Caroline Peters and Natalia Belitski end up in a love triangle in the new crime series “Colleagues”. That’s the start.
For many years, Caroline Peters (50) was the face of the comedic crime series “Murder with a View” (2008-2014, Das Erste). As the ambitious chief inspector Sophie Haas, who was involuntarily transferred to the sleepy Eifel village of Hengasch, she played herself into the hearts of the viewers.
Today she says: “In 2014 we were sent on a creative break from which we were never brought back. At first I would have liked to have continued it and shot at least one more season, but at some point I was also happy about the new spaces that it created came about, and the other things I was able to do,” explained the Grimme prizewinner in an interview with the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ).
One of the “other things” she was able to devote herself to is the new ZDF crime series “Colleagues”, which will kick off on Saturday (January 29, 8:15 p.m., ZDF) with the episode “The Bad Child”. Caroline Peters can be seen as Berlin Commissioner Irene Gaup. She still has to work constantly with her husband, the public prosecutor Hans Gaup (Götz Schubert, 58). And as luck would have it, his new partner, Commissioner Julia Jungklausen (Natalia Belitski, born 1984), is Irene Gaup’s new colleague.
That’s what “Colleagues – The Bad Child” is about
At the site where the corpse of a young man was found, Irene Gaup meets her new colleague: Julia Jungklausen, of all people, the young lover of her estranged husband, public prosecutor Hans Gaup.
The body is found on a remote self-sufficient farm between Berlin and Brandenburg. But what brought 18-year-old Korbinian from Berlin-Wedding there? Nobody on the farm seems to know him.
A chain that Korbinian wore around his neck leads Irene and Julia to a missing person four years ago. The then 13-year-old Emma Lennartz – impressively played by the Dresdener Emilie Neumeister (b. 1999) – disappeared without a trace after the birth of her little daughter along with her child. The investigations were led by Irene Gaup, who never let go of the case. Now questions, old and new, are bouncing back with unexpected force: Is Emma still alive? Is she hiding at the Pfisterhof? Did Emma possibly commit the crime or is she herself in danger?
A very different Caroline Peters
The “murder with a view” fans will be surprised how different the new commissioner is: a down-to-earth haven of peace with deep-rooted childhood trauma. “The role is very, very serious in the first part. She is driven by a cold case and the processing of her very neglected relationship with her mother,” explains Peters to the broadcaster about her role. And she adds: “A woman who goes through re-traumatization and then pulls herself out by her own hair. I liked that. And why not play a serious investigator, I thought to myself.”
What is generally special about the new format is summarized by the actress very aptly: “It is a crime series that has a lot to do with emotions. Less with crime, violence and sensations. The feelings and the psychological tension are in the Foreground.” The film is less action-driven than character-driven, she rightly adds.
New commissioner Natalia Belitski
The actress Natalia Belitski is likely to be familiar to most viewers from the comedy television series “Mrs. Jordan is Equal” (since 2019) and from the crime series “Parfum” (2018).
About her role in “Colleagues” she says: “I think it’s my second investigative role and actually the first as a commissioner. I found both the character of Julia, with her unadapted rough edges, and the constellation of two women as a team of investigators very attractive.” In addition, the various cases are unusual and dramaturgically exciting, says Belitski.
Götz Schubert explains the exciting love triangle
Prosecutor Hans Gaup decided in favor of the younger commissioner. However, the fact that she mainly feeds on energy drinks makes him rave about the cooking skills of his estranged wife. Presumably he would like to have both: intimate married life and exciting love affair. As is well known, only very few manage to do this satisfactorily for all sides and that’s how it is in this crime thriller – which makes for surprisingly amusing scenes.
And what does Götz Schubert think about this love triangle in which his character and the two investigators find themselves? The actor defends his prosecutor and draws a slightly different picture than the opening film suggests: “The relationship with his ex didn’t break up because of an affair or a midlife crisis. The couple separated amicably. There was no cheating or deceived,” says Schubert. And the new relationship isn’t because of man’s vanity or self-affirmation, he adds. “They are two self-determined people who are together because they fell in love,” he continues. “So the situation is more serious than it seems at first glance, and the network of relationships is more complex, more exciting and closer to life,” says Schubert.
Russian Berlin underworld meets “A window to the courtyard”
After the first case is before the second case and Caroline Peters gives a little outlook: “It goes into the depths of the Russian Berlin underworld and you can also find a little bit of ‘A Window to the Court’ by Alfred Hitchcock,” she reveals.
Especially in the second part, “the case of an act without a body” is very strong, “the investigators take a back seat”… And Götz Schubert adds: “The triangle goes into a tailspin and the criminal case gets to the kidneys.”