Latest news with #NinaKunzendorf
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
True crime drama fans 'binge-watched in one sitting' hits BBC iPlayer for free - after being hailed as 'wonderfully authentic and unpretentious'
A true crime drama fans have 'binge-watched in one sitting' has hit BBC iPlayer and can now be watched for free. The four-part series, titled The Black Forest Murders, was recently acquired by the broadcaster. Based on the non-fiction book SOKO Erle by Walter Roth, the German show takes inspiration from the criminal cases of two murdered women in southern Germany. The fictional series stars Nina Kunzendorf as Senior Detective Barbara Kramer and Tilman Strauß as Thomas Riedle, amongst others. A synopsis reads: 'The clock is ticking... When a woman is bludgeoned to death, detectives face mounting pressure to crack the case and catch a killer. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 'Intense crime drama inspired by real-life cases.' BBC boss Sue Deeks previously said: 'The Black Forest Murders is an authentic and compelling crime series focusing on the work of a meticulous investigative team. 'As well as being a gripping murder mystery, the series offers a detailed look at the challenges of solving complex crimes, and the psychological toll on those involved in such high-stakes investigations.' The series has become a hit with viewers and one wrote on Google: 'I watched the entire series in one sitting and thought it was excellent. 'The meticulous investigation was amazing. Nina Kunzendorf was at her best as a fair and likeable boss in a strong team. 'Unfortunately, the translation often came across poorly, as several actors spoke in dialect. But thank goodness there's subtitles in the media library. It's sad, but you can help yourself.' Another added: 'I found this four-part series extremely good. It was exciting, with good dialogue, some of which was mumbled—it was due to the dialect - and a very good portrayal of a real series of murders. 'The actors did a very good job, especially Ms. Kramer, who acted convincingly. It was a glimpse behind the scenes of a special investigation unit. I'd be happy if there were more short series.' The four-part series has become a hit with viewers and some took to Google to leave reviews of the show Someone else penned: 'We liked the series so much that we watched all the episodes right away. And it never got boring. 'This crime thriller was free of staged chases and unnecessary action—just good, real police work. Good actors, though difficult to understand at times. The sound was the only downside to this strong crime thriller.' But not everyone has been impressed and one viewer penned: 'I watched three episodes and waited with suspense for the investigation to reach its climax. 'Then, in the fourth episode, I was completely disappointed... A completely unknown perpetrator, who was never even considered before and never appeared, just some truck driver, completely anonymous to the viewer! 'That was the end! What a waste of time, very flat and... why is everyone smoking all the time, apart from that dialect! No suspense!' Another drama hit BBC iPlayer recently and viewers broke down in tears after all instalments of a 'masterpiece' family drama were finally loaded onto the streaming platform. The Last Anniversary, which hit the on-demand platform on Saturday, follows journalist Sophie (Teresa Palmer) after she inherits her ex-boyfriend's great-aunt's house on the remote, fictional Scribbly Gum Island. As she settles in, she also attempts to solve a 50-year-old local cold case that has haunted the island - and drawn in true crime tourists - for years. But not everyone has been impressed and one viewer penned their take on Google reviews too The Australian six-part comedy-drama, first released down under in March, is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, the author behind Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers. Alongside lead Teresa (The Fall Guy), it also stars Oscar-nominated British actress Miranda Richardson (Good Omens) and Australian actress Danielle Macdonald (The Tourist). Co-produced by Nicole Kidman and Liane herself, among others, it has impressed critics and viewers alike, whose reviews and comments online sing their praises for the high-quality show. Stream The Black Forest Murders on BBC iPlayer.
