30 years of “Rosamunde Pilcher”
Interesting facts and a greeting from “extreme fan” Horst Lichter
Rosamunde Pilcher (l.) wrote the novels for the successful ZDF film series, the first edition of which featured Sophie von Kessel Horst Lichter in the anniversary edition.
© [M] ZDF/Jon Ailes / ZDF/Jon Ailes / ZDF/David Farrwell
The “Rosamunde Pilcher” films are celebrating their 30th anniversary. Horst Lichter, star in the anniversary film, wants it to continue for “at least 30 years”.
30 years ago, on October 30, 1993, the first film in the “Rosamunde Pilcher” series (ZDF) flickered across the screens. The script for “Stormy Encounter” with Sophie von Kessel (54) in the lead role was based on the novel of the same name by the British writer Rosamunde Pilcher (1924-2019). Filming took place in Ibiza, London and Cornwall, the most southwestern part of the United Kingdom.
“Extreme fan” Horst Lichter wants “minimum [weitere] 30 years”
Often embedded in this picturesque coastal landscape, 170 films have been made about love, heartbreak, death, grief and lots of interpersonal complications. The latest film, “Rosamunde Pilcher: Headline Love”, will be broadcast this Sunday evening (September 24th, 8:15 p.m.). It was based on the short story “Man with a future”. Among other things, Horst Lichter (61) will be seen as a butler. “I wish the Pilcher film team and everyone who is allowed to work on the ZDF format all the best and warmest wishes for their 30th anniversary,” the presenter, author and former television chef is quoted as saying in a greeting.
He goes on to enthuse: “And so that it really, and I mean that, lasts at least 30 years. I would really miss something in the German television landscape if there were suddenly no more ‘Rosamunde Pilcher’ films. They simply belong in addition.” Lichter cites exactly what critics of the series have always criticized as the big plus points: “A little bit of normality, a little bit of schmaltz, a little too good to be true. But it’s still good for the soul. Congratulations from your extreme fan: Horst Lights,” said the popular and award-winning “Cash for Rares” presenter (since 2013).
Rosamunde Pilcher comes from Cornwall
Writer Rosamunde Pilcher was born Rosamunde Scott on September 22, 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall. She started writing when she was still a student. She graduated from school during the Second World War and from 1942 onwards she worked as a volunteer in the Women’s Royal Navy Service and then as a secretary in the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office. From 1943 she worked in India and experienced the end of the war in Sri Lanka. During those war years in South Asia, Rosamunde Pilcher published her first short story in the magazine “Woman and Home”.
After the war she returned to Cornwall. There she met the Scottish textile entrepreneur Graham Pilcher (1916-2009). The two married in 1946, moved to a village in his homeland and had four children.
Rosamunde Pilcher continued to write – partly under the pseudonym Jane Fraser until 1965 – and celebrated her international breakthrough with her first family saga “The Shell Seekers” (1987), which was also available to read in German from 1990 as “The Shell Seekers”. The rest is literary and television history.
In 1994 she received the BZ culture prize “Berliner Bär”, followed by the DIVA Award in 1996 and a Bambi in 1997. In 2000, Rosamunde Pilcher retired from writing. Two years later, at the New Year’s Honors 2002“the grande dame of the romance novel” was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature.
The successful author died on February 6, 2019 at the age of 94 as a result of a stroke, as did her son, writer Robin Pilcher (73), announced at that time.