"Atlantic Crossing" TV-Series for the Crown Princess Martha of Norway


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I'm tempted to get a Netflix subscription just for this one but I'm not sure I'd really be able to see it. The content differs by countries, right?
 
Moran said:
I'm tempted to get a Netflix subscription just for this one but I'm not sure I'd really be able to see it. The content differs by countries, right?
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It isn't on Netflix; it's only on PBS in the US and I'm not sure what it aired on in Norway. PM me for more details.
 
Moran said:
I'm tempted to get a Netflix subscription just for this one but I'm not sure I'd really be able to see it. The content differs by countries, right?
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to be quiet honest, it's getting boring
 
Thank you, Prinsara and Queen Ester!


That's the problem with TV series, I think. Unless they can be contained in just a few episodes, boredom is guaranteed!
 
Possibly it's different if you can watch whatever parts on your own schedule versus one a week, but it is a very slow-paced historical drama with an emphasis on psychology rather than action scenes.

And perhaps the "long, slow, boring" feel is meant to mimic how endless the war felt.
 
Sandy345 said:
Thanks to all who sent info about possible book. Maybe someday there will be a book.
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No books about Märtha, but there is one about Missy, whom I think the series does a bit of a disservice by reducing her to the bitter jealous secretary. In fact she's now acknowledged as the first (and only female) White House Chief of Staff, having basically created the position. She has her own biography, called "The Gatekeeper", by Kathryn Smith.

https://fdr.blogs.archives.gov/2016/10/04/marguerite-missy-lehand-fdrs-right-hand-woman/
 
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It's a disappointing series, not particularly well-written and somewhat cliched.
 
vittoria said:
It's a disappointing series, not particularly well-written and somewhat cliched.
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The series was a Norwegian production obviously requiring subtitles in English. Co-produced by the Norwegian independent production company Cinenord, Norway’s public broadcaster NRK and the US Public Broadcasting Service PBS. My husband had a problem with inaccuracies regarding the Lend Lease Act and felt the FDR relationship with CP Martha was a bit over the top. I reminded him this was an historical drama;)
 
The real Märtha (and Ragnhild, Astrid, Harald) arriving in the US.
 
For those of us in Australia this will be available via SBS on demand from May 6th
 
"Atlantic Crossing" TV-Series for the Crown Princess Martha of Norway

Having watched the first three episodes on NRKtv via vpn in London, I I was quite prepared for artistic license in regard to the accuracy of this historical drama. Gladly I am sold by its entertainment value, period detail and lavish production output. It’s comparison with ‘The Crown’ is well founded but the portrayal of characters for BRF in this series aren’t so flattering. Lovely location filming but I understand some of it was shot in the Czech Republic. Looking forward to episode 4!
 
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It's a lot like a Soap opera with the scenes between Martha and FDR. It also was sort of a rehash of Hyde Park on the Hudson film which focused a lot of Missy LeHand and her alleged jealousy. In this week's in the US episode Eleanor Roosevelt talks about her relationship with her husband to Olav. Something the real ER would not do. She and FDR did not tell the world about the state of the marriage, a lot came out after Eleanor died.
 
Nobody knows the state of Olav and Märtha's marriage during the war, so nobody knows the impact her relationship with FDR (whatever that was...) had. It is known that Olav apparently did some work for the CIA's predecessor agency, which I was really hoping the show would get into, but I suppose not enough is known about that.

Obviously ER and her husband did not announce the state of their own marriage to "the world", but it was obvious to anybody who spent time with either of them that they had a political partnership and were leading separate personal lives. It's not likely Eleanor would have discussed it with Olav, but it's not impossible she might have had a private conversation with him, or with other people for that matter.
 
ER tolerated Missy Le Hand. But she felt betrayed when she found out her husband was still seeing Lucy Mercer. And found out Mercer was with him during the last minutes of his life. ER did not even know that Anna Roosevelt, their daughter, at her father's behest invited Mercer to dinners with FDR at the White House in ER's absence.
 
