"'There's a lot of talk about Scandinavia at the moment." "'Their food is setting the gastronomic world on fire.'" "It goes back in the fire." "That's insane." "'Nordic noir dramas have us glued to our screens." "'And Sweden, Norway 'and Denmark are officially three of the happiest countries in the world." "'I want to find out why.'" "I can smell it." "I can smell it from here." "'Is it their connection to nature?" "'And their breathtaking landscapes?" "'" "Brrr!" "How are you?" "Good morning." "'Their spirit of cooperation.'" "It's about trust." "That we actually do trust each other." "'And does the famed dark side of Scandinavia really exist?" "'To crack the Norse code, I'm about to immerse myself 'in Scandimania.'" "The first country I'm visiting is Sweden - the place that pretty much defines our ideas about Scandinavia." "They're all blonde for a start." "They love eating pickled herrings and meatballs." "And they produced one of the best-loved pop groups of all time." "CAR RADIO STARTS" "# If I had a little money... #" "I'm keen to discover the truth behind this Nordic cliche and to do that," "I'll be wrestling with some of the puzzling contradictions of modern Sweden." "A small country with a deep passion for nature and outdoor living." "Just incredibly civilised." "A population of just ten million people whose culture of industrial innovation has produced some of the world's most successful brands." "A nation whose model of equality and prosperity has been the envy of the world, yet whose capital recently experienced the most violent unrest in living memory." "My journey begins in Stockholm, a city long renowned for its historic architecture and waterways." "But not much celebrated for its food." "Until recently." "Now, it's fast becoming a hot bed for so-called New-Nordic cuisine." "It's a gastronomic revolution that's sweeping away the old" "Scandinavian images of meatballs, pickled fish and smorgasbord, in favour of stunning, inventive plates based on seasonal produce" "and foraged ingredients." "It's one of the reasons I'm so excited to be here." "And my first culinary stop off is a restaurant in central Stockholm that's right at the top of my hit list." "Not least, because they cook everything on a wood fire." "I'm meeting the eponymous owner, Niklas Ekstedt." "Why did you decide to do everything with wood?" "Well, it's just comparing it to sailing, you know." "Why go sailing when you have a motor?" "It's just like I wanted to do this." "Because it's more beautiful and exciting." "Exactly." "Also it's something with the fire and human beings, you know." "It goes way back." "It goes a long, long time, you know." "So, you... just, let's be clear about this." "You've got no induction hobs here?" "No." "No gas rings?" "No." "Nothing - it's a blowtorch." "OK, we have a..." "You have a blowtorch." "Do you use that to put the sugar on the creme brulee?" "We don't have creme brulee." "It's not a French restaurant." "Niklas based his cast-iron fire pit on 300-year-old Swedish designs." "He's also got a wood-fired oven and a three-chimney hot and cold smoker." "And I want to play with them all." "The guys here, they do it without the glove when they put the scallop in but I don't know if you're a man or a mouse!" "What can I say?" "Perfect." "Ah!" "This is going well." "I'm thinking about turning those scallops already, what do you think?" "Yeah." "By hand again, it'll be harder than putting them on." "No, no!" "Whoo hoo!" "Well done, chef." "I now have no hairs on the back of my fingers." "That was intense." "So, do any of you have hairs still on the back of your arms?" "No." "So, what do we do with the hay?" "Put that in the scallop shells." "Is that OK?" "Yeah, that's great." "And then put the scallop in the hay." "Scallops in hay." "Yeah." "That's buried under a mound of hay, there's a whole haystack." "Overdone it..." "OK, half." "That comes out of the fire and put it onto the hay." "That's going to set fire to the hay?" "Lift it up, lift it up." "That's just to set fire to the hay?" "That's insane." "It goes back in the fire." "Yep." "That's insane!" "What are you doing?" "Take the scallops out of the fire." "OK." "There you go, perfectly cooked scallops." "The scallops are served with smoked mussels, griddled squid and a chard leek puree." "You get this out on the table..." "wait, chef!" "I find it hard to wait." "I'll wait, I'll wait." "You get this out on the table and it's just ashes, you know." "A scallop shell full of ashes." "Think the chef's mad." "Yeah." "Which, incidentally, he is." "Ooh." "That just looks beautiful." "Doesn't