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
BBC viewers hail 'authentic and unpretentious' crime drama about real serial killer
The Black Forest Murders is a four-part series that was released in Germany in 2021 and has now landed on BBC iPlayer after being acquired by the broadcaster. BBC iPlayer has become the new home for an "intense" crime drama steeped in real events. The Black Forest Murders is a four-part series delving into the harrowing investigation of two young women's deaths in the south of Germany. Drawn from the factual Walter Roth book 'Soko Earle', the show fuses two actual criminal affairs from 2016, transforming them into enthralling police narrative fiction. The drama unfolds as the police uncover the body of a young woman, brutally murdered by a faceless assailant, igniting their hunt for the ruthless killer amidst a burgeoning pile of clues. Concurrently, the sleuths find themselves ensnared in another homicide case, leaving doubts about possible links to the first incident while uncanny similarities with an Austrian case from years before surface. Nina Kunzendorf stars as Barbara Kramer, with Tilman Strauß playing Thomas Riedle, complemented by a cast featuring Aliki Hirsch, Boidar Kocevski, Atrin Haghdoust, and David Richter, reports the Express. The description teases: "The clock is ticking... When a woman is bludgeoned to death, detectives face mounting pressure to crack the case and catch a killer. Intense crime drama inspired by real-life cases." Initially debuting in Germany, viewers there have extolled the series, with many binge-watching it in one intense session. A review acclaimed: "I watched the entire series in one sitting and thought it was excellent. The meticulous investigation was amazing. Nina Kunzendorf was at her best as a fair and likeable boss in a strong team." One viewer praised the four-part series enthusing, "I found this four-part series extremely good. It was exciting, with good dialogue, some of which was mumbled-it was due to the dialect -and a very good portrayal of a real series of murders. The actors did a very good job, especially Ms. Kramer, who acted convincingly. It was a glimpse behind the scenes of a special investigation unit. I'd be happy if there were more short series." Another said they couldn't help binge-watching: "We liked the series so much that we watched all the episodes right away. And it never got boring. This crime thriller was free of staged chases and unnecessary action-just good, real police work. Good actors, though difficult to understand at times." A third chimed in: "A wonderfully authentic and unpretentious narrative, a crime story like you'd only wish for, not cluttered with ridiculous subplots and overly contrived action. A fantastic team around Nina Kunzendorf, who always remains believable. Fantastic! I wish there were more original productions with such a dense atmosphere and such well-acted acting,". Following its acquisition by BBC, Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition, remarked: "The Black Forest Murders is an authentic and compelling crime series focussing on the work of a meticulous investigative team." She further commented on the depth of the series adding: "As well as being a gripping murder mystery, the series offers a detailed look at the challenges of solving complex crimes, and the psychological toll on those involved in such high-stakes investigations." Black Forest Murders can be viewed on BBC iPlayer.
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
All four episodes of 'excellent' true crime drama available to stream on BBC
A new German true crime drama, The Black Forest Murders, has arrived on BBC iPlayer. The synopsis for the four-episode series reads: 'The clock is ticking… When a woman is bludgeoned to death, detectives face mounting pressure to crack the case and catch a killer.' And is described as an 'intense crime drama inspired by real-life cases.' The show is based on the non-fiction Walter Roth book which follows a 2016 police investigation into the mysterious murders of two young women in the south of Germany. In the show we see Senior Detective Barbara Kramer (Nina Kunzendorf) of the Lauburg police and her team, including Thomas Riedle (Tilman Strauß), embark on an investigation to apprehend the perpetrator. But as they hit dead-end after dead-end and little success through talking to witnesses and gathering evidence, the police face 'mounting pressure' to provide answers. Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition, called the show an 'authentic and compelling crime series focussing on the work of a meticulous investigative team.' She added: 'As well as being a gripping murder mystery, the series offers a detailed look at the challenges of solving complex crimes, and the psychological toll on those involved in such high-stakes investigations.' 'I watched the entire series in one sitting and thought it was excellent. The meticulous investigation was amazing. Nina Kunzendorf was at her best as a fair and likeable boss in a strong team,'Sylvia Strobl praised on Google reviews. 'I found this four-part series extremely good. It was exciting, with good dialogue… and a very good portrayal of a real series of murders. The actors did a very good job, especially Ms. Kramer, who acted convincingly. It was a glimpse behind the scenes of a special investigation unit,' Karen Sabine Feuerhahm added. 