Carmen Curlers: This delightful Danish drama finally comes to Rialto

Tuesday, 21 July 2026

REVIEW: Axel Byvang (Morten Hee Andersen) is convinced he’s discovered what will become an indispensable part of every housewife’s life.

While his day job is running a high street radio and TV store in early 1960s Denmark, he’s also keen to invest in revolutionary technology. That’s why he’s put up 12,000 Kroner to be an equal partner in the creation of an electric orange peeler. Wife Tove (Rosalinde Mynster) though, is less than impressed, especially when she’s the one left to clean up the mess.

Undeterred, Axel has already moved on to his next idea, inspired by a visit to the local hairdresser. Noting the disappointment on fellow potential customer Birthe’s (Maria Rossing) face, when informed that getting a “water wave” ahead of her son’s confirmation will not only take two hours, but will require her to “immediately put on a scarf, not move around during the day, stay indoors and sleep in an upright position”, he’s convinced there must be a better way.

After some investigation, he tracks down Nielsen (Søren Bang Jensen), a man who has developed protoype electric rollers. “Do you know anything about hair?” the inventor enquires.

“I know that every woman has it and they care greatly about how it looks,” Axel responds.

Initial testing on Tove does not go well. As she opines about the burning sensation, Axel only increases her ire by pouring water over her head. Subsequently finding them difficult to remove, it requires a trip to the salon to extricate them, stylist Frans (Nicolai Jørgensen) scoffing at the suggestion that the leaky curlers are anything, but fatally flawed.

However, he does offer Axel one shaft of hope, by noting that if he found something that did work well it “would revolutionise the industry and become a worldwide sensation”.

Finally debuting here almost four years after it made its bow in its native Denmark (it completed its three-season, 24-episode arc there in November 2025), Carmen Curlers is an entertaining and engrossing look at a real-life entrepreneur and company that promised their customers they would “become a new woman in 10 minutes”.

In many ways, Mette Heeno’s (2018’s Happy Ending) delightful drama reminded me of British feelgood fare like Kinky Boots and Made in Dagenham and the 1950s and ‘60s set American series Masters of Sex, with its focus on a cadre of colourful characters, adult situations, familial, marital and workplace strife and sharp writing that gives the impressive ensemble plenty of terrific dialogue and palpable tension work with.

Carmen Curlers debuts on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel at 8.30pm tonight (Tuesday, July 21).