it?" "Like buried treasure." "So, we'll start with a little taste of that." "With a little bit of that." "With a little bit of leek puree." "And one of the mussels." "Maybe a mussel in the same mouthful?" "It's absolutely lovely." "I've never eaten anything quite like it before." "I just haven't." "I haven't had a plate of food that looked like that, smelt like that or tasted like that." "That's wonderful." "And now I get to have dinner in what is literally the hottest table in Stockholm." "I think it's impossible not to get fired up by the wood, the flames, the flavour of smoke - it gives the whole place a really, really special feeling." "Even though we're in the middle of Stockholm, in what is a fancy and, frankly, very expensive restaurant," "I feel genuinely connected to nature by this food." "The rise of Nordic cooking is a new phenomenon." "But it's not the first time that Scandinavia has grabbed a big slice of the international cultural limelight." "Back in the 70's, it was Swedish music that did it." "Like many British teenagers," "I was captivated by four young Swedes who took the world by storm." "MUSIC: "Dancing Queen" by ABBA" "So, naturally, I'm jumping at the chance to finally catch up with them." "The ABBA museum is a glitter ball shrine to the band that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 and went on to become the biggest pop band of all time, selling nearly 400 million records." "And now I get to pay them my own special tribute." "# I work all night I work all day" "# To pay the bills I have to pay" "# Ain't it sad... #" "'Since opening in May 2013, this museum has allowed 'hundreds of thousands of ABBA fans like me to sing out of tune...'" "# In my..." "In my... #" "'..dance like idiots...'" "# It's a rich man's world... #" "'..and immerse themselves completely in sheer ABBA heaven.'" "# It's a rich man's world. #" "Well, I think I absolutely murdered that." "It will go down in history." "I guess I just revealed myself as a closet ABBA fan." "Not even a closet ABBA fan, actually." "As ersatz interactive pop experiences go, that was fantastic." "In fact, about the only thing I can think of to top it would be the real thing." "'And now I get to meet the man who's probably caused more people 'to hum, whistle and sing along than anyone else on the planet.'" "And I remember waiting for Money, Money, Money to come on the radio and as soon as it did I pressed play and it was the first song on my first ever compilation tape." "'Bjorn Ulvaeus has often been hailed as the creative genius behind ABBA." "'Despite his global fame and fortune, 'he still lives in Stockholm.'" "Those words just came into my head." "Money, Money, Money." "It sounded so good, and then I wrote a story around that." "When ABBA emerged quite rapidly onto the international scene, what do you think Swedes thought?" "Because Swedes are quite a modest, self-contained bunch on the whole." "Nothing like that had happened ever before." "We were assuming that nothing out of this country could make it outside, and then, here and there, other stuff, yes, cars and stuff, but not music." "We opened a door, because after that, of course, we've had an extraordinary success in exporting music to the rest of the world." "We, per capita, probably export more music than any other country." "'ABBA's unprecedented international success broke with an ancient" "'Swedish tradition of modesty 'and restraint." "Something for which they have a special word here.'" "What does "lagom" mean?" ""Lagom", yes, and there's no equivalent word, is there, in English?" "Just enough." "People say just enough, not too much." "Not too much." "Just enough." "Did ABBA break the sort of Swedish cultural tradition of lagom by being excessive?" "Certainly." "Really excessive, you know." "They say it's 380 million records sold, which is excessive, isn't it?" "That is excessive, yes." "I think Bjorn neatly represents two sides of the Swedish character." "Hugely successful, but also very modest." "If you told my nine-year-old self as I was recording ABBA tracks off the radio on to my tinny little tape recorder, that nearly 40 years later I'd be sitting in a garden chatting with Bjorn, the genius behind ABBA," "well, I certainly wouldn't have believed you and probably the only thing more thrilling I could have thought of would have been sitting in a garden with Freda and Agnetha, but I guess you can't have it all." "With my ABBA fixation truly sated, it's time to move on to another aspect of Sweden that I've been longing to explore." "Its natural beauty and wild spaces." "So I'm