The Best TV Shows on Yle TV1

Ihmebantu is a Finnish black humor sketch show.

An underdog challenges an unbeatable champion of motorcycle Grand Prix championships series in the early 70s, a time when even an amateur could win, but only by seriously risking his life on the track.

The Unknown Soldier miniseries expands the story of the 2017 film of the same name. The World War II series based on Väinö Linna's classic novel closely follows a machine gun company of the Finnish Army on the Karelian front during the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union, from mobilization in 1941 to the Moscow Armistice in 1944. It's a story about how camaraderie, humor, and a desire to survive connect men on their journey. War upends the lives of both the individual soldiers and those left on the home front, and leaves its mark on the entire nation.

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.

A unique drama anthology series for our time, inspired by true events which happened in Kyiv in the first few weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. As the brutal war got underway, every second person left Kyiv. Yet every second person remained. These are their stories – variously moving, funny, sad, stark, unsettling, and uplifting.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 story of the international refugee crisis, depicting a world where greed, violence and exploitation compete with hopes and dreams amid a constant fight for survival.