'A wonderfully authentic and unpretentious narrative, a crime story like you'd only wish for, not cluttered with ridiculous subplots and overly contrived action. A fantastic team around Nina Kunzendorfer, who always remains believable,' Rike Straub echoed. The Guardian has a slightly cooler, but still praiseworthy, take, writing: ' Its attention to every single moving part means that the drama itself moves very slowly, and it is not so much a thriller as a satisfying puzzle, steadily coming together. Not a bad drama, then, but not a revolutionary one, either.' More Trending Elsewhere, The Sydney Morning Herald praised the drama as 'outstanding.' 'There are no grand deductive leaps, no cat-and-mouse interviews with a prime suspect. This is a gripping procedural founded on detail and diligence,' the publication added. Both also compared the show to Netflix's Swedish drama The Breakthrough, which also follows the story of a 'shocking double homicide which goes unsolved for 16 years.' View More » The Black Forest Murders is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Black Forest Murders review – like watching a hugely satisfying puzzle come together
It's never a good sign, is it, to see a young woman going for a run in the woods at the start of a gritty European crime drama? The Black Forest Murders takes the real-life killing of two young women in the south of Germany as its basis, and turns it into an extremely thorough police procedural. The detective work here is complex, precise and painstaking, and there is a sense that the film-makers have no wish to spare viewers any of the intense slog it takes to track down the perpetrator (if indeed the police manage to do so). Nina Kunzendorf is senior detective Barbara Kramer, who grew up in the area but moved to Berlin to make her name in the police force. Now that her father is getting older, and more infirm, she has moved back to her (fictional) small, rural home town in the south, where she is treated as an outsider. Kramer seems like a loner, smokes a lot and is the sort of cop who will slam down the phone when she doesn't like what she's hearing on the other end of it. She is your classic TV lead detective. The force at her command are local people who have remained local, and they largely resent her Berlin ways and lack of community knowhow. But she, too, is contemptuous of their amateur methods, small-town gossip and the low hum of sexism that threatens to rear its head again and again. It's a standard culture-clash setup. When 27-year-old Stefanie Berghoff fails to come home from a jog, it sparks an enormous search for her. Her husband, Tobias (David Richter), could only look more shifty if he started waving around a murder weapon and winking at the camera, but surprisingly, he has a rock-solid alibi. The hunt for Stefanie is complicated by the fact that the entire village has been out to help, even before the police manage to arrive in the area, which means evidence could have been trampled. Kramer is not having any of it. Given the title, and the fact that 'Murders' is not singular, it isn't much of a spoiler to say that Stefanie's body is discovered, and towards the end of the first episode, so is that of another young woman. Both were killed and moved a short distance, leaving 'drag marks', a small detail that I found particularly horrible. The question is whether the two cases are connected. I tend to judge dramas about the violent deaths of women by how much the camera lingers on their naked bodies during the inevitable autopsy scenes, but this is not that kind of drama. It avoids salaciousness, seemingly as a matter of principle. In many ways, The Black Forest Murders shares a modus operandi with The Breakthrough, the Swedish procedural, also based on real-life events, that was a hit on Netflix at the start of the year. Like The Breakthrough, this has a linear and essentially straightforward narrative: crimes are committed, the police investigate, gather up all the evidence they can find, and then we get our answers. Kramer notes that it could be a long road, and tells a story about a 12-year hunt for a killer in Berlin. The drama is essentially forewarning viewers to settle in for the long haul. So we see officers carefully combing the branches of a shrub, under a magnifying glass, in the hope that they might find a speck of something that could offer up DNA. Suspects are interviewed and eliminated, based on rough times of death, which is ascertained in Stefanie's case through the contents of her stomach, the time that her phone stopped working and reports of screams. On the other hand, Kramer counters her own list of evidence, explaining the flaws, or the counterarguments, in the information that has been gathered. Perhaps Stefanie ate later than usual? Perhaps her phone battery died? Perhaps those who heard a scream got it wrong? Something isn't adding up, but over the first two episodes, it's not clear what's wrong, or why. The levels of precision and detail that worked in The Breakthrough's favour are not quite as convincing here. Partly, that is because The Black Forest Murder's tropes are familiar and well worn. There is the conflict between rural and urban, between village and city. There is the outsider looking in, who has her own past to contend with, and must relearn the local knowledge that she has lost. There is even a bit of the female boss being undermined by her male colleagues, Prime Suspect-style. Its attention to every single moving part means that the drama itself moves very slowly, and it is not so much a thriller as a satisfying puzzle, steadily coming together. Not a bad drama, then, but not a revolutionary one, either. The Black Forest Murders aired on BBC Four and is available on iPlayer
SBS Australia