heading north, deep into the woods, to take part in one of Sweden's favourite outdoor pursuits - elk hunting." "I'm flying north to a region that is dominated by national parks and woodland." "My destination is Umea, the hunting heartland of Sweden." "Hunting is massively popular in Sweden." "There are twice as many licensed hunters per head of population than in the UK." "And five Swedish magazines devoted to the sport." "Little bit of research reading for the next leg of my trip." "My goodness." "The big prize for Swedish hunters is the elk." "I've shot deer before in England and in Scotland, and it's done in a very particular way." "It's a solitary pursuit, or you do it with a guide, with a single expert, who ensures that you get a safe shot." "Here it's much more of a group thing." "Everyone seems to wear this bright gear, the opposite of trying not to be seen, which is normal for hunting." "Look, I think that's a safety thing, I think that's so you can be seen by other hunters and don't get shot." "All sounds a bit strange." "Hunting cultures differ all over the world, but provided there's an emphasis on a clean kill and making the best use of the quarry animal as food, then I'm broadly in favour of it." "I've been invited to join a group of local elk hunters." "And my guide and companion is the principal of a local school," "Elinor Hareskog." "Hi, Elinor." "Willkommen." "This is nice, this is very nice." "So, this will decrease my chances of being shot?" "We see you in the woods." "Here is one of our dogs." "And his..." "Whoa!" "He's looking forward to his day." "He's called Fix." "'Fix is an elkhound, 'bred and trained to track down elk and guide them towards the hunters." "'He's got a GPS collar so we can track his location.'" "Whoa!" "He's..." "Show what he's jumping at." "Look!" "Not everybody hunts here, of course, but almost everybody enjoys the great outdoors." "All Swedes have a right to roam, called allemannsretten, which gives them access to both public and private land, provided they respect livestock and cause no damage." "And one thing that's even more popular than hunting elk at this time of year is gathering wild berries." "Fancy a snack?" "Thank you." "So, even if we don't get an elk, we've got something from the wild." "So this is our station here." "'The team of hunters divides up across the hunting ground, 'with each person holding a fixed position in the woods." "'Lighting a fire masks our scent as well as keeping us warm.'" "How far away is the next nearest gun?" "Maybe 300 metres." "Does that mean I can take my cap off?" "Yes, you can." "You're sure?" "So there is a lot of waiting." "Yeah." "'So much waiting in fact that Elinor hasn't actually shot 'an elk for two years.'" "BARKING" "There's a dog." "That is a dog barking, isn't it?" "SHE SPEAKS INTO RADIO" "That is where the dog is right now, that dog-shaped image?" "Absolutely." "So that's tracking the dog?" "That's tracking the dog." "It's saying its 873 metres away." "So, if he brings it round, it might still come this way." "Yes." "So the dog is quite close now, 125 metres, and getting closer." "If it's with an elk that means it could be coming in range quite soon." "It's getting close." "(We have to wait for it to come closer because it's out of our area.)" "'But the dog heads away from us.'" "Time for a coffee." "Because of this GPS, it feels like we've really been in the action and we haven't even seen anything." "Still it was really exciting." "Yes." "How important is hunting for you as a community?" "I think it is like playing football together, it's a team thing." "What is very important too is going out early in the morning..." "GUNSHOT" "Shot." "Two." "That's Pedar, I'm sure." "Wow." "'The next gun along has shot an elk, 'so we're heading over to his position.'" "DOG BARKS" "Hey." "Hi." "My goodness." "Congratulations." "'Pedar has killed a three-year-old male elk 'with two shots to the heart.'" "It's a two-year-old." "It's a two-year-old bull, is it?" "No, the dog, I think." "Oh, two-year-old dog!" "So, he's done good work this morning." "'The animal is gutted as quickly as possible to avoid 'contamination of the meat by the contents of the stomach.'" "Huge stomach." "DOG BARKS" "Eurgh!" "That's easily the biggest animal I've ever seen shot." "It's quite a dramatic sight, but it looks like it was a good clean kill." "It's been gutted very efficiently and from here on in it's all about the meat." "I must say I've got half an eye on the liver." "I think that might be worth cooking up for lunch." "'Hunting is strictly controlled, with each local group