1. The Politics and Sociology of Screening the Past: A National and Transnational Perspective

Heritage is seldom written specifically into the cultural policy documents behind national film and television production in Europe. However, historical film and television play a crucial role in European film cultures, and clearly have very high audience figures. A historical TV drama like ITV’s Downton Abbey (2010–15) enjoyed around ten million viewers on average in the UK, and has been distributed to more than 220 territories globally. Danish historical TV drama often has a national share of between 60 per cent and 80 per cent, equal to an audience of between 1.5 and 2.5 million (of a population of 5.5 million), and the recent Danish historical drama 1864 (2014) has been sold to more than 60 countries. So, national historical productions clearly capture the national imagination and frame understandings of the past. At the same time, they often also speak to a transnational audience and are based on co-production and transnational support mechanisms. Thus, the international production of historical dramas and the success of such series tell us that the most popular national history and heritage also has a universal and transnational dimension. Within the context of this present volume, it is particularly interesting to see how this transnational dimension can interact with the efforts of key European institutions to make concrete notions of a collective European heritage.