Articles about ZDF
Surface tension
DQ speaks to writer-director Friedemann Fromm and star Milena Tscharntke about German thriller Tod von Freunden (Beneath the Surface), in which the lives of two families are torn apart after a tragic accident.
Sommer time
The Sommerdahl Murders star Peter Mygind and creator Lolita Bellstar tell DQ about making the Danish blue-sky crime show and the importance of creating a friendly environment on set.
Dog days
Stars Josefin Asplund and Alexey Manvelov discuss the making of Swedish drama Top Dog, which centres on aspiring lawyer and an ex-con who forge an unlikely partnership.
Out of the shadows
DQ heads to Prague to meet the cast and crew of Shadowplay, a crime drama set in post-war Berlin where characters with competing agendas battle for power in a lawless city.
Agent secrets
Jan Guillou’s literary hero Carl Hamilton is given a contemporary update in Swedish action thriller Agent Hamilton. Star Jakob Oftebro and director Erik Leijonborg reveal how it was done.
Welcome to Windermere
The previously untold story of how hundreds of children came to the UK from concentration camps at the end of the Second World War is dramatised in The Windermere Children, a stark and poignant film commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Explosive Agent
DQ lands in Stockholm to find a city-centre park taken over by filming for spy action thriller Agent Hamilton. The cast and creative team reveal their screen ambitions for Jan Guillou’s iconic literary character.
Murder in Vienna
Period crime drama Vienna Blood stands out as a unique European project, an adaptation of Frank Tallis’s novels that has been produced in English for German and Austrian broadcasters. DQ finds out more.
Go West
Swedish drama West of Liberty brings the first book in Thomas Engström’s spy series to television. DQ speaks to producer Gunnar Carlsson about making the English-language series, which is set and filmed in Berlin.
Long haul
International coproductions are nothing new, but as more globally ambitious dramas are emerging, DQ speaks to the producers behind some of these long-distance series to find out how stories spanning multiple countries are made.
Take note
Actor Iris Berben and writer/director Nina Grosse talk to DQ about German drama Die Protokollantin (The Typist), which follows a typist from Berlin’s homicide division as she tries to solve the mystery behind her daughter’s disappearance.
Stars on show
Television held its own at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world as an array of talent and some stunning new shows landed in Germany for Berlinale’s fourth annual Drama Series Days. DQ was in town to find out more.
The Sky’s the limit
Actors Sofia Helin, Friederike Becht and Tom Schilling join writer Paula Milne to discuss German Cold War drama Der gleiche Himmel (The Same Sky) – a series about “ordinary people caught up in ordinary times” and the decisions they make in search of a better life.
Being Maximilian
One day Jannis Niewöhner was shooting an art-house film, the next he was giving a rallying speech to 150 extras on the set of a German historical miniseries. He tells DQ about period drama Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne.
The spy who loved me
Writer Paula Milne and director Oliver Hirschbiegel discuss their upcoming Cold War drama Der gleiche Himmel (The Same Sky), in which a ‘Romeo’ agent is sent on a seductive mission in 1970s Berlin.
Our friends in the frozen north
As Nordic drama continues to thrive, this week we look at some of the shows making headlines both within the region and beyond.
Israeli and Icelandic formats crack US
There’s evidence that US networks are still on the hunt for international formats this week following HBO and NBC pickups. Meanwhile, European historical coproductions also continue to attract investment.
Taken to the Max
Martin Ambrosch, the writer behind German crime drama Anatomy of Evil and the forthcoming historical series Maximilian, tells DQ about the challenge of meeting his own ambitions on screen.
Watch your language
Subtitles are now a familiar element of many TV dramas, but how are languages changing the stories we watch and the way these shows are made?
Trade secrets
There’s no exact science to creating a hit drama, but there are certainly plenty of things you can do to improve your odds. DQ hears from some of the best in the business.