allocated 'a number of elk through each season." "'It's part of a nationwide cull to control the population'" "Here we go." "Yeah, it's good." "Fingers crossed." "'The meat's divided up between the hunters, who get the prime cuts 'on rotation, regardless of who shot the animal." "'Back at the group's hunting lodge I'm keen to get to work on lunch.'" "Standing here with my begging bowl, waiting for the liver." "Here it comes..." "Got it." "Oh, it's a really good size and not damaged by the shot at all." "If I cook this up for you, will you all try it?" "Try." "So, normally the liver doesn't feature much?" "No, we are sceptical because it's very harsh." "'I think a liver this fresh should be sweet and delicious." "'I'm just going to dust it in finely chopped sage and well-seasoned flour.'" "It's really lovely, this liver." "Really, really nice." "Still steaming." "Let's see how hot this is." "SIZZLING" "Whoa!" "Very hot." "What I'm just going to do is take, take a nice flat bread." "Put a few apples on it." "And then finish it with a few of these berries." "'The liver usually goes to the hunting dogs, 'so I'm curious to see what the hunters make of it.'" "Mm." "It's OK, yeah." "You know, you're asking me about something..." "There's an expression in English called damning with faint praise." "Oh." "Martin just told me he has been hunting for 62 years without tasting this." "Really?" "What does Martin think of it?" "I think if you had creme fraiche with this." "That would be very nice." "That's a very good idea." "A little bit more wet." "You could try it next time." "Yeah, thanks for that." "'Now it's my turn to experience a culinary first of an arguably 'even more extreme nature." "'It's a post-hunting tradition to crack open a tin of fermented herrings.'" "Surstromming, I've heard about this stuff." "You've heard about it?" "Yeah, this is fermented herring, isn't it?" "Sour fish." "It's supposed to be one of the smelliest foods in the world." "I think so." "Is that why we're outside?" "Yes." "OK." "Oh, my God!" "I can smell it." "I can smell it from here." "You can smell it?" "Yeah." "I can smell it." "I tell you what, it smells like a really pungent, chemical smell like sulphur, like bad eggs, like rotting fish, all to the power of a thousand." "It's just...it's disgusting." "He's rinsing them in the stream now, that can only help." "Who is going to show me the authentic way to eat this really filthy smelling herring?" "Three, two one..." "Raw onion." "Give me raw onion." "That's going to help." "OK, is he going to go on putting more fish on the sandwich?" "There." "Oh, my goodness." "Go for it." "I've never been so nervous about anything I'm about to eat." "It's salty, it's strong." "It tastes better than it smells." "It's gamey, it's quite high." "Not bad." "It's not bad." "Well done." "Thank you." "One of the reasons I like shooting and fishing is because it's about being outdoors with a very, very intense purpose." "That purpose is the killing of an animal, so it's obviously not to be taken lightly, and I was a little bit uncertain about the Swedish approach with these fluorescent caps and a big gang going out into the forest together" "to have something of a hunting party, but I did see it done well." "And if you've done it well, why shouldn't that be a cause for a get together and a celebration?" "Of course, you don't have to go elk hunting to enjoy the beauty of Sweden's endless forests." "The Swedes have found other, more relaxing ways to take in the scenery that don't involve specialist clothing." "For some, saunas and hot tubs are all about detoxing, but in Sweden it's traditional to enjoy a beer or two while you soak." "As far as being Swedish goes, I think this is an 11." "It's incredibly civilised." "Glorious." "Besides introducing us to the outdoor hot tub, Sweden has also produced the global brands that arguably define Scandinavian living." "Tomorrow, I'm heading to the land of flat-packed furniture and the world's most boring car." "'Paradoxically, perhaps, for a nation of nature lovers," "'Sweden is the great industrial innovator of Scandinavia." "'And Gothenburg is Sweden's industrial heartland, 'home to many of the brands that Sweden 'has successfully exported around the world." "'Just ten minutes' drive from the city centre, one particularly famous" "'Swedish brand is expanding its vision of a simpler, 'more functional world.'" "I've come to watch a house being built." "And this is the site." "And it isn't going to take months, or weeks or even days." "It's just going to take one morning, and that's because it's a flat