Tatort" celebrates its anniversary, and to coincide with its birthday, a new team of investigators will be on the hunt for the crooks. May the 700. When simone thomalla (43) and martin wuttke (46) flicker across the screen in the second episode of the ARD crime series, they will be making their debut as the investigative duo from leipzig – replacing peter sodann and bernd michael lade, who were in action for many years as commissioners ehrlicher and kain.
Thomalla plays the quick-witted eva saalfeld, wuttke her cranky ex-husband andreas keppler – both are commissioners, both are transferred to the leipzig police force and willy-nilly have to work together. For simone thomalla the whole thing is a home game: the actress, who lives with ex-fubball manager rudi assauer, comes from leipzig.
How does it feel to be a freshly appointed "tatort" commissioner??
Simone thomalla: I consider this a knighthood. When you look at the great colleagues standing with and in front of you in this row, from gotz george or manfred krug to ulrike folkerts, andrea sawatzki and sabine postel – i am very happy and proud.
How did you get the honor of stepping into the shoes of peter sodann as a leipzig investigator??
A bit like the virgin to the child. When the person in charge at mitteldeutscher rundfunk wanted to talk to me about the "tatort" about two years ago, I thought it was about a guest role.
Eva saalfeld’s character is her first role as commissioner.Have you prepared yourself for this, for example with push training or a visit to the pathology department??
That wasn’t necessary, since I’ve already played a doctor and therefore been in pathology, and I’ve also already taken a pushing course. But the preparation was different in that martin wuttke and i were able to help develop the books a bit.
Martin wuttke plays eva’s colleague and ex-husband, the oddball andreas keppler. What exactly did you both contribute to the characters??
We thought about how to make the two so different that you have two strong counter poles. In the first film, of course, we can’t tell much about eva and andreas yet. But at some point things will really get going, and we have a lot of opportunities over a long period of time, because the two of them were married at one time.
In the first case, however, the two don’t really fight yet, and there are no pointed exchanges of words – which is really a pity…
That will come. In the first case, eva and andreas haven’t seen each other for a few years, so it would be a bit much to expect them to get into a casual spat right away. But in the second case, which is already shot, it comes out much, much stronger.
They grew up in the GDR. Did you know the "tatort" back then??
Although I was never the one to come on sundays at 20.15 o’clock at the devil’s own will sab in front of the tv to watch "tatort", but the series has accompanied me from childhood anyway. There was no ban on west german television in our family. I knew especially the "tatorte" with gotz george, and also when manfred krug went from the GDR to the west and became "tatort" commissioner, we always watched it.
Especially peter then reacted a bit pissed off that he had to leave as commissioner…
The two were "tatort" commissioners for 17 years, they had a great time and will certainly play many more roles. Martin wuttke and i take on their rough heritage with a special fursorge and first have to grow into these fubstaple. We have not taken away their work.
In your first "tatort," there is less local color than in your predecessors. Is this a deliberate demarcation ? Is this the way leipzig crime novels are supposed to look more modern and urban?
No, I don’t think so. MDR is very loyal to the city of leipzig and will continue to focus on its special features. But now it was just important to introduce and establish these two figures. I can speak the dialect, but the whole thing would get a very humorous touch when mrs. Thomalla suddenly started to talk in a jar.