Name: Affordable Mallorca
Price range: $

“Those people who don’t know Mallorca will discover that it is much more than sun and beach.” – Julian Looman, star of The Mallorca Files (to El Diario de Mallorca)

The Mallorca Files is poised to be one of the biggest hits of the upcoming winter television season. The much-anticipated series was pre-sold to stations in New Zealand, Japan, Finland, Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark and Sweden ahead of MIPCOM, the Cannes-based yearly global market trade show where content providers buy their entertainment content for the year.

Viewers in North America, Germany and France already have access to the series due to joint agreements with coproducers in those countries and BBC1 is available in Benelux, Africa and Poland, where audiences will have access as if they were in the UK. The first two episodes were screened at Cineciutat at Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, exactly one month before the official BBC premiere’s air date, 25^th November.

Affordable Mallorca Tip: For our German readers: The series will be shown on ZDF as soon as synchronization is finished which will probably be sometime in spring 2020.

The Show #

The daytime crime drama is centred around the “opposites attract” relationship between an uptight British police officer and a devil-may-care German cop starring Elen Rhys and Julian Looman, respectively. Rhys is no stranger to working on big and small screens. The Welsh actress is best known for her breakout role in 2011’s Panic Button and has worked extensively in both British and Welsh language TV projects. Austrian-born heartthrob Looman is a relative newcomer, having only made his television debut in 2012. His recurring role in last winter’s German/Austrian cross-border crime hit Pagan Peak (Der Pass) put him firmly on the radar.

Stick No Bills 728x90 JULY 2019 APPROVED

Creator of the series is Dan Sefton who, in a recent interview with Mallorca Magazin, explained his deeper motives: "The relationship between Great Britain and Germany has always been a very special one. When portrayed on British TV, it is done mainly in Comedy shows. This is why I wanted not only to create a fast action series, but also take the German-British relationship into the 21^st century and give it a new, more up-to-date image." Sefton had been to Mallorca on various occasions before writing his script and considered it the ideal setting for this "German-British crossover". "Brits and Germans are more similar than they might like to think", he said in the interview. "They both consider Mallorca to be 'their island'".

Producer Ben Donald was delighted by the friendliness he and his film crew encountered on the island and the easy access they were granted to all the best locations. In Palma, they were even allowed to do a scene with the cops, in their BMW cabrio, speeding along the historic city wall right below the cathedral, in a road section which, under normal circumstances, is strictly pedestrians only.

Mallorca itself has been touted as another star of the series, as much of the filming was done outdoors on locations scattered around the island, including Inca, Pollença, Palma and Sóller, highlighting the natural beauty and variety of terrains the island has to offer.

The series has ten 45 minute long episodes and shows the pair solving a new case in each one.

The Miami Vice Effect #

Miami Vice was one of the biggest hit series of the 1980’s. Stylishly dressed detectives Crockett and Tubbs fought baddies in the cocaine-fueled setting of the Art Deco District of South Florida. Despite the pop music soundtrack, fast cut editing and frivolous banter, the show was surprisingly dark with most episodes focusing on drugs and murder. It ran for five seasons and put South Beach Miami, previously a rundown and inexpensive retirement community, front and centre sparking a massive renaissance.

One of the Founders of Affordable Mallorca was the lead developer, after the mob, by purchasing the first 24 buildings in the Art Deco District prior to the TV show's production. He poured money into the enclave and helped create the design-standards that rejuvenated the historic integrity of pastel-hued art deco buildings, turning it into the upscale playground we know today. The first building, The Twins, was used as the setting for Crockett's apartment.

Similar scenarios played out when the British-French collaboration Death in Paradise, filmed in Guadeloupe, gave the island a huge tourism boost, and Riviera reminded people that the Côte d’Azur still had some pretty spectacular scenery to offer.

What does this have to do with Mallorca? #

Well, perhaps nothing. Perhaps a lot. A show with as much publicity and hype as The Mallorca Files is going to attract interest - interest in visiting, interest in buying and interest in getting in on the action here. Couple that with governmental push to play down the former image as a party place, and the possibility for South Beach-type attention and investment is fairly likely, as is the chance of attracting more large-scale production work.

If this scenario comes together, the possibilities are wide open. Villages all over the island have great settings for movies, tv shows and your home. The Island of Mallorca and those quaint townhouses and properties will be on a lot more radars . There will be change. Sustainability is the key and Mallorca is leading development standards for the future in infrastructure design. Ready or not, here it comes!