[Favourite of the Month] A British police officer teams up with a German cop under the sun of Mallorca in this stylish and fun new drama.
Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic islands, a Spanish archipelago in the Mediteranean sea. It's one of the favourite destinations of tourists from the U.K. and, most of all, Germany. Mallorca is even nicknamed "the 17th German federal state". The Mallorca Files is a detective drama set on the island and commissioned for BBC One's daytime, home of Father Brown and Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators.
Created by British scriptwriter Dan Sefton (The Good Karma Hospital, Trust Me), who's the showrunner and main writer, the 10 x 45-minute series is produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures and Clerkenwell Films with BBC Studios, BritBox, France.tv (France Télévisions) and Germany's ZDF Neo. This international partnership allowed a prime time budget. Honour Amongst Thieves, the fast-paced premiere episode, was penned by Dan Sefton and directed by Bryn Higgins.
Miranda Blake, an uptight Detective Constable from the London Metropolitan Police, is in Mallorca to escort gang lord Niall Taylor back to England. They are ambushed at the airport and Taylor is shot dead. DC Blake takes some days off to find out who set them up. Police Chief Ines Villegas obliges her to collaborate with Max Winter, a laid-back detective from Munich working for the German division of the Mallorca police. He drives an old BMW and procedure isn't his forte.
Niall Taylor and his gang were behind a spectacular robbery but Taylor was about to testify against his accomplices. From a golf field to a funeral, Miranda and Max try to work together. The Mallorca Files stars Welsh actress Elen Rhys (The Bastard Executioner) as Miranda Blake and Vienna-born actor Julian Looman (Pagan Peak/Der Pass) as Max Winter. Their perfect on-screen chemistry is the key element of a thoroughly devised sunny take on the unlikely sleuth duo.
Effective and funny, The Mallorca Files is a brilliant encounter between Death in Paradise (or Dempsey and Makepeace) and German crime dramas. It also reminds of Moonlighting and Hustle. Other regular cast members are María Fernández Ache (Ines), Nacho Aldeguer (Isabel) as pathologist Federico Ramis, Tábata Cerezo (Carmen Lorenzo), Denis Schmidt (Max's best friend Christian) and Carlos Olalla (The Time in Between) as Joan Lorenzo.
The talented Aidan McArdle (Maigret, Mr Selfridge) guest stars as Niall Taylor. Tanya Moodie (A Discovery of Witches, Sherlock) is fabulous as Superintendent Abbey Palmer. Denise McCormack (Stella), Tanya Reynolds (Claire), Robbie Gee (Freddie Case) and Robert Cavanah (Tony Rogan) are the other guest stars of Episode 1. Exec produced by Ben Donald, Dan Sefton and Murray Ferguson. Produced by Dominic Barlow. Michael Robins is the line producer.
Charlie Mole (Mr Selfridge) is the composer of the excellent soundtrack. Surrender, the catchy main title song, and Time on our side, the end title, are performed by Anna Ross. Both were written by Charlie Mole. Cinematography by Jan Jonaeus. Edited by Mark Davis. Titles by Huge Designs. Filmed entirely on location in Mallorca with the help and support of the Illes Ballears Film Commission and the Mallorca Film Commission. Production services by Finca Producciones SPA and Palma Pictures.
The other writers of The Mallorca Files are Dan Muirden, Alex McBride, Rachael New and Sarah-Louise Hawkins. The other directors are Charlie Palmer, Gordon Anderson and Rob Evans. A second series has been commissioned before the start of the first on Monday 25 November. All the episodes of Series 1 are available on BBC iPlayer for U.K. viewers. The Mallorca Files will be aired in prime time in Germany and France (on France 2).
Special thanks to Chris Charlton.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/the-mallorca-files
https://www.annarossofficial.com/ (Anna Ross)
See also:
https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/drama/the-mallorca-files-bbc1/5145104.article?fbclid=IwAR0FdSF84ozdKRs4mq3Kv3FnZgVb5CFXkXDS2D-JSWUu9wcM2x9NUd5hBPM