It took almost 50 years.
But now the radio and book classic "Tordyveln flyger i skymningen" is becoming a TV series.
It's very long days, but it's still the most fun I've had, says 12-year-old Einar Alvarado Lönberg.
Skepplanda church, in Ale north of Gothenburg, has for the day become the church in Ringaryd, the fictional small town in Småland where "Tordyveln flyger i skymningen" takes place.
The clothes are typical of 1976. The cars too.
Einar Alvarado Lönberg has to get out of the family's Volvo Duett again and again to chase after a mysterious northerner in a blue Peugeot.
In the spring, he, like his co-stars Moa Nåsander and Hjalmar Löfmark Yilmaz, had to finish school early to work as actors for a few months instead.
When they called my mom and asked me to audition for this series, I was quite shocked. I hadn't worked with film much before, so I never thought I'd get the role, he says.
A curse?
Maria Gripe and Kay Pollak's story, which first came as a radio serial in 1976, had a big impact both in Sweden and Norway.
Siblings Annika and Jonas and their friend David are drawn into the hunt for a 3,000-year-old Egyptian statue that has been hidden in Ringaryd for several hundred years.
A curse hangs over the statue – and maybe over the story too, jokes director Atle Knudsen. It has, after all, taken almost 50 years before it was filmed.
Many have tried. I don't know why it didn't work out. But now we're underway, so I'm glad, he says.
I hope we tell the story so that you recognize it.
The cast list includes names like Tomas von Brömssen, Lena Endre, and Dag Malmberg.
Plus, Pernilla August plays a newly written role as the children's grandmother Irma.
It's a fun character. But it's the kids' series, we support the kids. It's nice and that's how it should be. I like it, she says.
"Like a fever dream"
Extras are moving around everywhere around Skepplanda church, where a crypt is to be opened in the search for the mysterious statue.
There are many takes in the heat before the team is satisfied and moves on to the next scene.
It's very intense. When you look back, it will probably feel like a fever dream. You work so much and do so much during an intense period, and then suddenly it's all over, says Moa Nåsander.
I'm going to miss it a lot, I've already cried three times because it's coming to an end.
The series will be broadcast on SVT, TV2 Norway, and Danish DR next summer.
In 1976, "Tordyveln flyger i skymningen" was broadcast as a summer radio serial on Sveriges Radio. It was written by Maria Gripe in collaboration with Kay Pollak.
In 1978, Maria Gripe's book with the same title was published.
In 1979, it was recorded as a radio play in Norway by NRK. The series has been voted the best radio play of all time in Norway.
