here was a nice Facebook post in early April by the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. In it, she is doing the washing up while singing along to a hit by the 80s Danish popsters Dodo and the Dodos during her country’s weekly TV lockdown singalong. Frederiksen is having a good crisis – not just the kitchen karaoke, but in acting quickly and clearly to shut down the country, limiting deaths, at the time of writing, to 443. Compare that with neighbouring Sweden, which has taken a less stringent approach and where there have been 2,462 deaths. There are obviously loads of factors involved, but could it have something to do with the fact that Frederiksen is a woman? Denmark does a good female prime minister – or statsminister, as you will know if you have watched Borgen. Birgitte Nyborg, the character at the centre of the political drama, is said to be influenced not by Frederiksen, but by the only other woman to lead the country, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Still, that Facebook post was very Borgen. (Borgen, which means castle, is what the Danes call their parliament.) The news that Netflix has bought the rights to the series – and will reunite the cast and crew, along with Adam Price, the show’s creator, to make a fourth season – should provide some much-needed cheer. You could argue it was an unlikely hit. When it came to Britain in 2012, we already knew, thanks to Forbrydelsen (The Killing), that DR, the Danish national broadcaster, did gripping character-based drama. But that show had mysterious murder at its heart, plus an enigmatic and undeniably hot cop who wore appealing knitwear. Political nitty-gritty, though, in a little country more famous for pastries and Lego? It is hard enough to get excited about our own politics, never mind others’ that require subtitles. Borgen is more than intricate political drama, though: it is intimate drama, politics made human. It is about democracy and people: relationships between people, the relationship between work and home (especially interesting at the moment). It is about journalism, women, values, having children, not having children. It is about you and me. Nyborg (played by Sidse Babett Knudsen) is a fabulous character: strong, ambitious, confident, but also genuine and honest. She has a three-dimensional home life, a hot husband and she rides a bicycle – of course. A lot of real people could learn a lesson from Nyborg and Borgen. Politicians – I am looking at you, the cabinet – could learn that ambition and power don’t preclude honesty and ideology. Spin doctors (spindoktorer), press officers, political editors and journalists might learn something about how to get more people to engage with and trust in politics. When Borgen aired in the UK, the Tory/Lib Dem coalition was in power; I remember caring more for and about Nyborg – and Katrine the TV news reporter and Kasper the spin doctor – than I did for David Cameron, Nick bloody Clegg and Steve frigging Hilton. The new series won’t be around until 2022 (boo), but Netflix is going to put up the existing episodes some time this year. Soon, let’s hope – it is ideal lockdown fare. If you haven’t seen it, you need to get involved; if you have, you will almost certainly want to again. You will find the cast infinitely more palatable than Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Matt Hancock and Dominics Raab and Cummings. You would definitely want Nyborg at the helm right now. Or Frederiksen, or Thorning-Schmidt (who is married to Stephen Kinnock, of course, although that is by the by). I would take any Danish woman, frankly. Denmark is clearly a better place to be: because you are less likely to die there at the moment; because singing 80s pop songs together sounds like (even) more fun than collectively clapping and banging saucepans; because Borgen.