Trom
The first
Faroese original
drama series is
a six-parter
following a
journalist who
receives a
message from
his estranged daughter claiming
that her life is in danger.
On Viaplay on Feb 13 and then BBC4
in springThe Fame
Game
Another series
about a
disappearance.
One of the most
prominent
actors in Hindi
cinema,
Madhuri Dixit, stars in a family
drama about a wife and mother
who goes missing. How much did
her friends and family really know
about her? Netflix, Feb 25Snow Angels
When a
five-week-old
baby goes
missing during
a snowstorm,
police feel
uneasy about
the parents’
story: something doesn’t add up.
Set in Stockholm, this drama
unpicks what happened as the
fates of the baby’s mother, the
policewoman investigating and a
nurse become interlinked. It stars
Josefin Asplund of Vikings fame.
Available to stream on All4 on
Mar 11, episode one is on Channel 4
on Mar 13Pachinko
This ambitious
saga, based on
a bestselling
novel, follows
a Korean family
through four
generations.
It stars Yuh-jung
Youn, who won an Oscar for her
role as the grandmother in Minari
and spans the 20th century,
switching between Korean,
Japanese and English as the family
grapples with identity, love and
death. There are eight episodes.
The first three episodes are on
Apple TV+ from Mar 25Jake HelmFOUR FOREIGN DRAMAS
TO LOOK OUT FOR*ENGRENAGES
SPIRAL* FRANCE i PLAYER (8 SERIES, 2005-21)
3
Tracking the undercover exploits of the
East German spy Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay,
below) and his Stasi aunt, Lenora (Maria
Schrader), throughout the 1980s, Anna
and Jeorg Winger’s Cold War espionage
series is balanced perfectly between
ironic camp, subtle parody and chilling
dread. It’s the highest-rated foreign-
language drama in UK TV history. “This is
the show that transformed the perception
of international drama,” Iuzzolino says.
“Before Deutschland, all subtitled
series were Scandi or French.” The
recipient of an international Emmy
and a Peabody award, it’s a show
that carries its lessons lightly,
allowing you to immerse yourself
in le Carré-like intrigues about
the decline and fall of the Stasi
and the collapse of the Soviet
Union, while checking out the
fashion and retro haircuts. As
Sue Deeks says: “Deutschland
is super stylish and slightly
kitsch. It makes spying fun.”2
Focusing on four talent agents (including
Camille Cottin, below) struggling to hold
their Parisian company together after the
death of their philandering boss, each
episode of this irresistible series buzzes with wit,
drama and grumpy Gallic charm. Plus there is the
delight of self-deprecating cameos from such
real-life stars as Monica Bellucci, Juliette Binoche
and Sigourney Weaver. Although we first wrote
about it in 2018 (after recommendations from
Andrew Holgate, the Sunday Times literary
editor, and the former Labour leader
Ed Miliband), Fanny Herrero’s French-
language showbiz comedy didn’t really
find an audience until lockdown. “It’s
a fun, sexy, affectionate look at the
world of showbusiness,” Iuzzolino
says. “It proves that international
drama doesn’t have to be about
crime and serial killers.”
A UK adaptation is in the
works, with Helena
Bonham Carter,
Dominic West and
David Oyelowo.CALL MY AGENT!* FRANCE
NETFLIX (4 SERIES, 2015-)*DEUTSCHLAND 83-89
implied an inevitable process of
getting caught in the system — and
whether it’s Caroline Proust’s frowning
feminist antiheroine Laure, Thierry
Godard’s coke-snorting liability Gilou
(above, with Proust), or Audrey
Fleurot’s deeply unscrupulous lawyer
Joséphine Karlsson, these are
characters forever balanced on the
knife edge of criminality. “The cops are
beautifully insouciant and French,”Frostrup says. “It’s a crime show
that’s cliché free.” Which also means
that Spiral cares naught for your
affections and will kill off or disappear
beloved characters in a flash. Its
eighth and final season went out
last year, and while a US remake has
been promised since 2012, nothing
has appeared. Maybe even the
Americans know that you can’t
improve on perfection.1
The first foreign crime drama
to break through on the BBC
and arguably still the best.
With suave Gallic acerbity it
explores the criminality and
violence of Paris’s labyrinthine
underbelly, focusing on the
beaten-down police officers and
unprincipled lawyers charged with
keeping order. Its original French
title, Engrenages, meaning gears,DEUTSCHLAND 83-89* GERMANY
WALTER PRESENTS/ALL4 (3 SERIES, 2015-20)*DIX POUR CENT
6 February 2022 7