Another WaPo article; this one about the Secret Service who really did protect Märtha and family. https://archive.ph/TwASW
“After the war Prince Harald did not want to go back to Norway. I saw him the day before he sailed, and he said sadly, ‘I like all the boys here, Chief Wilson, and we have a lot of fun. I don’t know any boys over there.’”
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Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's acclaimed "No Ordinary Time" recounts the Roosevelt presidency during WII. CP Martha and her young children lived at the White House for a time. There is a photo of either Princess Ragnhild or Princess Astrid playing on the South Lawn with Fala, FDR's Scottish terrier.

There is also an anecdote about FDR scolding Prince Harald for being disrespectful to his mother.
 
Moonmaiden23 said:
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's acclaimed "No Ordinary Time" recounts the Roosevelt presidency during WII. CP Martha and her young children lived at the White House for a time. There is a photo of either Princess Ragnhild or Princess Astrid playing on the South Lawn with Fala, FDR's Scottish terrier.

There is also an anecdote about FDR scolding Prince Harald for being disrespectful to his mother.
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The famous picture with the famous Fala is Harald, I think, unless there's another picture with one of the girls.
 
:previous: You could be correct. It's been a while since I have seen the photo.

As for CP Martha, I doubt there was an actual love affair with FDR but they were certainly close, she adored him. She was present in the East Room for his funeral in April 1945, and her sobs were "audible" in contrast to his stoic widow Eleanor.
 
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You can love someone and be very close to them and still not have it be an actual affair, though Märtha and FDR might have gone into romantic friendship/emotional affair territory. I think Atlantic Crossing tries to make the now accepted point (although it muddles it slightly) that regardless, Märtha wasn't just another "girlfriend" of FDR's during the war — the work she did for Norway was more important. And very important.

Fala and Harald — https://i.stack.imgur.com/4EnnB.jpg
 
FDR seems to have been in "romantic friendship" territory with a lot of women....
 
:previous: Yes indeed. Being wheelchair bound without the use of his legs for half of his adult life seems not to have hindered him much, if at all.

Women fell for him in a big way.:cool:
 
Denville said:
FDR seems to have been in "romantic friendship" territory with a lot of women....
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Because he needed the constant adoration his mother had always given him (which the show doesn't make clear) and which Eleanor was not temperamentally suited or inclined to do, ever (which the show makes perfectly clear). Although it was a love match. (And she saved his life while he was ill.)

He certainly had an affair with Lucy Mercer and largely destroyed his marriage, but the rest of his relationships — Missy, Daisy Suckley, Märtha, even his later relationship with Lucy — are just not that clear.

(To paraphrase Christopher Reeve, "that part of you doesn’t get paralyzed" [even though he was paralyzed in a different way] — I would still bet that post-paralysis FDR's harem was far more about emotional need.)
 
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yes, but the point being that his marriage wasn't very good.. and Eleanor was hurt and angry about his neglect at times.. AND he didn't just have one affair, whether romantic or physical but he had a harem of women who were all doting on him and fulfilling his romantic/emotional needs.
 
Denville said:
yes, but the point being that his marriage wasn't very good.. and Eleanor was hurt and angry about his neglect at times.. AND he didn't just have one affair, whether romantic or physical but he had a harem of women who were all doting on him and fulfilling his romantic/emotional needs.
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Yes, and like Churchill drinking, that seems to be what he needed to save the free world.

So perhaps we're lucky Märtha showed up when she did.
 
:previous: Excellent Prinsara. I agree 100%.

There is a book by Roosevelt historian Geoffrey Ward called "Closest Companion" detailing FDR's intense friendship with his cousin Daisy Suckely. She was apparently in love with him, he was devoted but less clear.

His beloved Fala was a gift from Daisy.

I am currently reading historian Jon Meacham's "Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait Of An Epic Friendship" which examines the storied Churchill/ Roosevelt relationship in great detail. Churchill loved and admired FDR in a way that was almost needy. FDR was fond of "Winnie" but was elusive and occasionally cold toward him.

FDR is a baffling complex personality. Friendly, personable, wildly charismatic with the ability to inspire almost slavish devotion in men, women, children and even animals.

Yet he could never be described as passionate or even genuinely warm toward the many people who loved him.:sad:
 
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No, Roosevelt was indeed a rather cold person. I think that his illness didn't help, he needed to be so tough to fight on with such problems.. and that didn't leave much for others. But I do wonder at times how he managed to be a busy President with all the "romantic affairs" he seemed to have....
 
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