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SPY SEQUEL DEUTSCHLAND 86 TAKES ON THE WORLD…
Abright and breezy espionage caper with deadly serious undertones, Deutschland 83 was one of 2016’s most unexpected TV delights. For those playing catch-up, it centred on reluctant East German spy Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay), who saved the world from nuclear catastrophe while coming perilously close to selling out the motherland.
Small Screen catches up with the cast and creators of the 10-part sequel, Deutschland 86, on a set teeming with significance: the former Stasi HQ in East Berlin, now a museum. With its faded formica surfaces, aggressively bland colours and scant natural light, it’s as good an indicator as any of the state of the East German nation in 1986.
“The East is broke and needs to bring hard currency into the country by any means necessary,” explains Anna Winger, series co-creator alongside her husband Joerg. “They’re selling everything from dirty weapons to their own citizens, flogged to the West as guinea pigs for Big Pharma. We loved the idea that they tried to save communism with capitalism.”
Martin, inevitably, is embroiled in this desperate scramble. Exiled to Angola after his exploits in 1983, he is made an offer by his former employers that doubles as an opportunity to earn his passage home. “Falling in love, killing a man, being separated from his family for three years… These experiences have changed Martin a lot,” says Nay, wearing brown (what else?).
“His motivation for the whole series is to get back home, meet his threeyear-old son and start a new life.”
First, he must seal a crucial weapons deal with an ANC militant (Black Panther’s Florence Kasumba) while avoiding the attentions of a West German spy (Aeon Flux’s Lavinia Wilson), as his adventures take him everywhere from Tripoli to Paris and, eventually, Cape Town.
“We were interested in why Apartheid ended right after the Wall came down,” explains Anna. “People expected it would take violent revolution in both cases, but in the end it came down to money. The Apartheid situation served as a proxy for the Cold War – on this occasion, the East Germans were on the right side of history, supporting the ANC and training their operatives while the West pursued its business interests with the South African government despite the UN sanctions.”
“We always look for hidden histories and modern ironies beneath the official accounts,” adds Joerg, whose research team once again made rigorous use of archives and accounts from former spies. Contemporary resonances came easily for a year in which more people were killed by terrorist attacks than in any other, when governments concealed inconvenient truths from their people, and political antagonists collaborated to accomplish their goals.
Those who enjoyed the sartorial and musical flourishes of D83, meanwhile, will not be disappointed: everything from Paul Simon to Pet Shop Boys gets an airing. “Our make-up artists always said, we tell the main story with the characters and the story of the ’80s with the extras, their big hair and crazy clothes,” Wilson assures us. Best of all, the Wingers’ ambition of a trilogy, climaxing with the fall of the Wall in 1989, has been greenlit. It’s “Auf Wiedersehen”, rather than “Goodbye”, to Martin Rauch. Gabriel Tate
deutschland 86 starts on 8 march on more4.