A lot has happened since the second season of "Dips" aired on SVT in 2020. It started as a "The Office"-inspired workplace comedy about some odd characters at the Foreign Ministry, but now the series' creators have been forced to engage with the outside world - because of Donald Trump.
"When we started writing the script for the third season, we weren't in NATO yet. Trump hadn't been re-elected president, and it was thought unlikely that he would be," says Marie Agerhäll.
Her husband Jesper Rönndahl breaks in with a laugh.
You could say that there was a lot of peace and joy.
“Impossible fantasy scenarios”
Married couple Agerhäll and Rönndahl not only play the lead roles as the hopeless Foreign Ministry officials Mimmi and Jens, but also write and direct the series. Trump's rise in world politics made that necessary.
While we were writing the scripts, things started happening all the time. So we had to rewrite... I don't know how many TV series we've written during this time, because what we thought were improbable fantasy scenarios were suddenly just plausible, says Marie Agerhäll.
"Dips" quickly became a cult series when the first season aired in 2018 and has gained an ever-growing audience thanks to its long run on SVT Play. The budget for the third season is also larger and several scenes have been filmed outside the studio.
Among other things, part of the plot is set in Italy, and in one episode, Marie Agerhäll's character Jas flies a Gripen when the Swedish Foreign Ministry tries to sell the fighter jet abroad.
“Terribly awful”
Letting the outside world pass by unnoticed in "Dips" was not an option for Marie Agerhäll and Jesper Rönndahl.
"It's impossible to make a series about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs without relating to the extremely difficult situation we're in now. Everything that is happening around us is so terribly awful, and you can show how twisted things are by joking about it," says Marie Agerhäll.
Donald Trump has been devastating for satirists. Reality constantly surpasses poetry, believes Jesper Rönndahl.
Like when he posts a picture of himself as Jesus and later says he thought it was a doctor. You can't make that up, he says, laughing.
"Dips" premieres on SVT Play on April 24th and comes to SVT1 on May 17th.
The married couple has two children and lives in southern Stockholm. Both have won "På spåret" on SVT twice, although with different partners.
Marie Agerhäll is a trained journalist and has worked behind the scenes with programs such as "Ask Lund" and "Babel". Jesper Rönndahl had his breakthrough on P3 and as a stand-up comedian. In 2018, he became the host of "Svenska nyheter" and five years later he hosted the Melodifestivalen with Farah Abadi.
