Guest Recommendation: Atlantic Crossing

Atlantic Crossing poster showing Sofia Helin, Kyle MacLachlan and Tobias SantelmannThis guest recommendation comes from Janet Mullany! Janet Mullany is a sometime fiction writer who is a regular contributor for PBS/WETA’s Tellyvisions blog.

A princess steals the heart of the president of the United States.

Really, PBS Masterpiece? Is that the best you can do?

Because Atlantic Crossing is not some sort of adulterous fairy tale. A production of Norwegian Public Broadcasting (NRK), it tells the story of how Norway’s Crown Princess Märtha, in exile in the US, became a major player in persuading President Franklin D. Roosevelt to join the second world war. It’s beautifully filmed, with a strong ensemble cast, a moving and dramatic story, and lots of emotion. On average I teared up at least twice until the last episode where, heck, it was every ten minutes. This is what public television should be.

Quick history lesson: Norway, and their neighbors Denmark and Sweden, were all neutral when war broke out in 1939. Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway in April of 1940, wanting to get at Sweden’s iron and control the North Sea.

The series starts with Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha’s 1939 visit to the US. Bless their hearts, there’s a sex scene within the first couple of minutes. On a train. With role-playing. And a Stetson. (Well done, Masterpiece/PBS, we’ve been waiting fifty years for this!) It’s not terribly explicit but their attendants, waiting outside the compartment, have resigned “here we go again” expressions on their faces, so this is pretty much normal. It’s delightful. They’re on their way to visit President Roosevelt who is very taken with the couple, twinkling across the tea table and flirting with Märtha.

Olav and Märtha are the loveliest royals you’ll ever meet on Masterpiece. As well as the enthusiastic sex life, three gorgeous children, and Märtha’s amazing hats, they are down-to-earth and likable, if privileged, people.

Martha and Olaf running with their children alongside a train clearly distressed

But when the German invade, they, the King, and the Cabinet, flee. It is genuinely scary, edge of your seat stuff—travel on a train under fire from enemy planes, taking shelter from bombs, driving through icy forests with enemy soldiers in pursuit. Olav wants to stay and fight, so he sends Märtha and the children over the border to her parents in Sweden, where unfortunately the Swedish king is Hitler’s newest bestie. Olav and the King take refuge with cousin Bertie (that’s George VI of Britain to the rest of us. All the royalty of Europe are closely related, thanks to Queen Victoria’s fecund children). But Märtha and the children become refugees.

Roosevelt is delighted when Olav requests he invite her to the US, and provides a ship. The scene where she leaves, holding up her son Harald to wave goodbye to the fishermen nearby is heartbreaking.

Martha in a green hat holding up her son in a green coat to wave goodbye on a windy boat clearly very upset

She and the family are given a warm welcome by Roosevelt. But Olav and his father the King make it clear that Märtha’s job is to persuade Roosevelt to meet with the Norwegian Ambassador, who will ask him to supply the Allies with armaments (and break the US Neutrality Act).

Now Roosevelt undoubtedly likes Martha, and he’s lovely with her children, but he’s a politician first in an election year. He’s running on an anti-war platform; he’s not going to put himself on the line. Not yet. Every European country wants a piece of him and it will take Pearl Harbor and Churchill for him to make a commitment. With both Olav and the Ambassador pressuring her, and Roosevelt being charming, patronizing, or subtly steering her off-topic, Märtha cuts through the diplomatic crap. She bursts unannounced into the Oval Office, and makes her case with great eloquence and passion, wearing a lovely hat, my favorite of the series.

Olav is frustrated at his lack of agency. He has to defer to his dad, he wants to prove himself as a military leader, but the Brits don’t seem interested. It’s raining bombs and he misses his wife and children. When he drops by the US for a surprise Christmas visit (as one does during wartime when you’re royalty), he finds Märtha and Roosevelt on first-name terms, and he’s even more surprised to hear his kids address the President as “godfather” (I don’t think he knew they began by calling him “grandfather”). Märtha, empowered, is up and running, raising funds for Norwegian war relief.

