Patrick Nebout and Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, creators of the multi-prized “Whiskey on the Rocks” which smashed ratings records on Disney+/SVT, have unveiled two new premium projects from their boutique Stockholm-based production house Dramanation: Nordic Noir actioner “Becker & Kempe” and Cold War heist dramedy “Made in Sweden.”
They join the already announced English-language murder mystery series “To Catch A Murderer” (aka “The Studio”).
Embodying Dramanation’s mission to make what Nebout calls “splashy, high-profile TV-series and films with international resonance,” Nebout and Jansson-Schweizer will bring to market “Becker & Kempe” and “Made in Sweden” at this week’s
Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision, the Swedish festival’s TV conference forum and market which runs Jan. 27-26.
A Nordic Noir crime and cop-actioner, “Becker & Kempe” (a working title), is set primarily in Göteborg, Sweden’s biggest port city, turning on police detectives Milla Becer and Simon Kempe as they battle international crime and corruption. Writing the screenplays are Morgan Jensen and Theo Gabay, authors of four bestselling novels, while Jensen’s screenwriting credits take in SVT-Arte’s “Thicker than Water” and five episodes of propulsive ZFG-TV4 spy actioner “Agent Hamilton.”
The project is in co-development with a streamer: Dramanation is now looking for an additional local partner, Nebout told Variety.
Billed by Nebout as a “creative cousin” of Apple TV+’s movie “Tetris,” “Made in Sweden” is also cast by Nebout as a Cold War political thriller/dramedy in the vein of “Whiskey on the Rocks” and reuniting much of that series’ creative talent: Screenwriter Jansson-Schweizer and director Björn Stein (“Midnight Sun”).
“Made in Sweden” once more tells an extraordinary but true story of how the Swedish government spearheads the sale of 1,000 Volvo 144 sedans to North Korea, when it sees North Korea as an lucrative emerging market.
In “Made in Sweden,” the deal is led by an idealistic civil servant at Sweden’s Ministry of Trade, convinced that commerce could counteract Cold War and that Sweden’s position as a neutral power between the U.S. and the Soviet Union could further this goal. Yet North Korea dallies on payment, and “Made in Sweden” takes on the pulse of a car heist espionage thriller as the KGB and CIA move in, questioning what’s really behind the deal.
Nebout and Jansson-Schweizer calso o-created “To Catch a Murderer,” co-developed and co-produced with Germany’s Odeon Fiction as the lead studio and penned by U.K. writers Dan Gaster, Will Ing and Paul Powell (AMC-AcornTV’s “Art Detective”).
One of the duo’s career through lines has been their international ambition. At Nice Drama, they originated and produced “Midnight Sun” (2016) the high-concept and high-end murder–mystery thriller starring Leila Bekhti (“A Prophet”) as a French police officer dispatched to investigate a murder in Arctic Circle Sweden. Backed by Canal+ and SVT, it was billed as the first France-Sweden co-production.
Produced by Nebout and Jansson-Schweizer, with multiple other partners, “The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared,” Sweden’s biggest domestic hit grossing $22.9 million also broke out in Germany ($11.5 million) on its way to a $51.2 million worldwide trawl.
Another touchstone is their belief in premium entertainment. This remains despite – and because – of a plunge in Nordic scripted series orders, down from 129 in 2022 to 57 in 2025, according to Ampere Analysis.
“We’ve gone from a market, especially talking about the streamers, where five plus years ago it was basically all about premium drama. Streaming services didn’t have much reality TV or light entertainment or any formats nor sport,” said Guy Bisson, who will deliver a state of the market analysis, From Rubble to Reinvention: Reengineering Entertainment, at Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision on Jan. 27.
“We’re talking about market trends, however. Nothing is black and white. There is still room and a market demand for premium drama,” Bisson added.
As he prepared to shop Dramanation’s new projects at TV Drama Vision, Nebout talked about this, his bigger picture approach to local events, mixed financing models and a winning combo of top creative talent and IP.
Your two new series reflect a belief there is still a demand for premium drama…..
Our approach is basically to ignore the surrounding state of panic and maintain the philosophy we have followed for over 15 years: focusing on distinctive scripted entertainment with an authentic voice, regardless of format or budget, or distribution platform or media. We believe audiences are still seeking event drama; the record-breaking ratings for our recent Disney+/SVT miniseries, ‘Whiskey on the Rocks,’ certainly support this. The niche and the market for premium and compelling scripted entertainment has definitely not vanished. With all due respect to the vertical microdrama frenzy, we’re firmly sticking to horizontal, splashy drama.
“Becker & Kempe” will explore, I believe, international crime and its ties in other countries, such as the Svalbards and Spain, among other backdrops. “Whiskey on the Rocks” and “Made in Sweden” picture Sweden in the middle of Cold War confrontation. Your series, while playing out in Swedish landscape such as the memorable Arctic vistas of “Midnight Sun,” nearly always have an international dimension. Could you comment?