pack house that BoKlok built in partnership with IKEA." "'And like a piece of flat pack furniture, 'you just have to slot a few bits together, 'albeit quite large bits.'" "The whole thing's coming off?" "'I'm meeting site manager Stefan.'" "This is a small bedroom." "Small bedroom?" "Yeah." "And the toilet is over there." "And the entrance door." "That's the front door?" "The front door, yeah." "OK." "The block that's going to go up today, how many apartments is that?" "Four apartments." "Four apartments?" "Yeah." "And it's eight modules." "So there's two modules for one apartment." "Two modules makes one apartment." "Yeah." "A floating house, right over my head." "'A BoKlok house isn't just easy, it's cheap." "'A one bed flat, an easy commute to the city centre, 'costs around ?" "70,000.'" "This is the most tricky part of the assembly." "The water and the electricity and the heating is coming in there, so you got to fit that in that small shaft." "So that one little rectangle, all the services go through that space, heats the whole house?" "Yes, that's right." "That's the whole apartment?" "The whole apartment." "That's all it needs." "'It's already starting to look like an apartment block, 'and I've only been here or three hours." "'Less time than it normally takes me to assemble anything from IKEA." "'Inside, the rooms are ready for you to move in." "'Just add flat pack furniture.'" "It's the kitchen." "It's already built." "You can see the sink, the cupboards, the worktops, the radiators..." "Prefab and ready to go." "Who was viewed as being the market for BoKlok houses at the beginning?" "From the beginning, it was the single mother with two children." "A nurse, with the salary she's got, she should be able to buy." "And do you know, did lots of single nurse mothers with two children buy BoKlok houses?" "I definitely think so, yeah." "Why do you think this has happened in Sweden?" "We have the Swedish word 'lagom'." "Not too much, not excessive." "Not too much, just enough." "So, I think this is just enough." "Is lagom still a central part of the Swedish culture, or is it changing?" "Do people want more?" "Maybe it's like that, yes." "I think so." "It's a different culture now." "than it was before." "It's pretty extraordinary what I've seen happen here today, a block of four apartments going up in just one morning, and there is so much talk in the UK at the moment about affordable housing and the need to build, but you wonder" "whether something like this really should be part of the solution." "But I also wonder if us Brits might have a problem seeing beyond the prefab, flat pack nature of these buildings and embracing them as real homes." "Not so much because every Englishman needs his castle, but I do think we're pretty addicted to bricks and mortar." "'We're pretty keen on our cars, too, 'and there's no shortage of British fans of Sweden's Volvo.'" "As a student I used to enter competitions, and I once entered a competition to win a Volvo." "I wrote a Volvo limerick." ""For minimum motoring stress, with maximum style and finesse," ""'far the sea brings, amongst other things, a Volvo 480 ES."" "The Volvo 480 ES was the first time Volvo tried to be really sporty." "I think the sporty thing never quite came off, because now still, to this day, everybody thinks of Volvos as being super reliable, super safe, but just a little bit dull." "'Volvo HQ is just a few minutes' drive outside 'of central Gothenburg.'" "It's about 80% Volvos in the car park here." "I wonder who dares turn up in an Audi." "I think that shows a lot of individuality." "'I've been invited to work on the production line, 'which produces around 800 cars a day.'" "So you're putting seat belts on here?" "Can I have a go?" "Yes." "This definitely the right belt?" "That's going to be tightened up later by a machine." "That's OK." "Ah, there we go." "Ooh." "See?" "That one like that?" "Other way." "'It's apt that I've got the seat belt job on the line." "'We all know that safety is foremost in these cars." "'What you may not know is the three-point seat belt, 'the most significant safety feature of all time, 'was invented by Volvo in 1959.'" "They realised that it was so incredibly important that instead of patenting it and hanging onto the technology and profiting from it, they gave it to the rest of the automobile industry all around the world, an extraordinary act of industrial generosity." "So, through doing that, they've undoubtedly saved millions and millions of lives." "'And it hasn't stopped there." "'A few years ago, Volvo announced a corporate ambition 'that by 