roosevelt and whether she actually “changed the course of the war,” as suggested in the series’ own promotion. The debate seemed to reach a climax after last week’s episode, when Norway’s crown princess (a Swedish princess before she married her Norwegian cousin Crown Prince Olav in 1929) was all but given credit for Roosevelt’s famous “Lend-Lease Act,” approved by Congress by March 1941 and aimed at providing arms for Britain to fight off Nazi Germany. It was her personal appeals for help for her country, the series suggests, that convinced Roosevelt to stretch the limits of US neutrality at the time and lend defense supplies to Great Britain, not Winston Churchill’s.
The criticism rages on, from more banal arguments over whether the crown princess’ car really tore down a security boom at the Swedish border when she was fleeing Norway with her children in the backseat, to whether she really opened her new temporary home in suburban Maryland (that Roosevelt helped her find) to traumatized Norwegian merchant marines from vessels torpedoed in the Atlantic. That last part is true.
[...]
Eik and Kallestein have been busy defending their work over the past few weeks since the series began. They stress that it’s not a documentary but rather a “dramatization” of history,” with a good deal of “fiction” interspersed. Every episode of Atlantic Crossing starts with a written claim that it’s “inspired by true events,” and NRK is even publishing accounts on its website after every episode about what was fact and what was fiction. This week’s accounting of 10 scenes in Episode 5 admits that half were fact while the other half weren’t.
 
Princess Astrid was a source for the creators!

....Now why hasn't anyone asked her what she thought of the finished product?
 
I began to see yesterday the serie on the portuguese tv rtp2.
 
I would so love to watch this series, but no chance here :(
 
Hasn't it been released for digital purchase in Europe yet?
 
On Portugal was released yesterday on rtp2. Today is episode 2
 
I may have an idea for people who want to watch if you PM me.
 
This has just started on the Drama channel, for anyone in the UK who'd like to see it.
 
caught a bit of it the other night, Martha being told by Roosevelts's mistress that she might not become queen of Norway
 
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