Gösta Prüzelius

Rederiet was a long-running Swedish soap opera that aired on Sveriges Television between 1992 and 2002. The cast featured many popular and renowned Swedish actors, and the show has often been referred to as Sweden’s version of Dynasty.

The 45-minute episodes were broadcast weekly on Thursday nights on the public-service channel SVT1 and normally had between one and two million viewers. For ten years, Rederiet was the number-one rated show on Swedish television, along with the rival TV4 show Tre Kronor. The competition for viewers can be compared to that between Dynasty and Dallas.

Rederiet also gained popularity in Finland on YLE TV2, and the show was a hit in Norway too on TV2. The first season of the show was also sold to Egypt. The later seasons of the series were produced in collaboration with YLE, which led most notably to Finnish actor Åke Lindman appearing in the series. Rapper Ken Ring also appeared as an extra in the show in 1996.

On April Fools’ Day 1993 SVT News announced that Mel Gibson was to play a lead role in the series. Gibson himself was interviewed and confirmed the information. It was later revealed that the whole event had been a joke.