Show of the Week: ‘The Mallorca Files’

BBC Daytime crime drama The Mallorca Files (10 x 45 minutes) centres on the clash of personalities between a British and German detective who have very different approaches to policing.

Elen Rhys plays self-confessed British introvert Miranda Blake, while Julian Looman is her German partner-in-crime Max Winter – a classic extrovert. Both seek to solve a new crime each week, set against the sunny backdrop of the Balearic island.

The Mallorca Files is the first production greenlit for Cosmopolitan Pictures, the prodco founded by former BBC Worldwide drama boss Ben Donald in 2014, and created with Clerkenwell Films. The showrunner is Dan Sefton, whose credits include The Good Karma Hospital, Trust Me, Delicious and Porters.

Donald says two things inspired the show: “A desire to create a feel-good action-driven cop show like the ones I grew up with and, secondly, a desire to rebrand and refresh the Anglo-German relationship on television.”

This, he says, has been seen for decades through the prism of series such as ‘Allo ‘Allo!, Fawlty Towers and Harry Enfield.

“I wanted to take it out of sketch comedy/sitcom and bring it into the 21st century. Brits and Germans are more similar than we would dare to admit, and they’re two countries that both view the island of Mallorca as their own.”

He says the relationship between the detectives is key to the series. “It’s a crime show driven by personality, which is as much about the pleasure of hanging out with two great characters as it is about an exciting, satisfying crime story.”
Co-production partners include BritBox US and Canada, ZDFneo for Germany and France 2.

Distributor: BBC Studios
Producers: Cosmopolitan Pictures, Clerkenwell Films
Broadcaster: BBC One (UK)
Logline: A crime procedural following clashing British and German detectives