The “wider picture ” is probably the red thread in most concepts and stories we choose to engage with, develop and bring to the screens. No matter the genre. We look for the ripple on the water – how a local event or action can carry wider ramifications. It’s the butterfly effect. Globalization began in the 19th century, and today we are inescapably interconnected. Crime has no boundaries, and geopolitics or ideologies now impact every individual on the planet. Whether the story takes place in the Swedish Arctic or the streets of Paris, that tension between the isolated locale and the global stage is what we explore. It is the ultimate fuel for larger-than-life storytelling and high-stakes escapism.
“Becker & Kempe” is an crime actioner, which you’ve made before as in the case of “Agent Hamilton.” It comes at a time when action movie and series, or titles with a strong action edge, account for a large percentage of big hits on platforms. Again, could you comment?
Action, thriller, adventure are evergreen genres because they fulfill the critical promise of escapism, especially in troubled times. And by escapism I don’t mean that it’s necessarily lighthearted entertainment. To me, the beauty and the true power of the action edge lies in its versatility. When you infuse it as an ingredient into complex or darker narratives and genres like crime or espionage, it adds that high-octane layer that heightens the stakes. So it’s no coincidence that action, in its many iterations and shapes, currently dominates global top 10s. It offers a universal language.
Would you see “Made in Sweden” as a sequel to “Whiskey on the Rocks”
While not a sequel, “Made in Sweden” is a thematic cousin to “Whiskey on the Rocks,” and we aim to reunite the same creative team. Once again, we inhabit the Cold War universe, inspired by an infamous true story, but viewed through a different lens. Our take remains satirical, but we’re also leaning into a heist-driven dramedic thriller. Another thematic cousin would be Apple’s “Tetris” – high-stakes and fast-paced, blending tension with wit. We are exploring that rigid historical era through a genre-bending narrative and compelling characters.
You say you are co-developing “Becker & Kempe” with a streaming service but that you’re looking for an additional local partner. Do you see this mixed financing model as one way forward for higher-end series?
The new normal is that fixed models no longer exist; the marketplace evolves daily, and today’s setup may be obsolete tomorrow. However, for specific high-end series, partnerships between international streamers and local broadcasters offer a great path forward. We kind of pioneered this in the Nordics with “Whiskey on the Rocks,” a co-production between SVT and Disney+. Properly engineered, these ‘windowing’ collaborations are a win-win: they facilitate higher production values and shared risk for ambitious projects. Last but not least, this model also allows producers to retain their IP – which is a fundamental shift from the “fully streamer-funded and owned” model.
Two further hallmarks of your series are their combo of top creative talent, with hits under their belts as novelists or directors, and IP, be that a historical event or a bestseller. Again, could you comment?
This is a deliberate strategy and positioning on our end. As a boutique focused on scalable, distinctive tentpole drama, pairing top-tier talent with powerful and unique IP provides the crucial edge to cut through the noise of a saturated market, offering partners and viewers the reassurance of high-end quality.
Whiskey on the Rocks
A fun true-event nuclear crisis chronicle, part warm period comedy and part LOL political satire “Whiskey on the Rocks” won the 2025 Prix Italia, organized by RAI and backed by some 100 public and private broadcasters. It also scooped best TV drama at Sweden’s Kristallen TV Awards and best Nordic series at the Aarhus Series Awards in Denmark, as well as being nominated for a Rose d’Or.
On Swedish pubcaster SVT, the show hit record-breaking heights, with the first episode, which aired on Christmas Day 2024, securing a linear rating of approximately 1.2 million viewers. With catch-up and non-linear viewing on SVT Play, the total reach for the series averaged roughly 1.8 million viewers per episode, nearly 1 in 6 Swedes watched the series. Completion rate was 93%.
Disney+’s first Nordic Original series to premiere in select countries, plus Hulu in the U.S, “Whiskey on the Rocks” begins in 1981 with the crew of a Soviet U-137 “Whiskey”-class submarine changing course as it heads home. But it is too drunk to set the new coordinates correctly. The sub grounds on rocks within sight of the Sweden’s coast, deep in its territorial waters, and near to its biggest naval base. It could well be carrying nuclear warheads.
The series’ sympathies lie with the ordinary folk on land in Sweden and in the Russian sub plus Sweden’s seemingly plodding premier who turns out to the a source of sanity, rather than the short-fused military chiefs in the U.S., Sweden and Russia, just itching for military action.
“Whiskey and the Rocks” also packs memorable scenes such an phone conversation between Ronald Reagan and dementia-wracked Leonard Brezhnev, saved by their translators’ sensible diplomacy who avoid a nuclear conflagration. “Leonard, you son of a motherless goat, it’s Ronald here,” Reagan greets Breshnev in jocular fashion, translated as “It’s a great honor for me to steal a moment of your precious time.” “You should go hang yourself,” answers Brezhnev, rendered as “Greetings, honored President. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“We have three surveillance planes over your goddamn submarine and we need to know if it is carrying any nuclear missiles,” Reagan barks when Brezhnev’s translator says the crisis is just a Russia-Sweden affair. But Brezhnev, by this time, has fallen asleep.
Whiskey on the Rocks