2020, no-one will die in one of their cars.'" "Switching on lights." "'I've been given a chance to get them a little nearer to that goal." "'Under my supervision, this car will be hitting 'a solid metal wall at 35mph.'" "Ten..." "Five..." "'As planned, the front of the car crumples beautifully, 'absorbing the impact and protecting the passengers.'" "'Safe and boring Volvo may be, but they're safe 'and boring to world beating standards.'" "'One key factor in Sweden's success in innovation 'and industry is their strong welfare state.'" "'It makes for a contented workforce in a stable economy." "'This philosophy of prosperity 'and equality has come to be known as the Swedish model.'" "'And the epitome of this enlightened approach to the workplace 'is the policy on parental leave, 'giving both mums and dads extended time off work.'" "'It's led to a new phenomenon, the 'latte papas'." "'Robin and Oscar are both architects, 'while Martin is a teacher." "'But right now they're all stay at home dads.'" "Who's for a cinnamon bun?" "Oh, lovely." "Shall I pop them in the middle?" "Who have we got here?" "This is Rufus." "Hi, Rufus." "This is Oke." "And this is Tuva." "Hi, Tuva." "So how much time are you taking off at the moment?" "Half a year." "Six months?" "Yeah." "And you?" "I'm taking six months, too." "I'm having 11 months." "You're taking 11 months off." "Yes." "The same as his mother." "How far have you got into your 11 months?" "I have some..." "Four months, until Christmas or something." "So you go back to work after Christmas?" "Yes, I do." "Are you starting to dread that?" "A bit, a bit." "But I'm looking forward to it as well." "You know, it's mixed emotions about that." "When you're both at home, do you change as many nappies as your wife?" "Yeah." "More." "More?" "Yeah." "I would know..." "She would let me know if I didn't." "THEY LAUGH" "'Either parent is paid 80% of their salary for up to 16 months, 'and now eight out of ten fathers 'take at least four months' paid leave to look after their children.'" "I have to say, in England this is an unusual sight." "I mean, I am very aware right now that I never did this." "I have four kids, the youngest is three." "I took a few weeks off." "But are you aware that it's different than the rest of the world?" "Do you have a sense that here in Sweden you've got different opportunities?" "Yes." "'Latte papas' stand out as visible proof that Sweden 'does equality rather better than most other European countries.'" "'But that disguises an uncomfortable truth." "'In fact, for over two decades now, wealth inequality here 'has grown here more than any other developed country.'" "'That means the poor getting poorer, 'and as I'm about to find out, back in Stockholm, 'the rich are getting richer.'" "The traditional Swedish values of equality and modesty are increasingly under threat from a new breed of wealthy Swede." "And they are providing a rich vein of material for the country's number one sitcom, a sort of Scandinavian lovechild of Ab Fab and Modern Family." "It's called Solsidan." "It's all about the aspirational middle class." "A couple who've moved to live next to their friends who are frankly very nouveau riche." "And the thing about it is it's event television in Sweden." "Over two million Swedes watch it every week." "I've come back to Stockholm, and I'm on set with the cast and crew of Solsidan." "In fact, the set is a real house in the real life area of Solsidan." "It's in this leafy, lake-side suburb, 25 minutes drive from the city centre, that many of Sweden's entrepreneurs and internet millionaires buy and build their sprawling mansions, and park their four-wheel drives." "THEY SPEAK SWEDISH" "The scene they're shooting this morning is with Mickan and Fredde, they are the wealthy couple who live in this fabulously opulent house." "And their son is coming down, complaining that he hasn't got a stitch to wear." "He's upset about that, because he's got a new girlfriend." "Just checking out the kitchen." "Very, very up-to-the-minute knife rack." "Never seen anything quite like that before." "It's actually a real Swedish family that live in this house, and, after the shoot tonight, they come back and live it all for real." "Josephine Bornebusch plays the status-obsessed housewife Mickan Schiller." "Hi." "How are you?" "Good morning." "Yes." "Well, your character become someone that everybody in Sweden loves talking about." "Yeah, she's a bitch." "THEY LAUGH" "They love talking about bitches." "They may be a little bit envious of your life here, as well." "Yeah, maybe." "It's all fake." "Do you