From Bron to The Tunnel: localising international television formats

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the Franco-British series The Tunnel (Canal+, 2013–2017), co-produced by Sky Atlantic and StudioCanal, as an iteration of the Swedish-Danish series Bron/Broen/The Bridge (Danmarks Radio, 2011–2018). The author situates Bron within the global television format trade and argues that The Tunnel is best understood as a localised version rather than a remake or an adaptation. With six versions of the original series now available around the world, the author argues that Bron has become such a reproducible global television format because it offers a readymade co-production template in industrial, linguistic and narrative terms through its focus on crimes on and around national borders. The article then explores the specific localisation strategies used in the Franco-British version that employ social problems such as terrorism, human trafficking and immigration to position audiences within national and regional frames. Finally, the article discusses the complexities of situating The Tunnel within a nation-centred approach to French television.

KEYWORDS:

• The Tunnel
• The Bridge
• French television
• media localisation
• television formats
• remakes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. ‘n’avait pas convaincu.’

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Pettersen

David Pettersen is Associate Professor of French and Film and Media Studies and Director of the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Americanism, Media and the Politics of Culture in 1930s France (University of Wales Press, 2016) and French B-Movies: Suburban Spaces, Universalism, and the Challenge of Hollywood (Indiana University Press, 2023).