Slow TV Roneset

Can you spot the white and red farm buildings on the headland to the south? They are home to a man who has become an international celebrity due to the choice he made a few years ago. He was fed up with the routine of an ordinary life and an ordinary job. He got up in the morning, went to work, operated a machine, travelled home, had his dinner. Every day was the same. So he quit his job and moved to Røneset, a farm without a road connection. He wanted to live there and become as self-sufficient as possible, far away from other people. For a number of years, we have been watching Severin Rønes on television as he goes about his daily life. After the first series, Severin received many letters with proposals of marriage from women who had taken a fancy to the recluse. One of them won his heart – and we remain loyal viewers, watching events as they unfold. This type of slow TV has been a hit in Norway and abroad. Examples include ‘Hurtigruten minute by minute’, and other programmes featuring knitting, woodfires or reindeer migration. At a time when we can choose from all sorts of entertainment and the most wondrous cinema productions, we suddenly find ourselves transfixed in front of our television screens watching the train travel between Oslo and Bergen, minute by minute, in real time. Or we watch Severin Rønes cut away a bit of meat that has gone bad from a leg of lamb, and add some more salt.