This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
“It’s unreal. I just pretend it’s not happening,” says Jo Nesbø, creator of Netflix’s Detective Hole series and the 60-million-selling books that came before it. But is he talking about his hero’s troubled personal life? The occult mystery at the heart of the show’s plot? No, he means the significant number of tourists pottering around Oslo looking for spots featured in the book or series.
The city’s tourist board has a whole microsite devoted to helping holidaymakers find Harry’s haunts (visitoslo.com/en/articles/harry-hole) – but here are a few of Nesbø’s own highlights.
Harry’s house
Sofies gate 5
When looking for a locale for his hero, Nesbø admits: “I made things easy for myself by writing about places close to where I lived.” The author still has a place in Bislett, one of Oslo’s oldest neighbourhoods, though he’d rather you focused on Hole’s address than his own. “I’ve been in James Joyce’s house in Dublin, and it didn’t give me any insight into his writing, and it didn’t clear up [Joyce’s notoriously difficult epic] Finnegans Wake.” Instead, locate Harry’s place at Sofies gate 5 – you’ll find some genius has assigned a buzzer to HARRY HOLE on the flats’ entry phone system.
Watering Hole
Restaurant Schrøder
To say Schrøder’s (Waldemar Thranes gate 8; restaurant-schrøder.no) is Harry’s regular hang-out is a decorous understatement. The joint features in every single book and takes a starring role in the TV series, too. You may or may not understand Hole’s devotion once you’ve been here – it’s a no-frills bar/restaurant where neither the decor nor menu seems to have changed much since it opened in 1956 – but you’ll see why it suits the dissolute detective: drinks are cheap and breakfast is served between noon and 3pm. Its sole concession to its newfound fame is a small plaque above one random table that says plainly, “This is the table Harry Hole prefers to sit at.”
Where does Nesbø go? “There are bars near there that I like, but I’d risk ruining them for the clientele if I told an international audience about them.”
Eerie outdoor arthouse
Vigeland Sculpture Park
Nesbø’s not worried about letting the cat out of the bag with this one: “Vigeland Park isn’t exactly a secret – plenty of people go there – but it’s a beautiful place, and you should absolutely see it if you’re in Oslo.”
A set of sculptures by local artist Gustav Vigeland, it may sound “meh”, but it’s a thoroughly spooky experience at dusk or after dark (it’s open 24 hours), with around 200 naked figures, including some angry-looking giant granite babies and a bizarre tower comprising writhing nudes (The Monolith). There’s also an indoor museum (vigeland.museum.no/en), and when you need a break from all the art on display, you’re surrounded by the city’s lovely, lush Frogner Park.
Making a splash
Frognerbadet Public Bath
A cheerful dip in an open-air pool isn’t perhaps 100 per cent in character for Harry Hole. (Like all good TV detectives, he has his dark side.) But Frognerbadet features in both the Netflix adaptation and a few of the books, so it’s an obvious place of pilgrimage for fans. Sadly, those who want to swim will have to wait until next year, as the three-pool complex is currently closed for renovations – but there will then be a waterslide.
It’s only ever open in summer, but meanwhile, there’s much else to explore in the area: the Oslo Museum is five minutes’ walk away, and you’re not far from Torshovdalen, one of Nesbø’s favourite parts of the city.
Drink in the culture
National Theatre
In the show, we see Harry at Oslo’s glorious National Theatre (nationaltheatret.no). He’s not there to enjoy a performance of My Fair Lady, though; he’s investigating the disappearance of its director’s wife. Likewise, you don’t have to fancy its current offering, “poetic and painful” Gi Meg Hånden (“Give Me Your Hand”) to enjoy a visit: hour-long guided tours, in English, get you backstage at both the institution’s two spectacular performance spaces, and throw in a helping of history too, covering off both Norway’s most celebrated writer, Henrik Ibsen, and the country’s second biggest literary hero, the somewhat-less-internationally-renowned Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. That said, you might just pop into the building’s excellent new cocktail place, the Theatre Bar, instead. That is, after all, what Harry would do.
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