Norway to air five-hour 'slow TV' knitting show

The programme, the latest in a string of unlikely shows NRK calls "slow but noble television", will start at 7.30pm on November 1 and is expected to continue until past midnight. 

 

The group are aiming to beat the world's knitting record in 'from sheep to sweater' category. 

 

"We have already earmarked the lamb to be shorn, and started to put together the team of eight people who will be trying to break the knitting record: one to sheer, while the seven remaining must spin and knit as fast as they can," the program's producer Lise-May Spissøy told NRK. 

 

In February, NRK released a 12-hour programme showing a crackling fire being built and maintained, a show that was covered by the BBC in the UK, and other networks around the world. In 2011 it broadcast more than 130 hours of a cruise ship sailing up the Norwegian coast to the Arctic.

 

"You would think it's boring television, but we have quite a good ratings for these programmes, so obviously there's an audience for it," Kristian Elster, a journalist who works as a journalist in NRK's international affairs department, told The Local. 

 

Elster's passion for knitting, which he uses to kill the time on assignment, will feature in a short four minute slot during the night. 

 

"To give you an example, I was in France last year covering the presidential election, and I was knitting in a cafe during my lunch break, and that made a woman who worked in real estate start talking to me and I ended up doing a programme on French property prices. You sort of get in contact with people you wouldn't normally get into contact with," he says.  

 

"It's going to be knitting the whole time," he added about the forthcoming programme. "But they will now and then send some pre-produced programmes, like with me for a couple of minutes."

 

The team are trying to beat the four hour fifty one second record set by an Australian team, meaning the programme should continue until past midnight.