The year was 1993 when the "Wizard Rebellion" shook the nation.

In a new documentary on Sveriges Radio, the events behind the two-week feud between SVT and the Swedish magicians' guild, led by Carl-Einar Häckner and Lasse Råde, among others, are depicted.

- There are hundreds of magicians in this country who toil and struggle with their art form.

Many of them get rid of their props here, explained an upset Lasse Råde. 

Anonymous death threats

The trigger was the new Friday entertainment "Rena Rama Sanningen", where Harald Treutiger, with the help of secretly purchased magician's equipment, revealed classic illusion numbers such as "Den itusagade damen" and "The Guillotine".

He didn't have time to go any further than that, before the SVT management sided with the magicians after two Fridays and stopped the revelations.

Harald Treutiger, who had then received anonymous death threats for his program, reluctantly resigned from "Go'morron Sweden" and announced that it was the end of the game for him.

However, an apology to the outraged wizards was out of the question, Treutiger assured, and called the whole thing "a campaign with distasteful elements".

Belated apology

In the new SR documentary "Harald Treutiger and Trollkarlsupproret", the presenter laughs at the memory of the turned-up tone in the debates.

And declares, 30 years later, that he is now ready to apologize.

- Haha, you can have that now if you want!

You can have that, an apology to the poor free-time wizards who thought their lives were hell, says Harald Treutiger to Sweden's Radio P4.