The Best TV Shows on Yle TV1

A six-part documentary series about the least known events of World War II. The series reveal a little-known picture and countless unknown details of the events of World War II in the north.

Sketch show Studio Julmahuvi ran for 8 episodes on YLE in 1998. The show is a parody of YLE's own programming, squeezing an entire evening's worth of programming into a half-hour show which included everything from news and weather to a children's show and a German police drama, with commercials and TV-spots on the side. The show was created with an impressive budget of 67 000 € per episode which resulted in extremely high production-values.

Ihmebantu is a Finnish black humor sketch show.

A satirical spy comedy. Aleksis Nyqvist, an intern at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is pushed to the head of Finland's newly founded secret service, when a suitable dummy is needed for the position. However, Nyqvist identifies with his role too well and accidentally causes a security political crisis - and soon Helsinki is swarming with secret agents. How is Nyqvist doing?

The story of DI Kari Sorjonen of the Serious Crime Unit in Lappeenranta, his family, and his investigations into a variety of harrowing homicides around the border area.

The Eurovision Song Contest is an international song competition, organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and featuring participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the EBU's Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner.

Family man Elias Karo takes four journalist hostage at their newspaper’s headquarters, in a desperate attempt to get them to reveal the wrongdoing wreaked on his family during the 90's recession.

Raid is based on detective stories by author Harri Nykänen and made into a 12-part series. The story tells about a police officer who has been investigating white-collar crimes is shot dead in a TV-studio. Another policeman takes his own life at his summer home. A young woman, an executive with a powerful electronics concern, also commits suicide. Her embittered father suspects foul play and he invites Raid, the woman's former boyfriend to "make inquiries". Meanwhile, the police are looking for the first killer - and the trail leads inexorably to Raid. Very soon, however, they realise that the guilty party is somewhere else, and the interests of the police and the avenging angel Raid converge. The unholy alliance shows that even those with morals may, to some extent, use immoral means to achieve an end. The Raid series was voted the best TV-programme in Finland year 2000. Tapio Piirainen received an award for best script and best direction.

A journalist traces a microchip found in baby food. A bank manager's mistake ensnares her in a much larger scheme. A family falls apart after the father goes missing. An insurance examiner investigates what happened to a border control veterinarian. This suspenseful Nordic noir drama enters the world of international money laundering through the stories of ordinary people caught up in the crimes.

Himmelblå is a Norwegian drama series which aired on NRK1 in Norway, on SVT in Sweden and on RÚV in Iceland. It is based on the British TV drama Two Thousand Acres of Sky written by Timothy Prager and produced by Adrian Bate.

Police work, boxing and family life in Lapland! Maria Pudas (Saara Kotkaniemi), a former boxing world champion, investigates crimes with her partner Samu Pajala (Karim Rapatti) in Lapland. The life of Maria's cordial and slightly chaotic family (Iina Kuustonen, Eero Saarinen, Katariina Kaitue and Heikki Ranta) changes when Maria's father Esko has a seizure and it is revealed that he has debts of 500,000 euros. In order to save her family, Maria decides to return to the ring once more, and to resolve the situation, only victory matters.

Hobitit is a Finnish live action fantasy television miniseries originally broadcast in 1993 on Yle TV1. Produced by Olof Qvickström, it is based on the events of the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Strömsö is a Finnish television program which premiered in 2002 on FST and TV1, hosted by Matias Jungar and Susanna Ström-Wilkinson. The show concentrates on various household subjects, such as cooking and gardening. Its fifth season started on January 29, 2006. Since the beginning of 2007 the show is hosted by Lee Esselström and Jocke Lax. The show is made at Strömsö, a villa north of the city of Vaasa. The villa was built in the 1860s and served as the summer residence for a merchant family from Vaasa for about 100 years.

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (abbreviated UMK) is an annual music contest organised by the Finnish public broadcaster Yle. UMK began in 2012 as a new concept for the Finnish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, replacing the original Finnish Eurovision Song Contest qualifying event (Suomen euroviisukarsinta) which had been held since 1961.

The life of Aki Honkala, a blindly dedicated Member of the European Parliament, takes a radical turn during one scandal-plagued election night. The fall from grace is no surprise to anyone but himself. The people have spoken, let the chatter go - but what remains of a man who has lived and breathed politics for most of his adult life?