SUN, SEA AND SIZZLING CHEMISTRY

Will expat cops Miranda and Max finally realise they’re made for each other as BBC1 hit The Mallorca Files returns?

After the first series of daytime hit The Mallorca Files aired in 2019, fans were desperate to know if its detective duo would act on the simmering chemistry between them. The BBC1 drama centred on uptight British cop DC Miranda Blake (Elen Rhys), who was paired with laidback German Max Winter (Julian Looman) to chase villains on the Spanish island while driving each other spare with their differing approaches.

‘It’s a classic “will they, won’t they”,’ says Elen, 36, ahead of series two starting this week. ‘But this series Miranda and Max have developed a deeper friendship...’

What about Max’s girlfriend Carmen (Tábata Cerezo), though? ‘I told Dan Sefton, the show’s creator, it was important to me it didn’t become a woman-versus-woman story,’ says Elen. ‘The romantic tension is still there, but now Max and Miranda are better friends it’s more awkward and exciting.’

The six new episodes bear the show’s hallmark – light-hearted crime plots, referencing classic films and played out in spectacular locations. With the show being an international co-production that’s been sold to more than 70 countries, it’s a daytime series with a primetime budget.

All the stops were pulled out to find grand settings for each episode, even Real Mallorca’s football stadium during a match. ‘I’m proud of what we pulled off,’ says executive producer Ben Donald. ‘In the first episode we filmed in the Caves of Drach, which has underground lakes.’ In that episode, which has elements of 1960 epic Spartacus and an Agatha Christie whodunnit, Max and Miranda are at a gala concert at the caves with boss Ines Villegas (Maria Fernandez-ache) when an opera star is murdered.

Elen and Julian have become good friends in real life, which is a big help during a four-month shoot. Elen took her two-year-old son Wilf to Mallorca while Wilf’s father stayed at home. She’s from Aberystwyth and speaks to Wilf only in Welsh, but says he learned a few words of Spanish there.

Julian decamped from Vienna to Mallorca with his then-pregnant partner, Dutch singer Annemieke

Van Dam, and their son Adam, three. Their daughter Olivia was born in July. ‘Elen and I chat a lot about being working parents,’ says Julian, 35. ‘If one of us has a bad night because our child’s not sleeping, we have a lot of understanding towards each other.’

The hope is that The Mallorca Files is an escape from the gloomy winter lockdown. ‘I’ve been absolutely delighted with the reaction,’ says Dan Sefton, who also created feelgood medical drama The Good Karma Hospital. ‘We set off with a very clear intention to make a joyful, funny, exciting show, and people have responded to it in that spirit. Many have told me it’s their favourite show and a breath of fresh air.’