The ‘Radio Times’ has revealed that the BBC has bought three Italian drama series to air later this year.
BBC4 will show a new four-part series of ‘Il Commissario Montalbano’ (Inspector Montalbano). The show is set in Sicily and features Sicilian detective Salvo Montalbano played by Luca Zingaretti. The mystery series is based on the thrillers by Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri. BBC4 has broadcast 22 episodes of ‘Inspector Montalbano’ and it has become a popular fixture on the BBC4 schedule.
The channel will also present the prequel series, ‘Il giovane Montalbano’ (Young Montalbano), which depicts how the private life and career of the Sicilian detective developed in his youth. Set in the early 1990s, and starring Michele Riondino in the title role, the prequel series was also written by Camilleri and was shown to critical acclaim in Italy.
New to the BBC will be the Italian crime drama ‘Il Commissario De Luca’ (Inspector De Luca). The series is a four-part drama about a plain-speaking, womanising detective Achille De Luca, played by Alessandro Preziosi. The series is based on the novels by Italian crime writer Carlo Lucarelli that are set in and around Bologna during Benito Mussolini’s rule.
Channel controller Richard Klein told the ‘Radio Times’: “‘Inspector De Luca’ is a clever and hugely entertaining drama that portrays wartime Italy in a way that is both very familiar to our own war-time experiences and intriguingly foreign.”
