This article deals with the influence of John Grierson on the development of the Scandinavian documentary film and television movement. Grierson's poetic for a new documentary had a strong influence on the Scandinavian documentary movement from the 1930s and on. The combination of a documentary format that combined a new aesthetic form with a social vision was developed in the early British class society but pointed towards a more democratic wellfare society. Key Scandinavian figures and institutions in this development of a modern, documentary movement is analysed.