Favourite Discoveries of 2014 (6)

Here we come to the last of the favourite discoveries of 2014 posts, and like Norman, my favourite discovery of 2014 was Happy Valley. I initially didn't watch it but at Crimefest, Mrs Peabody strongly suggested I should watch it, so thanks to BBC iPlayer, I downloaded all the episodes and watched them on my commute.

I absolutely loved the way that the lead character played by Sarah Lancashire was introduced, which you can see in the trailer below:




My second favourite discovery is also thanks to iPlayer - Salamander, a Flemish 24-style thriller. I wasn't sure after the first episode but I stuck with it and enjoyed it very much in the end. It makes a change to see Belgian country-side and and to hear the different languages and to see WWII from a different perspective:

Brussels / Belgium. Sixty-six safes are robbed during a spectacular and bloody raid on the small but influential and extremely discreet private bank, Jonkhere, in Brussels. The owners of those safes form a select club of powerful people in Belgium. The bank's clients hold high-level positions in industry, finance, the military, the magistracy, politics, unions. Strangely enough, only the safes belonging to these powerful people were hit, and while the perpetrators took no money, they did take documents. Pandora's box has been opened!

When a police detective starts checking the files of the robbery, he must soon run for his life...

TV News: Salamander on BBC Four in February

Salamander, a twelve part Flemish political thriller begins on BBC Four on 8 February at 9pm. Episode two follows at 9.45pm.

From the BBC's media centre:

Disguised as builders, a group of robbers descend on a top Belgium private bank - but the burglars have no eye for money or other valuables and target only 66 of 800 vaults in the bank. These 66 vaults belong to the country's industrial, financial, judicial and political elite, and the safe-deposit boxes contained their most intimate secrets - secrets that could bring down the nation.

Who ordered this hack? Who wants to disrupt the state? The bank scramble to cover up the robbery and avoid the involvement of the police, but police inspector Paul Gerardi (Filip Peeters) catches wind of the affair. With his incorruptible, old-school morals and devil-may-care attitude, Gerardi throws himself into the investigation, and when some of the key players are murdered, commit suicide or vanish, he soon realises just how big the case is.

Gerardi discovers that the victims are members of a secret organisation called Salamander. As he becomes the target of both the criminals and the authorities, Gerardi must quickly find out what their agenda is - and who is behind the thefts...