We’re in the midst of winter but the perfect programme has arrived for those who might have forgotten what sunshine actually looks like.
Set in the vibrant international community of the eponymous Spanish island, The Mallorca Files centres around British detective Miranda Blake, played by Elen Rhys, and German Max Winter (Julian Looman).
But if Elen thought she’d be getting an overdose of Vitamin D from the long, sunny days filming on location in Spain, she was sorely mistaken.
“We’re just taking a break from filming at the moment,” said Elen. “The make-up guy was telling me how sunny it would be – but at the moment there’s torrential rain and flooding! I’m sure the nice weather will be back soon.”
For Elen, the appeal of the Mallorca Files – a sort of Costa del Dempsey and Makepeace – wasn’t just the location, though. It was the daytime cop show’s sheer fun which drew her to the part.
“The scripts were great – they read really funny on the page,” she added. “When I went to audition, I giggled a lot. And it was so full of action. Basically we’re chasing people round the island all the time, it’s good fun.
“There’s a good variation of things in there too – from quite high-intensity dramatic bits to parts which are just totally ridiculous.
“And at the heart of it is the Max and Miranda relationship. It’s lovely and it’s funny and gave us lots of opportunities to do lots of different things with it.
“We literally don’t get to sit down for the whole day we’re shooting – we’re always on the go.”
A British detective teaming up with a German in Spain might seem like an odd mix given Britain’s scheduled departure from the EU but Elen denied politics was central to the drama.
“This has been in development for a good three to four years so it wasn’t written so much with that in mind,” she said. “Perhaps in the second series there’s more of a nod of the head and a joke here and there about Brexit.
“We’re not really making a political statement, we’re just keeping it a bit topical – and light-hearted.
“It’s lovely – we’ve got an international production and there are so many nationalities on set at any one moment.
“On an average day there’s about five or six languages being spoken at any one time.
“Lots of our guest stars are Spanish and German and that makes for something very interesting and fresh.”
The Mallorca Files begins tomorrow at 2.15pm, BBC1
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