feel this is making people more aspirational, or more frightened of being aspirational?" "I don't know." "I mean, everyone out here who lives in the neighbourhood, they live like this, so..." "This house is a real house, with a real family." "It is." "Is the wife a little bit like you?" "She looks exactly like me." "No!" "Really?" "Yeah!" "Sorry to interrupt." "Sorry." "Great." "Nice talking to you." "Felix Herngren is the creator of the series." "Is this part of a changing Sweden, the story you are telling?" "Yeah, maybe." "I mean, in Sweden, we had like three rich people before 1980, but..." "Now there are hundreds, thousands." "Now there are thousands, actually, of quite rich people." "They made..." "And they live here - a lot of them live right here." "A lot of them live here, yeah." "Absolutely." "The characters we've seen filming this morning, Fredde and Mickan, do you think people like them or envy them or...?" "What relationship does your audience have with these characters?" "A bit of both, but I think people like to see rich people having problems." "And that's funny." "Hopefully." "While Solsidan reflects the new wealth of Swedish society, there is another suburb on the other side of Stockholm that tells a very different story." "Equality and prosperity should be a pretty good recipe for social stability, and for decades here in Sweden that's exactly how it's been." "But last spring there was a sudden outbreak of civil unrest, the first serious rioting in the country for years." "Since then there's been a lot of soul searching in the media and a big national debate about increasing inequality and immigration." "In May 2013, Stockholm experienced six nights of violent rioting that started in a housing estate called Husby." "They were sparked by the controversial killing of a local resident by the police, but many commentators have said that they were the result of wider frustrations felt by some of Sweden's ethnic minorities." "This is the suburb of Husby, and it's certainly got a very different feel to it from central Stockholm." "I'm meeting local resident, Melody Farshin." "Where was this all happening?" "It was at this parking, actually." "Right here?" "Yeah, right here." "'Melody's parents moved here from Iran 25 years ago." "'Sweden actually has a very generous open-door policy to immigrants." "'15% of the population was born in another country." "'But Sweden's immigrants often find themselves on the wrong side 'of the country's increasing wealth inequality." "'Nearly 40% of people aged under 26 in Husby are unemployed.'" "Where were you born, Melody?" "I'm actually born in Stockholm, Sweden." "Do you feel Swedish?" "No, I don't." "Why not?" "Because I don't have the same opportunities in life." "Even though I might be capable to do the same things other Swedes do," "I will always be looked down on." "So Swedish society looks at your differently?" "They don't look at me as a Swede." "When I was small, I heard the craziest comments, like," ""My daddy told me that your daddy is an ape."" "So this is children reflecting the prejudices of their parents?" "Exactly, and the teacher hearing, not saying anything." "I will never say that every Swede has something against me, of course not." "It's just the ones who believe the media - that everyone with black hair is a terrorist wanting to take their jobs," "or steal their woman or something like that." "According to a Swedish government agency, 72% of all hate crimes in Sweden are motivated by racism or xenophobia." "What's your feeling about living in Sweden now?" "Do you sometimes feel that this is not where you would really like to be or you don't really feel at home here?" "I'm an Iranian in Sweden, and I'm a Swede in Iran." "So wherever I go, I'm never at home." "Does that make you sad?" "No, because I have Husby." "It's my heart." "I'm glad to hear that Melody feels at home here in Husby, but I can't help but think it's sad that elsewhere in this beautiful country, she's made to feel as if she doesn't belong." "I came here quite sold on the idea of Sweden as this great egalitarian society - something to be aspired to." "But then today I've heard how a little girl growing up in Stockholm felt like a complete outsider and regularly had to put up with bullying and racism." "I really wasn't expecting that." "It suggests that even if on paper all Swedes are equal, actually some more equal than others." "Of course, Sweden is not alone in struggling with immigration." "But, despite attempts by the Swedish government to combat racism, it remains a serious problem in an otherwise