The Unknown Soldier: an 18 Hour Reading Marathon

Yle’s 2025 surprise mega hit: 18 hours, 67 readers, a slow TV event in which the classic war novel The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna was read out loud from cover to cover! The project was ernormously successful with 1,3 million streaming starts, a broadcast reach of 1,2 million, a chat with over 100,000 users and pure love and genuine tears from every segment of the audience. This in a country of only 5,5 million people, with public service broadcasting facing its biggest budget cuts ever. How was this success possible? We read the Zeitgeist: The event was extreme enough. It worked on both live streaming and broadcast, and an 18 hour chat gave people the possibility to react and watch it together. With this project we wanted to promote reading by simply showing people from all walks of life reading out loud. The cast included people such as the president of Finland, an 18 year old pop star, athletes, authors, foreign correspondents, actors and influencers. This diverse and intergenerational cast also captivated younger audiences. We went back to the original text and listened to how it resonates now, with war in Europe. Inmidst deepening polarisation, coming together to read and listen to a 70 year old pacifist war novel grew into a healing and unifying moment.