On behalf of Madame
Television series | |
---|---|
Original title | On behalf of Madame |
Country of production | Germany |
original language | German |
Year (s) | 1972-1975 |
length | 25 minutes |
Episodes | 39 in 3 seasons |
genre | Crime series |
Director | Paul May , Peter Meincke |
idea | Karl Heinz Zeitler ( under the pseudonym CM Sharland ) |
music | Siegfried Franz |
First broadcast | December 6, 1972 |
occupation | |
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On behalf of Madame was an early evening series of the ZDF . It ran in three seasons of 13 episodes in the years 1972-1975. It was made in the Hamburg studio , directed by Paul May in the first two seasons , and alternated with Peter Meincke in the third season. Each episode was 25 minutes long and ran on Wednesdays at 7:10 p.m. (season 1), 6:25 p.m. (season 2) and 6:20 p.m. (season 3).
action
Homer Halfpenny, who holds a chair for Tibetan dialects, works as an agent for a "madame" who always gives her instructions by phone and remains invisible to the viewer in all seasons. He is supported by playboy Peter Proud, a car dealer by profession. The tasks of this unequal team are diverse, they have in common that Halfpenny and Proud have to travel abroad in almost all cases in order to be able to complete an assignment successfully.
The beginning of each episode is identical: while in the first season the two protagonists each receive a telegram (Halfpenny from a boy, with whose bike he goes to a phone booth, Proud from his servant Archibald) and Halfpenny the instructions from the cell accepts, in the other two seasons you only see Halfpenny picking up the phone. New here is a policeman who attaches the professor's bicycle with a rope and then pulls it up into a tree, from where Halfpenny takes it down again after the work is done.
Others
Many of the outdoor shots were shot abroad, but not always in the country it was referred to as. So were z. For example, scenes were filmed in Spain, which then also took place in Italy or in what was then Yugoslavia, whereby one often did not even bother to adapt the labels to the language of the respective country, for example. The accumulation of fantasy states in which Halfpenny and Proud operated was also striking.
Herta Kravina , Horst Keitel's wife, played guest roles in two episodes ( Der Verschollene , Season 2, Episode 5 and The Testament , Season 3, Episode 6) . Jochen Köppel, who played Proud's servant Archibald in the first season, was seen again in the episode The Spotlight (Season 3, Episode 11), but in a different role.
In three episodes ( The Football President , Season 2, Episode 10, as well as in Come to Seville and The Bottle Spirit , Season 3, Episodes 2 and 8) there is - apart from the protagonists - no other German actor on the cast list.
Episode list
season 1
season 2
No. (total) |
No. (season) |
First broadcast | title | Guest actors (selection) |
---|---|---|---|---|
14th | 1 | May 29, 1974 | The necklace | Jutta Kammann |
15th | 2 | 5th June 1974 | Password Elisabeth | Doris Gallart , Karl-Heinz Gerdesmann , Günther Flesch , Ingeburg Kanstein |
16 | 3 | June 12, 1974 | Hotel marten | Christina Betzner |
17th | 4th | June 19, 1974 | Ghost for sale | Kurt Zips , Heide Grübl , Achim Sauter , Günter Lüdke , Charlie Rinn |
18th | 5 | June 26, 1974 | The missing one | Herta Kravina , Dan van Husen |
19th | 6th | 3rd July 1974 | Two leading gentlemen | Christiane Rücker , Hans Elwenspoek , Werner Schumacher , Gerhard Olschewski |
20th | 7th | July 10, 1974 | Young talent | Gert Haucke , Erna Nitter , Leopold Hainisch , Günter Lüdke , Hans Irle |
21st | 8th | 17th July 1974 | Bodyguard | Walter Roderer , Ingeborg Schöner |
22nd | 9 | July 24, 1974 | Tip from the underworld | Walter Tschernich , Alexander Welbat , Rolf Jahncke , Jürgen Wulf , Horst Hesslein |
23 | 10 | July 31, 1974 | The football president | Charo López , Pepe Morenó |
24 | 11 | 7th August 1974 | The missing doll | José Canalejas , Monika Rasky |
25th | 12 | August 14, 1974 | Crime fans | Barbara Capell , Rainer Goernemann , Lothar Grützner , Hans Kahlert , Kurt Klopsch , Karin Rasenack , Achim Sauter |
26th | 13 | August 21, 1974 | Loose contact | Andrea Grosske , Erica Schramm , Kurt A. Jung , Hans Timmermann , Wolfgang Rau , Charlotte Bremer-Wolff , Ferdinand Dux , Werner Cartano , Günter Spörrle |
season 3
DVD release
The three seasons were published in full (13 episodes each) on January 26, March 23 and June 15, 2018 by Pidax.
Reviews
Commissioned by Madame, it was conceived as a follow-up series by Percy Stuart , but according to critics it did not live up to its claims. The crime website, for example, puzzles "how this series managed to make it to 39 episodes" , because "the stories are abstruse and hair-raising, and there is at best as much tension as watching a goldfish aquarium." , while the television lexicon at least admits that "clever (...) tricky tasks" were solved.
Web links
- On behalf of Madame in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The crime thriller homepage (a lot of background information, details of the cast and staff, episode list and guide for all 39 episodes with brief synopsis)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e The crime thriller homepage
- ↑ Fernsehserien.de
- ↑ Michael Reufsteck, Stefan Niggemeier: Das Fernsehlexikon. All over 7000 programs from Ally McBeal to the ZDF hit parade . Goldmann, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-442-30124-6 .