Pyrus (series)

Pyrus
Created byMartin Miehe-Renard
StarringJan Linnebjerg
Paul Hüttel
Christiane Bjørg Nielsen
Jesper Klein
Jeanne Boel
Steen Stig Lommer
Karen Gardelli
Henrik H. Lund
Søren Østergaard
Niccié Jølst
Nicolé Jølst
Country of originDenmark
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes96
Production
Running time25 minutes
Original release
NetworkTV 2 (Denmark)
Release1 December 1994 (1994-12-01) –
24 December 2000 (2000-12-24)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Pyrus is a julekalender (Christmas Calendar) TV series broadcast on the Danish television station TV2 at Christmas time in Denmark. Initially broadcast as four semi-independent seasons, the series consists of Alletiders Jul (1994), Alletiders nisse (1995), Alletiders Julemand (1997), and Alletiders Eventyr (2000), as well as a spin-off feature film, Pyrus på Pletten, which premiered on Christmas Eve 2000.

The series is about Pyrus, an elf or nisse (or tomten), a term which is cognate with elf, but in this case specifically a Christmas elf, who lives inside of a box in the National Archives of Denmark with other elves named Kandis and Gyldengrød. Gyldengrød is the elf archivist and Pyrus and Kandis are his two apprentices. The human archivist is called Birger Bertramsen and he also has a trainee, his daughter Josefine Brahe. The humans and the elves both study national history, though in different ways. The elves can conjure themselves into both fiction and history books and gather first-hand information from the people inside the books, while the humans conduct more traditional research from the historical documents in the Archives.

The series' central plot is about Pyrus and his friends' exploration of the History of Denmark, especially the history of Danish Christmas and its related concepts, and the titles are a double entendre, playing on the meaning of Alletiders as meaning both Great and Of all times. The first season, from 1994, was called Alletiders Jul, (Christmas for the Ages) followed by Alletiders nisse (elf for the Ages); Alletiders Julemand (Santa Claus for the Ages) and Alletiders Eventyr (Fairytale for the Ages), with the concepts of, respectively, Christmas in general; the elf; the figure of Santa Clause; and Fairy Tales being the central theme of each series.