London – all3media International has welcomed a new detective to its globally successful line-up of sleuths, as Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd arrives in South Pacific Pictures’ The Brokenwood Mysteries, the latest series to join its slate of hit dramas.
The Brokenwood Mysteries
The new 4 x 120’ drama, from the producers of The Almighty Johnsons and Outrageous Fortune, stars Neill Rea (Go Girls) as D.I. Mike Shepherd, a city detective who escapes fast-paced urban life to solve crimes in the rural backwater of Brokenwood. But, as he watches over the quiet country town, alongside local partner DC Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland, The Almighty Johnsons), Shepherd soon finds that, beneath its peaceful veneer, murder is curiously at home in Brokenwood.
Kelly Martin, CEO at South Pacific Pictures, commented, “The Brokenwood Mysteries, which has just wrapped production and will debut in New Zealand later this year, is an ambitious series of four stand-alone feature-length stories, which we think will be a perfect fit for international primetime schedules. Our ongoing distribution partnership with all3media International continues to prove hugely successful and we’re looking forward to working with the team again in showcasing our completed episodes at MIPCOM and maximising the global reach of this exciting new series.”
“When conceiving the series…” explains Tim Balme, lead writer on the South Pacific Pictures production for Prime TV in New Zealand, “…we wanted The Brokenwood Mysteries to be a crime drama based in reality. The murders are always tangible, the motivations are recognisable and the plots are solvable by human deduction rather than forensic smoke and mirrors.”
In Brokenwood, an early morning mist will often give way to a glorious day. As far as towns go, it’s bucolic, pastoral yet curious. All in all, Brokenwood is a pretty nice place to live – if you watch your back and sleep with one eye open.
CEO of SPP, Kelly Martin added that she is confident that they’ve found a compelling and charismatic lead character in DI Mike Shepherd: “He’s dishevelled, utterly without convention and has a great, dry sense of humour flowing through him. Watching him question a dead body is truly a sight to behold, macabre and peculiar, yet impossible to turn away from. ”
The straight-laced DC Kristin Sims is the perfect foil to the maverick Shepherd, with the two making for a great double act, particularly in those scenes where Mike tries to impart his passion for country music to Kristin.
As Mike himself says “Country music provides the best three-minute crime stories ever sung.”
Louise Pedersen, Managing Director at all3media International added, “ D.I Mike Shepherd with his humour, love of country music and charm shows every sign of being our favourite New Zealand detective and it’s a real treat to see him solving crimes against the gorgeous backdrop of the New Zealand countryside. We’re really delighted to add The Brokenwood Mysteries to our portfolio of globally successful detective franchises.”
This latest addition to all3media International’s slate joins hit series including Midsomer Murders, which recently celebrated its 100th episode with a storyline filmed partly in Denmark. Produced by Bentley Productions for ITV1, the drama is one of the UK’s most successful exports and continues to prove a hit in Northern Europe, regularly rating within the top three in Sweden, Denmark and Holland. Elsewhere, Midsomer remains a stalwart of France 3’s schedules, while all3media International laid the groundwork earlier this year for the transition from John Nettles to Neil Dudgeon on ZDF and Edel in Germany and for American Public Television (APT) in the USA.
Delivering its ninth series for launch at MIPCOM, Foyle’s War has sold to more than twenty key territories including Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Norway and Sweden. Produced by Eleventh Hour Films/ Acorn Productions for ITV1, UK, series eight and nine of Foyle’s War sees superintendent Foyle investigating crimes and corruption amidst the era of the Cold War.
