PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • APRIL 1 - 7, 2021
Sofia Helin and Kyle
MacLachlan star in
“Atlantic Crossing on
Masterpiece” beginning
Sunday on PBS (check
local listings).
BY JAY BOBBIN
A special political relationship fuels ‘Atlantic Crossing’ on ‘Masterpiece’
If war can make for strange bedfellows, that doesn’t go only
for soldiers, but also sometimes for world leaders.
A true example from World War II is dramatized in the
“Masterpiece” series “Atlantic Crossing,” which begins
its eight-part run on the PBS anthology during its 50th-
anniversary season Sunday, April 4 (check local listings).
President Franklin D. Roosevelt – played, with a notable assist
from the makeup department, by Kyle MacLachlan – offers
safe harbor to Crown Princess Martha of Norway (Sofia
Helin, “The Bridge”) and her children when her country is
invaded by Nazi officers, generating a variety of opinions from
other politicians and the two leaders’ constituents.
“It all has to do with the gray hair,” muses “Twin Peaks” and
“Sex and the City” alum MacLachlan about taking on the part
of FDR. “I’m just grateful to still be in the game and to have
wonderful opportunities like playing Roosevelt in ‘Atlantic
Crossing,’ with such amazing people guiding me. As an actor,
I think it’s always about the challenge, and in some ways the
uncertainty as to the ability to pull something off. I love that
fear. It drives me ... and the idea of playing Roosevelt was a
pretty monumental consideration. He stands tall, certainly in
American history and among all American presidents.”
“Atlantic Crossing” co-writer Linda May Kallestein explains,
“We started out by looking into the Roosevelt Library at
the National Archives, and we found some letters between
the crown princess and the president where she asks him to
remember her little country when she presents some problems
that she hopes he can help solve. And that was the starting
point.
“We wanted to dive deep down as far as we could get to
primary sources,” Kallestein adds, “so little by little, we pieced
together this story that even in Norway is not known. The
crown princess sadly died in the ‘50s, so everything she did
during the war is more or less forgotten. It was quite the
journey.”
Co-star Helin admits that she “had never heard of” Crown
Princess Martha, “even though she’s Swedish and all this
happened. I guess that’s a result of telling the story from the
male perspective for 80 years, and now it’s time to tell another
perspective. When Alexander (Eik, executive producer, co-
writer and director of ‘Atlantic Crossing’) pitched this to me,
I knew instantly that I needed to tell this story about this
woman.
“Heroes who don’t take any credit for what they do (are)
the most interesting heroes,” Helin notes, “so the character
just instantly came to me, and I wanted to do it. No one in
Sweden knew about her, either ... but in Norway, she’s more
famous.”
Guide to the TV grids
TV Ratings:
‘G’: General audience
‘Y’: Young children
‘7’: Children over 7
‘14’: Children over 14
‘PG’: Parental guidance
‘M’: Mature audience only
PA: Parental advisory
DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
Common symbols :
HD scheduling, please
note:
’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
iTV: Interactive TV program
N: Program is new
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