Sandi Toksvig gives her first Danish interview

British TV star has kept low Danish profile until now

In an interview with  Weekendavisen this week, Sandi Toksvig reveals that she can’t go out in London without people trying to take selfies with her – "always when I have spinach between my teeth" – but she can walk around Copenhagen quite undisturbed. She is one of Britain’s highest profile TV personalities but, despite being half-Danish, she is unknown in Denmark.

Toksvig is the daughter of the former DR foreign correspondent Claus Toksvig, who graced Danish screens during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, covering events including the assassination of Martin Luther King and the first moonlanding. But Toksvig herself has avoided the Danish media as a rule.

She broke this rule this week, however. “Yes, this is the first time that I’ve ever given an interview to a Danish journalist,” she told the newspaper.

“I haven’t done it before because I didn’t want the spotlight to be on my family here in Denmark. I’ve always liked being able to go around incognito in Copenhagen.”

READ MORE: Bully for you Mr Burns!

Here to see her play
Toksvig speaks what Weekendavisen describes as “the finest Danish with a cautious hesitation and a gentle accent”.

She never attended a Danish school, instead attending a French one, Lycée Francais Prins Henrik in Hellerup, and then boarding school in England followed by Cambridge University where her contemporaries included most of the cast of 'Peter's Friends'. She hasn’t lived in Denmark since she was six, but she says that she loves the country and has a summerhouse in Jutland.

One of the reasons for her current visit to the capital is to attend the Danish production of the play Bully Boy, which she wrote. It is currently being performed by That Theatre Company at Krudttønden until next Saturday, November 22.  

 




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