''The Protectors'' ( da, Livvagterne) is a Danish crime TV series from 2009 that follows the police bodyguard squad P.E.T. (

Politiets Efterretningstjeneste Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (PET) (literally: Police Intelligence Service, official name in English: Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or DSIS) is the national security and intelligence agency of Denmark. The agency focuses solely o ...

), which is in charge of protecting VIPs, including Danish royalty and politicians.

Overview

The series follows three recruits, Jasmina El-Murad (Cecilie Stenspil), Jonas Goldschmidt (André Babikian), and Rasmus Poulsen (Søren Vejby), who go swiftly from training camp to full-fledged police bodyguards. Jasmina is the only woman, and an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, on the team.

Cast

Cecilie Stenspil Cecilie Maria Stenspil (born 22 October 1979) is a Danish actress. She graduated from the School of Acting at Odense Teater in 2006. She has had leading roles in a large number of performances at several Danish theaters, including the Royal Dan ...

as Jasmina El-Murad, a newly trained bodyguard; she is the only woman in the class of 20 who train to become bodyguards * Søren Vejby as Rasmus Poulsen, a newly trained bodyguard; he lives in a church building he renovated * André Babikian as Jonas Goldschmidt, a newly trained bodyguard; he is Jewish and is married with one child. In the second episode he tells his wife he had an affair *

Thomas W. Gabrielsson Thomas Waern Gabrielsson (born 29 June 1963) is a Swedish actor, active in Sweden and Denmark. He was born in Gothenburg. Stage career In 1998 Gabrielsson performed solo in the 70 minute monologue dramatisation of The Evil at the Theater ''La ...

as Leon Hartvig Jensen, PET's Chief of Security *

Ditte Gråbøl Ditte Gråbøl (born 22 June 1959 in Copenhagen) is a Danish actress. She trained at Aarhus Teater and graduated in 1984. Having worked at Jomfru Ane Teatret, she has appeared in a number of revues, among others the Cirkusrevyen more than once. Sh ...

as Diana Pedersen, Secretary at PET *

Rasmus Bjerg Rasmus Bjerg (born 28 July 1976) is a Danish actor, comedian and singer. He has enjoyed much success alongside Jonas Schmidt, in series like '' P.I.S. - Politiets Indsats Styrke'', '' Wulffmorgenthaler'', ''Dolph & Wulff'' and '' Jul i Verden ...

as 'Lille Kurt' Birk, the PET Group Leader who is in charge of training the new bodyguards *

Ellen Hillingsø Ellen Gunilla Hillingsø (born 9 March 1967) is a Danish actress who is known primarily for her work in films. She is also a voice actress, narrating audio books. Early life Ellen Gunilla Hillingsø was born on 9 March 1967 in Copenhagen to Kje ...

as Benedikte 'Tønne' Tønnesen, PET *

Tommy Kenter Tommy Osvald Charlie Kenter (born 15 April 1950 in Copenhagen) is a Danish actor. He had his debut already when he was 11 years old in ''Cirkus Buster'', performing under the name Tommy Kanter. He later appeared as "fru Christoff" in the satiri ...

as Jørgen Boas, PET psychiatrist * Michael Sand as Store Kurt, a veteran bodyguard * Benjamin Boe Rasmussen as Trikker * Kim Jansson as Fjordby * Anne Birgitte Lind as Claudia * Kate Kjølby as Asha El-Murad, Jasmina's sister

Series overview

A first season aired in 2009. A second and final season was released in 2010, each season had 10 episodes.

Episodes

Season 1 (2009)

Season 2 (2010)

Production

''The Protectors'' was created and written by Peter Thorsboe and Mai Brostrøm. The show was the third in a trilogy of shows created by Thorsboe: ''

Unit 1 ''Rejseholdet'' ( en, "Mobile Unit" it. "The Travel Team"}; international title: ''Unit One'') is a Danish television crime drama series, broadcast on DR1, that ran for four series from 1 October 2000 to 1 January 2004. The series, produced by ...

'' ( da, Rejseholdet) and ''

The Eagle The eagle is a large bird of prey. Eagle or The Eagle may also refer to: Places England * Eagle, Lincolnshire, a village United States * Eagle, Alaska, a city * Eagle Village, Alaska, a census-designated place * Eagle, Colorado, a statuto ...

'' ( da, Ørnen: En krimi-odyssé).

Broadcast

The series screened in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2011 and 2012 on SBS and is available on DVD and

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

with English subtitles.

Awards and nominations

It won an

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and S ...

from the

International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS) is an American nonprofit membership organization, based in New York City, composed of leading media and entertainment executives across all sectors of the television industry, from ov ...

for best non-American television drama series in 2009. The series was filmed on location in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

(Denmark).

References

External links

''Livvagterne''
at

DR1 DR1 (DR Et) is the flagship television channel of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). It became Denmark's first television station when it began broadcasting in 1951 – at first only for an hour a day three times a week. Besides its ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Protectors, The 2009 Danish television series debuts 2010 Danish television series endings 2000s Danish television series 2010s Danish television series Danish crime television series Danish drama television series International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series winners Detective television series Danish-language television shows DR TV original programming