Martha lecturing Roosevelt

So did she have a love affair with Roosevelt? I’m pretty sure she didn’t, despite the attraction between them, although naturally there were rumors (because everyone knew FDR had an eye for the ladies). There is one awkward, surprise kiss in Episode 5 which doesn’t seem to alter their relationship after. There’s too much at stake for both of them.

Märtha’s aware of the dysfunctional White House triangle where Roosevelt plays off his secretary/mistress Missy and his wife Eleanor against each other, and who’d want to get involved with that? She loves her children, her husband, and above all, her country. She’s not going to do anything that would compromise the survival of Norway.

Olav, to my disappointment, added Märtha’s relationship with the President to his list of things to be mad about, and starts hanging out in British pubs drinking too much. But he gets over himself. It’s not a spoiler to tell you that Olav and Märtha are reconciled, and returned to Norway, because it’s history. Their son Harald is the current King of Norway.

Martha and Roosevelt at breakfast splendid in white
Sofia Helin as Crown Princess Martha and Kyle MacLachlan as President Franklin D. Roosevelt – Courtesy of MASTERPIECE. Julie Vrabelová; stills photographer

So why should you watch this series? It’s emotional, moving, and the visuals are stunning, as is the acting. Imagine The Crown with much nicer royals you actually want to root for, or World on Fire with more coherent storylines. Like The Crown, it is selective and creative with history; this is drama, not a documentary. The story of Märtha and her exile in the US has been mostly forgotten, and the series is a perceptive dive into the politics of the period, with some alarming parallels to our own times.

That said, it keeps you engaged, despite the complex issues and the length (there are eight episodes of about 50 minutes each) and don’t let the subtitles put you off–naturally the Norwegians speak their own language together. Atlantic Crossing has heart and intelligence and it’s worth the watch.

Atlantic Crossings airs on your local PBS station on Sundays through May 9 and can be streamed at pbs.org.

Comments are Closed

  1. Kay Sisk says:

    Thank you so much for this wonderful review. We’ve watched every episode of this new-to-us piece of WWII history. By the end of the first episode, I had Googled the Norwegian royalty. What a delight to know that the child Harald in the production is the current king of Norway.

    World on Fire, currently in reruns right after Atlantic Crossing, is also worthy. Surely there’s a season two.

  2. Heather M says:

    Definitely adding this to my list. Alas, I only get PBS through their app and the first few episodes, at least, are only available with a paid account…[*bottles up rant about how there are too many streaming channels to keep track of*]

  3. Stefanie Magura says:

    @Heather M:

    You can get both PBS Masterpiece and PBS Documentaries as add-ons if you have a prime subscription. I think each is about five bucks extra a month.

  4. Stefanie Magura says:

    @Heather M:

    It’s also the same price if you choose to download the PBS Masterpiece app and subscribe through there. I’m not sure if there’s an app for the documentaries though.

  5. Violet Bick says:

    I’m liking Atlantic Crossing. One of the things I’m enjoying is the attention to detail regarding language. At least according to the subtitles (but I’m not a native speaker, so I can’t confirm), they have the subtleties of private speech among the royal family down pat. For example, at times, King Haakon will talk to Crown Prince Olav in Danish; Olav on the other hand will speak to Crown Princess Martha in Norwegian, and she will respond in Swedish (all reflecting their upbringings). [As a completely unrelated aside, President Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou, spoke Mandarin around the White House in order to ensure their conversations would be private.]

    Alternatively, I have to laugh at the geography, namely the repeated use of the same unforested, rolling green hills to represent both Hyde Park, NY (where is the Hudson River?), and Bethesda, MD.

    Finally, if you’re interested in watching more about the Norwegian royal family during the early days of WWII, particularly from the perspective of King Haakon, I recommend the 2016 film, The King’s Choice.

  6. Helen Hern says:

    I loved this series- the best parts of which were not in English and I had to read subtitles. I loved the clothes and the hats, the drama of their escape and return and the royal family who were living and surprisingly normal. Olav and Martha were a very hot couple.
    FDR was masterfully played by Kyle M., but he came off as a person trying to move in on someone’s wife, who was not really interested in him in that way.

    I found the comment about the royals speaking in their native languages particularly interesting as I would not know one language from the other.
    I also read that Olav was actually raised as English as his first language since that was what his mother spoke at home.

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top