Let no-one tell you that the German population lack a sense of humour, because this latest offering from the good people at Walter Presents is a wonderfully dark comedy thriller set in a small village in the Black Forest (coincidentally, BBC4 recently brought us another crime drama set in the same area, ‘The Black Forest Murders', which is also well worth seeking out).
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading this article now.
‘Hellground' (‘Höllgrund' in German) stars Lou Strenger as Tanja Hartholz, a young female detective who finds herself embroiled in a series of strange deaths in the small community.
Firstly, the newly retired local doctor, Dr Hajo Armbruster, is found hanging from a beam in his house. The assumption is that he committed suicide, but Tanja spots scuff marks on the floor, which suggest his body was dragged into place. He had just assisted Tanja in helping to deliver a baby when a pregnant woman crashed her car after colliding with a deer.
When the baby was successful brought into the world, Tanja spots a similarity between the eyes of the newly born child and the doctor himself, and a suspicion grows that the good doctor might be offering a little more than his hypocritic oath would suggest. Sure enough, it would appear that the late doctor was the father to all three of this woman’s children. Therefore, inevitably suspicion falls on husband who would appear to have been cuckolded. A drunk Tanja blurts out her suspicions but has to eat her words when the real situation is revealed.
As he was retiring anyway, Dr Armbruster had a replacement lined up ready to take over the practice – the much younger Dr Fabian Lambert (August Wittgenstein). But then further suspicious deaths start occurring and Tanja has to try to piece together what involvement the new doctor has in these incidents. Without giving too much away, there’s a hilarious scene where the new doctor has to drive through the village with a dead elderly woman sat next to him.
There are elements of the fabulous ‘River' (Nicola Walker and Stellan Skarsgård) inasmuch as Tanja has frequent hallucinations where the dead doctor appears next to her in her police car, advising her on the case and – bizarrely – eating her chocolates. One can also see touches of ‘Dexter' in the actions of the new Dr Fabian – is he a good guy, or is there are darker side to this newcomer?
Comprised of short 30 minutes episodes, this is a hugely entertaining series. Okay, I’ve compared it to ‘River' and ‘Dexter', and it’s not a patch on those two classic shows. But it’s certainly worth checking out. The acting is stellar, the spooky rural location is good to watch, and – certainly so far – the writing is sharp and the storyline engaging (if a little whacky at times).
Walter Presents: ‘Hellground' is available as a full boxset on C4 Streaming now.
