Then Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin is the main character in "Whiskey on the rocks" about when a Soviet submarine suddenly was discovered on a reef far into Swedish waters near Karlskrona in 1981.
It is a major political drama that has been given a satirical twist after an idea by author Jonas Jonasson.
The fun thing is not the violation, but the fun thing is what happens around it. How people handle it, explains Rolf Lassgård.
Parnevik's Fälldin
He met Thorbjörn Fälldin once in connection with a theater performance in Iggesund in the 1980s and really enjoyed playing the man who was Sweden's Prime Minister in two rounds between 1976 and 1982.
I've really liked playing him, says Lassgård and smiles.
The memory of Fälldin in many is marked by comedian Bosse Parnevik's imitations of a man who seemed awkward and was bad at English. Lassgård is pleased to show a different image, one that is more down-to-earth and even cunning.
I don't feel I have a mission to restore him, but I'm still damn glad it was him who was at the helm during those days. I would have been more worried today.
The submarine incident in Karlskrona was one of the worst incidents for Sweden during the Cold War. Is it possible to joke about such serious things?
"A lot of flak"
Director Björn Stein tells that he has encountered reactions from, among others, a military man who was involved in a crucial moment during the submarine crisis and whom the TV makers contacted during the script work. He expects more negative reactions.
And I respect that. We're trying to portray with respect, but also with satire's eye on the situation. We'll get a lot of flak for this. But we're making it pretty clear that a lot of it is made up, he says.
The project was started five years ago, but Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 gave pause for thought. After the invasion, the series creators also went through the script to see if they needed to change anything.
We didn't want to bow to the fact that it was that way, but on the other hand, we were forced to calibrate the tone a bit, explains screenwriter Henrik Jansson-Schweizer.
"Whiskey on the rocks" premieres on SVT on Christmas Day.
The submarine U 137 (Whiskey class, according to NATO's designation) ran aground in the Karlskrona archipelago on the night of October 28, 1981, right in the middle of the Cold War. The Soviet Union claimed that there was a malfunction in the navigation equipment, but this was dismissed by several Swedish investigations. Sweden refused to let the Soviets retrieve the vessel and protested when it became clear that the submarine had nuclear weapons on board. Just over a week later, Sweden towed the submarine out to international waters.
Sweden's Prime Minister from 1976 to 1978 and 1979 to 1982, as well as party leader for the Center Party between 1971 and 1985. Originally a farmer. Led the bourgeois parties to electoral victory in 1976, but fell on the nuclear power issue and resigned in 1978. Returned as Prime Minister after the 1979 election.