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
A meticulous hunt for a killer: 'Black Forest Murders'
Nina Kunzendorf as Chief Inspector Barbara Kramer in 'The Black Forest Murders'. Credit: Luis Zeno Kuhn Catching a murderer can mean chasing the shakiest of leads, the smallest of details – and doing it again and again. Such is the case in Black Forest Murders , a four-part German miniseries directed by Stefan Krohmer that follows the police hunt after a young women is killed while out jogging. The evidence is scarce as Chief Inspector Barbara Kramer (Nina Kunzendorf, whose CV includes , also streaming at SBS On Demand) and her colleague Thomas Riedle (Tilman Strauß) begin an investigation; soon, a second murder rocks the region, sparking fears of a serial killer. Is it connected? New leads, a much bigger area to overview: it all adds to the enormous task facing Kramer and her team, and public pressure to find answers grows. Riedle, in particular, feels the desperation of the locals: he grew up in the area and knows almost everyone in the village where the victim lived. Kramer, on the other hand, heads the criminal investigation unit of a neighouring city. Well regarded by her colleagues, she brings an outsider's eye to the investigation. While some crime dramas balance the 'whodunnit' with the investigator's personal struggles, Black Forest Murders takes us into the heart of the investigation. There are no traumas chasing Kramer and Kunzendorf found this appealing. "She's not a typical TV crime detective. Barbara doesn't have an extensive backstory or have to deal with personal trauma; her investigation is the focus. Not everything is recounted in great detail. I like that a lot, because it gave me and the audience room for interpretation," she has said in a German magazine interview . While the investigators are fictional characters, the storyline is inspired, in part, by real-life events, and a about them by a former police press spokesman, Walter (Walther) Roth. Writers Robert Hammel and Martina Mouchot say they were fascinated by how the book portrayed the exacting and meticulous nature of the work involved in trying to solve the murders of three young women. "Four years ago, I read about these crimes and the investigations in Walther Roth's non-fiction book Soko Erle and found the events so moving and the work of the police and forensic scientists so admirable that I thought: This has to be made into a film," Hummel has of the origins of the project. We were fascinated by how persistently and how much time and effort the police put into their investigation: every lead was followed, national borders were crossed Martina Mouchot came on board as co-writer for the project, which developed into a four-part series. "In this remarkable book, Roth describes in detail the meticulous and ultimately successful search for the murderers of three young women from his perspective as a police press spokesman. We were fascinated by how persistently and how much time and effort the police put into their investigation: every lead was followed, national borders were crossed, and numerous overtime hours were put in to solve the crimes," the pair say in a joint statement about the series. "We were very quickly able to impress the experienced producer Nils Dünker, who worked with us to formulate the narrative in a committed and competent manner: We wanted to fictionalise the crimes in a classic way, but portray the police work in a detailed and realistic way. This means that we traced the investigations, but invented our investigators and their backgrounds. We also invented the locations. We also changed the order of the murder cases and alienated the victims and families. "We did not want to exploit the suffering of the victims and their families in the media, nor did we want to give the perpetrators too much attention, out of respect for the environment and to protect the dignity of the people involved. In the points where we were concerned with adapting and changing the material, we turned to a case analyst, a professor of forensic medicine and research contacts with a criminalistic background with our questions in order to do justice to the claim of realism beyond the literary original." In the series, the murders cross international lines: a clue in one of the German murders leads the team to the similar case involving the death, four years earlier, of another young woman in Austria. As the days tick on, the team continue trying to tie it all together. "In contrast to conventional crime novels, we were concerned with meticulous, real and at the same time laborious, slow and irritating detail work: DNA cannot be analysed in a few hours, crime scenes are subject to a variety of influences, many witness statements are of no use, numerous clues turn out to be dead ends," the writers say. Telling the story as a mini-series, rather than a film, was the answer to showing the dedicated chase. "...We were able to give the effort of the investigations ... the tenacious perseverance, but also the astonishing and liberating twists in these cases, the necessary narrative space." The team investigating the real-life 2016 murder had to sift through. Black Forest Murders gives us a glimpse of how determined police work can find an answer among all the dead ends and details. Black Forest Murders season 1 premieres Thursday 8 May on SBS On Demand. Share this with family and friends SBS's award winning companion podcast. Join host Yumi Stynes for Seen, a new SBS podcast about cultural creatives who have risen to excellence despite a role-model vacuum.