progressive and liberal society." "However, there is one social issue that the Swedish government took firm action on a long time ago..." "..the sale of alcohol." "This off-licence, liquor store, it's called Systembolaget." "And so is every other off-licence and liquor store in the whole of Sweden, because they are all owned and run by the state." "After years of widespread alcohol abuse in the nineteenth century, the state took over the sale of alcohol from 1850." "Here we go - aquavit." "Over 160 years later, the only place you can buy alcohol stronger than light beer is a government-owned store." "They all shut at 6pm during the week, 3pm on Saturdays, and they're closed on Sundays." "Thank you very much." "You're welcome." "I've heard it said that because the sale of alcohol here is state-controlled, there's a slight sense of shame or embarrassment among Swedes about leaving the liquor store with clinking bottles." "I'm British, so I can clink away to my heart's content." "HE CLINKS HIS BOTTLES" "I'm taking my government-sanctioned aquavit out to Stockholm's impressive archipelago of 30,000 islands." "My fired-up chef friend, Niklas Eksted, has invited me to his summer house to mark the end of summer with some of his friends." "And they're planning to do it in a time-honoured fashion, beloved of all Swedes - a crayfish party." "You got the crayfish?" "I've got them." "These are freshwater ones." "They're from the river, not here." "So they are like an hour away from here." "But they're wild?" "Yeah, they're wild." "They were fished this morning." "This is super-important." "So to keep the crayfish sustainable in the olden days, you only fished them when the dill was flowering." "So that shows that you're in crayfish season." "Yeah." "Crunch it up a little bit, so that all the aromas come out." "Great." "Tell me about the tradition of crayfish parties in Sweden." "It's a big thing." "It's a huge thing." "Usually, you have a big party, a crayfish party, before going back to work or back to school." "It's kind of like ending your whole summer experience, and it's really, like, a drinking celebration as well." "You drink a lot of schnapps and a lot of beer." "Five minutes." "Perfect." "Lift the lid." "Looks, great." "The smell of that dill is just fantastic." "'The presentation of the crayfish is pretty basic.'" "Straight down the middle on the newspaper." "Yeah." "It's amazing." "OK, let's party." "'Central to any crayfish party is the tradition of drinking songs.'" "THEY SING" "Skal!" "Skal!" "So how you start the crayfish, you start with sucking it." "Before you even crack the shell." "Yeah." "And then you crack it." "Then you get beautiful dill flavour." "Then if you're real hardcore, you suck the brain out." "That's sucking good." "The aquavit is flowing, and tongues are loose, so I wonder what Niklas' friends have to say about the things I've seen in Sweden." "How many of you drive a Volvo?" "THEY LAUGH" "The English guy drives a Volvo!" "Who likes ABBA?" "Who watches Solsidan on TV?" "All of you?" "Yeah." "What do you think?" "Hilarious." "What does it mean to you, lagom?" "I mean it's being humble towards life and humble towards success." "What lagom really means is perfect, but in a very humble way." "I'm not absolutely perfect..." "But I'm Swedish." "but near as perfect." "But I'm Swedish." "I'm not going to tell everyone that it's perfect." "Perfect may be pushing it, but I found Sweden an easy country to enjoy, and now it feels like a hard place to leave." "I think that Sweden is a country that for a long time now has been held up as the perfect model of equality and prosperity, and other countries around the world look on with envy and think there's so much to admire" "and so much that we should do like that." "And, if we did, we'd be a better country." "But I also think it's really interesting that cracks and stresses are starting to appear in the perfect Swedish model." "But I've had an amazing time here, and I think the whole place is still full of optimism and if there are problems, and there are," "I think this is a nation that's ready to start solving them." "So do we get a dessert at a crayfish feast?" "No." "Just more drink?" "Yes." "THEY SING" "Next time, I'm in Denmark - officially the happiest place on the planet." "Now we're making electricity." "It has the world's best restaurant... ..stunning design and architecture." "But it's also the home of Nordic noir drama." "We are not afraid of the dark." "So is there something rotten in the state of Denmark?" "GUNSHOT" "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd"