Four women and a death

Television series
Original title	Four women and a death
Country of production	Austria
original language	Austrian German
Year (s)	2004–2008, since 2011
length	45 minutes
Episodes	58+ in 8+ seasons
genre	Crime series
idea	Wolf Haas
script	Uli Brée and Rupert Henning
First broadcast	February 17, 2005 on ORF eins
occupation
	Adele Neuhauser as Julie Zirbner; Brigitte Kren as Maria Salchegger; Martina Poel as Sabine Schösswender; Gaby Dohm as Henriette Caspar; Stephanie Japp as Mona Brand; Julia Stinshoff as Lola Brand; Miriam Stein as Pippa Sponring; Raimund Wallisch as Andreas "Andi" Paulmichl; Gerhard Greiner as Anton "Toni" Steiger; Michael Ostrowski as Franz "Franzi" Deng; David Knöbl as Rocco Schösswender; Lukas Schwaiger as Rocco Schösswender; David Christopher Roth as Rocco Schösswender; Georges Kern as Josef "Pepperl" Nothdurfter; Brigitte Jaufenthaler as Maria "Mitzi" Nothdurfter; Gabriela Schmoll as Edith Brunner; Charly Rabanser as Valentin Salchegger; Serge Falck as Josef Brigl; Carl Achleitner as Helmut "Heli" Bacher; Viktoria Schubert as Isolde Bacher / Kupfner; Elmar Drexel as sheikh; Sebastian Konrad as the village pastor; Nike van der Let as Petra Patterer; Harald Schrott as Raphael Dorn; Marion Reiser as Wiebke Elsbeth Baroness von Lüttwitz; Angelika Richter as Herta Siegwald; Markus Linder as Anton Prinz; Dagmar Kutzenberger as Gerti Zeilinger; Thomas Stipsits as Dr. Kleinhansl; Andreas Kiendl as Lassacher; Andreas Giebel as Alois Schedl;

Four women and one death is an Austrian country crime series with pronounced satirical features. It was broadcast for the first time on ORF eins in 2005 . In Switzerland, the series runs on SRF 1 , and since autumn 2008 it has also shown RTL Crime . The series was also broadcast dubbed in French on Arte . The series was also sold to Slovenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy (Paramount Channel) as well as to the Ukraine and Russia.

Background & plot

This series is not just a classic crime thriller, but one in which dialogues and weird verbal battles are in the foreground. This series can definitely be called a country crime satire. The team Uli Brée & Rupert Henning was responsible for all scripts from the start. The idea comes from Wolf Haas and Annemarie Mitterhofer. This original idea was worked on by these two scriptwriters and, above all, supplemented by the typical rural Austrian smack.

The eponymous heroines are always there when someone dies in the area, because they suspect a crime behind every death that happens in the (fictional) village of Ilm. It is for this reason that the villagers refer to them as "funeral women", but not only because they regularly attend every local funeral service. The conspiratorial women's quartet, which did not exactly fall on the mouth, then plunges into research with the greatest pleasure and passion and ultimately solves each of these deaths - albeit with peculiar and rather unusual investigative methods, which, however, make them the true, competent investigators the Ilm police station and also keep the villagers themselves of the otherwise idyllic village of Ilm on their toes.

In every death unusual for the Ilmer hobby detectives, skepticism arises, which is then crowned by one of the "Ilmer investigators" and self-proclaimed "supporter of the community" Julie Zirbner (portrayed by Adele Neuhauser) with the telling saying: "I believe ' ned that des a Unfoi woar! ", or" I don't think that he / she died a natural death! "- and at the same time the desire and ambition for justice and education of the four extraordinary ladies logically starts Case.

In the ten-part first season, three different directors offer z. T. quite different. The rural milieu ( Salzkammergut , Mondseeland ) and the main characters are constant : four women of different ages, the "burial women". There is also a more or less satirically exaggerated village community, which all too often does not want to know anything about the investigations of the four women.

At the beginning, the series was called a flop by critics. However, the average viewership was around 1.3 million viewers, so ORF decided to continue producing the series.

In addition to the beautiful Austrian landscape, the series offers typical Viennese humor and a very unorthodox image of women. Most of the series is filmed in the Salzburg municipality of Faistenau and in Zell am Moos in Upper Austria .

From April 10, 2007, eight new episodes of the second season, which were filmed from June to October 2006, ran on ORF1.

From March 2010 the six-part third season, which was filmed in the Mondseer Land in 2008, ran there. This was originally intended as the last season.

Since September 2011, after a three-year break, six new episodes have been shot, which were shown on ORF1 from March 6, 2012. The ongoing theme of the entire season is planning a passion play .

From May 8, 2012, the 5th season was filmed, which was broadcast from April 30, 2013. In this six-part season, preparations for the Passion Play take place, which is why many of the male actors have long hair and beards. In addition, for the first time this season, not one death per episode is dealt with; rather, a single case extends to up to three episodes.

The 6th season (eight parts) was filmed from April to July 2013 and the 7th season (six parts) between September 1 and November 13, 2014, both of which were broadcast in succession by ORF1 from December 9, 2014. The production of the 8th season is planned for fall 2015. As of August 29, 2016, eight new episodes of the 9th season were shot.

The eighth and ninth seasons were completed in 2015 and 2016, respectively, but the broadcast was postponed for the time being due to accounting reasons, as the costs for a production only affect the balance sheet in the year of broadcast and there was insufficient playback budget until 2017 . The eighth season was broadcast from October to November 2019, the ninth is expected to follow in 2020.

occupation

Role name	Further information	actor	Season
The 4 women
Julie Zirbner	Widow, dating Raphael Dorn from the end of the 3rd season	Adele Neuhauser	1-
Maria Salchegger	née Deng, married to Valentin Salchegger from the 3rd season, village landlady	Brigitte Kren	1-
Sabine Schösswender	Municipal secretary, mayor from season 7	Martina Poel	1-
Henriette Caspar	The wife of the medical professor who was murdered in the first episode, simply called "Frau Professor", leaves the series at the beginning of the second season	Gaby Dohm	1-2
Mona Brand	Doctor, leaves the series at the end of the second season	Stephanie Japp	2
Lola Brand	Doctor, leaves the series at the beginning of season 4	Julia Stinshoff	3-4
Philippa "Pippa" Sponring	Daughter of Julie Zirbner and Toni Steiger, previously lived with adoptive parents	Miriam Stein	4-8
supporting cast
Andreas "Andi" Paulmichl (†)	Policeman, post commander from season 3, is murdered by his fiancée at the beginning of season 7	Raimund Wallisch	1-6
Toni Steiger	first postman, from season 4 retrained to police officer, father of Pippa Sponring	Gerhard Greiner	1-
Franzi Deng	Koch / Gourmet, son of Maria Deng and Pepperl Nothdurfter, ex-boyfriend of Sabine Schösswender. The two have been together again since "Tree Die"	Michael Ostrowski	1-
Rocco lock turner	Son of Sabine Schösswender and Franzi Deng	David Knöbl, Lukas Schwaiger, David Christopher Roth	1, 2-3, 6
Pepperl Nothdurfter	Mayor (until the middle of the 3rd season) with a penchant for twisting idioms and the father of Franzi Deng	Georges Kern	1-
Maria "Mitzi" Nothdurfter	Wife of the mayor, later mayor herself (middle of the 3rd to 6th season)	Brigitte Jaufenthaler	1-
Edith Brunner	Paramedic, ordination assistant up to the 3rd season, prostitute from the 4th season and owner of the "Saustall" brothel	Gabriela Schmoll	1-
Valentin Salchegger	Dorfwirt, married to Maria Salchegger, has an affair with Gerti Zeilinger	Charly Rabanser	1-
Josef Brigl (†)	Insurance agent and financial advisor, commits suicide in the 3rd season (episode hazardous waste)	Serge Falck	1-3
Helmut "Heli" Bacher	Bank director, in connection with Brigl's suicide, his wife murders the garbage collector Prinz, whereupon Heli Bacher also leaves the series	Carl Achleitner	1-3
Isolde Bacher / Kupfner	Employee and wife of Heli Bacher	Viktoria Schubert	1-3
Reinhold "Sheikh" Pfirlinger	Gas station owner, sells his gas station in the 3rd season	Elmar Drexel	1-3
Village pastor	is called to the Vatican	Sebastian Konrad	1-3
Petra Patterer	Policewoman, has a relationship with Andi Paulmichl, goes pregnant with her sister in Iceland at the end of the fourth season; you learn at the beginning of season 5 that she won't be back	Nike van der Let	3-4
Raphael Dorn (†)	Pastor (season 3), from the 4th Season laicized and a relationship with Julie Zirbner, dies at the beginning of the sixth season in a traffic accident	Harald scrap	3-6
Wiebke Elsbeth Baroness von Lüttwitz	waitress from Saxony , prostitute from season 4; becomes pregnant in the 6th season by the village pastor	Marion Reiser	3-
Herta Siegwald (†)	trigger-happy policewoman; from the end of the 4th season replacement for Petra Patterer, from the 6th season friend of Toni Steiger; is suffocated with a cushion in episode 55 by the sister of the man she shot on duty	Angelika Richter	4-8
Anton Prince	Pastor from Vorarlberg, successor to Raphael Dorn	Markus Linder	4-
Gerti Zeilinger (†)	pious hairdresser, has an affair with Dorfwirt Valentin Salchegger. Dies after falling (slipped on a banana peel) in season 5.	Dagmar Kutzenberger	4-5
Dr. Kleinhansl	Emergency doctor, father of several families; moves to village Ilm in the 5th season	Thomas Stipsits	5-
Lassacher (Lasse)	Electrician, Pippa's friend from season 5	Andreas Kiendl	1-
Alois Schedl (Sauschedl)	farmer	Andreas Giebel	7th
Franz Unterholzer		Christoph Krutzler	8th
Klara Unterholzer		Elena Uhlig	8th
Oberholzer		Christian Strasser	8th
Peggy		Barbara Wussow	8th
Gudrun		Karin Lischka	8th

Directors

The direction also changes within the seasons.

Director	Seasons
Harald Sicherheitsitz	1
Wolfgang Murnberger	1-4, 6, 7
Andreas Prochaska	1.4
Claudia Jüptner-Jonstorff	2
Walter Bannert	3
Andreas Kopriva	5
Michael Riebl	5
Sabine Derflinger	6th
Wolfgang Murnberger Andreas Kopriva	9

Episode list

broadcast	Season	episode	title
1	1	01	Heart attack
2	1	02	Mist soup
3	1	03	Naturally cloudy
4th	1	04	Parricide
5	1	05	Worn warm
6th	1	06	Bad luck for artists
7th	1	07	Moonstruck
8th	1	08	Dry swimmer
9	1	09	Dragon slayer
10	1	10	Love swamp
11	2	01	Guardian Angel
12	2	02	Rat poison
13	2	03	Slaughter festival
14th	2	04	Hypocritical
15th	2	05	Upside down
16	2	06	Mouth dead
17th	2	07	Blade shot
18th	2	08	Covered in
19th	3	01	Tree death
20th	3	02	Blood ties
21st	3	03	Hazardous waste
22nd	3	04	Total loss
23	3	05	Lintel
24	3	06	end of working day
25th	4th	01	Sprayed on
26th	4th	02	Hexenwasser
27	4th	03	Love trap
28	4th	04	White lies
29	4th	05	Basement children
30th	4th	06	Sweat
31	5	01	Drained
32	5	02	Man devil
33	5	03	Farmer's feast
34	5	04	Risen
35	5	05	Judgment of God
36	5	06	payday
37	6th	01	Erased
38	6th	02	afterbirth
39	6th	03	Maintained dead
40	6th	04	scapegoat
41	6th	05	Love bones
42	6th	06	Thorn bird
43	6th	07	Short circuit
44	6th	08	Line
45	7th	01	Saumagen
46	7th	02	Remorse
47	7th	03	Heaven
48	7th	04	Memorandum
49	7th	05	Cry for help
50	7th	06	Sweep
51	8th	01	Escape wave
52	8th	02	Popped up
53	8th	03	Seventy-two
54	8th	04	Hand kiss
55	8th	05	Madness
56	8th	06	Cold sleep
57	8th	07	Shreds of pain
58	8th	08	Disgraceful gold

Trivia

The name of the fictional place "Dorf Ilm" was derived from the Austrian film production company Dor Film .
From the fourth season Toni Steiger is no longer a postman, but a police officer. This alludes to the fact that in Austria in 2009/2010, many postal workers were offered to switch to the police in order to relieve the “real” police officers of their office work.
The Bavarian cabaret artist Monika Gruber has a guest appearance in the 1st episode of the 4th season .
In the second episode of the fourth season there are many allusions to the corruption scandal by Ernst Strasser . Strasser was an Austrian MEP and was filmed during the “Cash-for-Laws” investigation in 2011 when he accepted an offer from two lobbyists (played by British reporters); this video was released after the investigation was completed. Towards the end of the episode, this video is alluded to in great detail. An offer is made to the mayoress Mitzi Nothdurfter; it is filmed from the same camera perspective as Ernst Strasser. His bad English is also satirized.
In the 7th season, the Ilm police station will be closed. The basis for this was the “Service Adjustment Plan 2014” of the Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner , in the course of which numerous police stations across Austria were closed.