We've had a few days to digest series two's barnstorming finale - which means for Borgen fans, the withdrawal symptoms are starting to kick in. There's a long wait for series three on BBC4, too: we're not expecting it until the back end of 2013 at the earliest, if not next year in its traditional, icy January slot. Tomorrow night there's some French rubbish called Spiral on instead. Bøø.

But Borgen III is already running in Denmark, so we asked the lovely people at DR, Borgen's home broadcaster, for a little taster. It's here, it's exciting, and if you want absolutely no spoilers at all you might not want to read it - but we've been pretty careful. We don't think this ruins anything.

The first thing to know is that we don't see the election that was dramatically called by dreamy, embattled Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) at the end of series two. The action picks up two-and-a-half YEARS later.

There have been some big changes, of which the most important surely is that Kasper (Pilou Asbaek) has shaved off his beard and changed his hair, with devastating but sexy results. See below.

Kasper seems to be quite literally in a dark place there. We've all felt like that on the way back from the hairdresser's.

The spin doctor's astonishing new look is also in evidence in this next shot, as he and his luxury new barnet enjoy some quiet time with a child who looks about two-and-a-half years old...

(There is a photo in existence of Kasper later on in series three with a second, even more shocking hairdo, but we don't think you're ready for it. Sorry.)

Borgen has always been about the ups and downs of not one but two intelligent women flourishing in male-dominated worlds: as well as Birgitte Nyborg in politics, there's Katrine Fonsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), the TV journalist.

To our recollection, however, the two have barely interacted with each other directly apart from when Katrine's interviewed Birgitte for TV1. Evidently that's changed...

Some things don't change, however. Birgitte's loyal adviser and friend Bent (he's still alive!) is on hand to participate in fraught outdoor meetings, during which Bent beardily predicts a horrific political crisis, while Birgitte looks concerned but stylish, with tremendous hair.

Now here's Birgitte in bed - OK, on a bed - with Archie from Monarch of the Glen, a show that's still massive in Denmark.

That's right: next season, Alastair Mackenzie plays Birgitte's new love interest Jeremy Welsh, a dishy divorced architect. He's British, which presumably means more of Birgitte's regally accented English. This was sexy enough when she was ending a civil war in Africa, but in a bedroom scenario it would-- let's move on. Sorry.

This year it seems there are ups and downs for Torben Friis (Soren Malling), Katrine's ineffectual boss at TV1 who was also in The Killing. He has a hot new sidekick on his popular TV show "Torben Explains The Political Bits Of The Plot" - wait and find out who that is - but he also has to deal with this guy: Alexander Hjort (Christian Tafdrup), the senselessly attractive new programdirektør at the station.

That we've chosen to picture Alexander instead of Torben perhaps mirrors the sort of problem Torben might have.

And last but not least... the new title sequence! People striding about in silhouette in more or less the same way, but in slightly different circumstances and combinations! Watch it closely and you can probably work out most of what's revealed in the first episode of series three. 

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