“Crime scene”
Heike Makatsch investigates one last time
© SWR/Peter Porst
Another “crime scene” from Mainz with Heike Makatsch and then it’s over. The SWR announced this.
Heike Makatsch (51) will not be investigating as Chief Inspector Ellen Berlinger for much longer. The SWR announced this on July 3rd. Makatsch will be used in one more case, after that it should be over. The broadcast is therefore planned for autumn 2023.
For financial reasons
It was an honor for Südwestrundfunk “to be able to work with such an unmistakable and multifaceted actress as Heike Makatsch in ‘Tatort'”, the responsible SWR program director Clemens Bratzler is quoted as saying in a press release. “There could not have been a better portrayal of Chief Inspector Ellen Berlinger.”
It is painful to have to end the Mainz series “after the new case ‘Aus dem Dunkel’ for financial reasons”. On the one hand, inflation is leading to higher costs for the broadcaster’s fictional productions, “which unfortunately we can no longer absorb without cuts in the offer”. On the other hand, money must be reallocated in order to be able to produce more series for the ARD media library. In the future, the SWR will therefore concentrate on the “crime scene” teams in Ludwigshafen, in the Black Forest and in Stuttgart, which, as before, should investigate two new cases each year.
What is the “Out of the Darkness” case about?
The last “crime scene” of the retiring chief inspector bears the title “Out of the Darkness”. In addition to Makatsch, Andreas Döhler, Susanne Wuest, Rainer Sellien, Ludwig Trepte and Matthias Lier appear in it, according to the broadcaster.
Jochen Alexander Freydank directs, the screenplay comes from Jürgen Werner. There are no exact details about the story of the last case, roughly it is supposed to be about a stalker who drives his victims to despair with perfidious means.