The idea is simple. Onboard cameras, a long boat or train ride, a crackling fire in a chimney or a knitting workshop. It does not take more than that the Slow TV sees the day. From reality to the first meaning of the term in short. For hours and hours, one lets his mind wander by watching a boat go on and on.

The first steps of the Slow TV

In 2009, during the centenary of the railway line that connects Bergen and Oslo, cameras embarked on a train film the landscapes and the crossing continuously, with archive images for passages under the tunnels. Unbelievable but true, nearly a quarter of the Norwegian population (1.2 million people) was part of this unprecedented journey of 7 hours and 16 minutes on the Norwegian channel NRK2.

The Slow TV, or the praise of slowness

No suspense, intrigue or other directing. A real reality show that shows real life and its little pleasures. The format is always the same: first, experts express themselves on the subject to give place to a practice in real time: in early November, NRK showed from A to Z the making of a pullover in eight hours and 35 minutes, from the mowing of the sheep to the last stitch.

" It's reality TV in the literal sense of the term: something authentic, that's shown in real time and without condensation, " says Rune Moeklebust, program unit manager at NRK, a Norwegian channel . (Source: Huffington Post)

If watching a boat along the Norwegian coastline may seem boring, others will argue that it allows traveling, getting caught up in the game of cruising and an 82-year-old viewer even admits he did not join his bed for 5 days taken by the crossing!

A concept in complete opposition to the ambient culture which is to permanent zapping, cut sequences and the permanent search for the phrase that will become cult.

Take the time, let her mind escape ... would Norway be opening the new era of television?