The Best TV Shows on Yle TV1

Invisible Heroes tells the heroic tale of young Finnish diplomats in Chile during 1973’s infamous military coup. Finnish diplomats Tapani Brotherus and Ilkka Jaamala along with Tapani’s wife Lysa Brotherus helped over 2000 left-wing Chileans escape the military junta’s persecution. The Finns acted without official authorization while Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam was the most visible defendant of human rights with the backing of Sweden’s Prime Minister, Olof Palme.

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.

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 Autocrats was a Finnish political satire TV series, which takes the viewer behind the scenes of the politics of Finland. The series is produced by Filmiteollisuus and is made using 3D computer animation. The original idea for the series came from producer Olli Haikka. As of 5 January 2008, 233 episodes – comprising approximately 30 hours of footage – have been aired.

Hengaillaan is a Saturday night entertainment programme that combines quizzes, live music and taste tourism. Hosted by Jenni Poikelus and judged by Riku Rantala. Celebrity contestants will be taken on a journey to destinations in Finland, Europe and the world to test their knowledge in a series of changing questions. The topics include everything from contemporary entertainment to history, music, sport and geography. Master chef Kozeen Shiwan will put the teams' taste buds to the test with food questions inspired by the destinations. An intermittent live band will bring its own rhythm to the tracks.

Having just retired from the Danish Secret Service, Ditte Jensen has settled into a small apartment building in Reykjavík. Possessing a strong sense of justice, she doesn't hesitate to get involved in her neighbours' problems and help them.

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.

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?

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.

A huge train accident in an idyllic small town shocks the whole of Finland, and accident investigator Marita Kaila is faced with the most difficult case of her career. Under increasing pressure, Marita and her team try to find out what led to the death of dozens of people. But there is also a tragedy in Marita's own past, which the demanding investigation brings to the fore. Will he solve the case before the pressure becomes too much?

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.

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.

Eränkävijät is a TV series about hunting and fishing in modern-day Finland. The series follows the stories of the main characters, who are wilderness enthusiasts, as they hunt and fish. They are united by their love of Finnish nature, even though they come from different backgrounds and have different stories, and are from different parts of Finland. While the fells in the north are covered in snow and the lakes are frozen, in the south the ground is still thawed and people are fishing in flowing waters. And while large predators are hunted on the eastern border, further north people hunt waterfowl using traditional methods. The protection of game and fish stocks remains a vital part of the wilderness enthusiasts' hobby and way of life.

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.

From the icy desert of Svalbard to the sun-kissed Mediterranean, this six-part wildlife series explores Europe’s most important and fascinating habitats, and meets their most remarkable wild inhabitants. Blue whales, polar bears, wolverines, and soaring golden eagles star alongside rarely-seen marvels such as genets, Iberian wolves, Eurasian lynx and rare Persian leopards. Packed with spectacular imagery and new-to-science behaviour, Europe is one of the most ambitious wildlife series ever made.