DR in Denmark rejigs drama department as part of digital push

Danish pubcaster DR has tapped Henriette Marienlund to oversee its drama unit while it is also on the hunt for an artistic director for the department.

Henriette Marienlund

Marienlund, former director of media at DR and channel manager for DR1, will now be in charge of DR’s scripted strategy, including daily operations.

DR’s yet-to-be-appointed artistic director for the department will report to Marienlund, who was previously on DR’s drama advisory board.

It comes after DR’s former head of drama Christian Rank stepped down from the role last month, with Marianne Bennetzen, DR Drama’s deputy director, taking on the role on an interim basis.

The decision to split the director of drama role into two is part of the pubcaster’s wider strategy to grow DR’s presence online and become a fully digital public service institution, the pubcaster’s CEO Maria Rørbye Rønn said this week.

As part of this, DR is closing down the department DR Media and creating a new one, called DR User, Marketing & Publishing.

Rønn said this would not result in any redundancies, because employees are instead moving to other departments such as DR News and DR Culture, Children & Young People.

The intention is for all content created by DR to be able to function digitally, including its fiction output, with the new strategy planned to be completed by the beginning of 2022.

Among the forthcoming drama series coming out of DR’s drama unit are: Carmen Curlers, set in Denmark in the 1960s; comedy drama The Orchestra, with Frederik Cilius and Rasmus Bruun; and The Wolf is Coming.