On March 12, the popular criminology professor Leif GW Persson will turn 80 years old. But he has no plans to retire. On the contrary, GW will work until he dies, he says.
It would certainly accelerate the negative development if I didn't have anything to do.
On Wednesday, it's the premiere of "Veckan" on SVT with co-host Camilla Kvartoft, and despite Leif GW Persson having spent a lot of time in the hospital recently for treatment of a heart condition, he will manage to do another season.
Yes, I think so. It's not that remarkable. It takes one day for recording and then maybe a day for preparation. And I'll manage that. You have to have something to do, he says.
National Police Chief
At 80 years old, Leif GW Persson can look back on a successful life as a criminologist and author. But life could have turned out differently if the young expert at the National Police Board hadn't been fired after leaking information to the media, which led to the notorious Geijer affair in 1977.
How would life have turned out otherwise?
I would have become national police chief, governor, maybe even minister. And lived a life of luxury and drunk myself to death, of course, says GW and laughs.
But he became an author and crime expert instead. For 27 years, Leif GW Persson has been a legal expert on TV. It all started with Hasse Aro and "Efterlyst" on TV3 in 1998.
I actually miss "Efterlyst", back when we were catching people and putting them behind bars. We even solved some murder cases and stuff like that.
If I have a dream, it's probably to end up back there.
Sympathy for the Doctors
So you want to go back to "Efterlyst"?
It's not up to me. But if I were to express my wish, it wouldn't be wrong to catch some criminals. Sometimes it's obvious how it is and the police still miss it. And then "Efterlyst" is perfect.
Now GW takes it one half-year at a time on TV. He also wants to finish writing a novel. Last year, he quit snuffing and has almost stopped drinking altogether.
During the pandemic, it got so chaotic, so I simply started drinking less. So I can probably say that I hardly drink at all today. And it's simply because I don't feel like it.
But he feels sorry for his doctors.
It's no fun having me as a patient. I'm world-famous in Sweden. To be a doctor to someone like me and I die... – and the newspapers call and ask: "What the hell! This wasn't that hard to deal with, what do you have to say in your defense?". I actually feel sorry for them, he says and laughs.
Name: Leif Gustav Willy Persson.
Age: Turning 80 years old on March 12.
Family: Wife, six children, and 13 grandchildren.
Residence: Apartment in Solna and a farm in Sörmland.
Career: Criminologist who became a professor in 1991 and has written 13 novels, two autobiographies, and four men's books since his breakthrough with "Grisfesten" in 1978, filmed as "Mannen från Mallorca" in 1983. Has also written scripts for several TV series about police officer Anna Holt.
TV: Legal expert on TV, in "Efterlyst" (1998–2010), "Veckans brott" (2010–2018), various programs on TV4 (2018–2024), and since last autumn on SVT's "Veckan" program.
New book in progress: "It's just a regular crime novel I'm working on. The idea is to finish it sometime this summer."
