You may not expect a piece in Television to begin with East Asian geopolitics, but trust me. Diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, two pro-American democracies in the region, were strained for a long time due to past wars and economic exploitation. Those tensions were reflected in Pachinko (Apple TV+, 2022), a saga about four generations of unhappy Korean emigrants to Japan.
The broadcaster will gradually increase the number of shows with subtitles, with The Great British Bake Off, The Last Leg and Gogglebox, as well as live television including Channel 4 News and F1 racing, being some of the first.
The announcement comes after the channels and on-demand services were affected on Saturday 25 September 2021, when the fire suppression system was triggered at Red Bee Media, the company that broadcasts them.
Titled Deutschland86, the second series picks up the story of Communist agent Martin Rauch who we last saw in East Germany, caught up in a betrayal plot amongst his superior officers.
Three years later, in 1986, Martin emerges as an exile in East Africa and is once again enlisted by his Aunt Lenora to fight in the Global Cold War. Set amongst true stories of terrorism in 1980s Western Europe, Deutschland86 journeys through events in Paris, Johannesburg, and Tripoli before returning to a divided Berlin where nationwide anxieties are coming to a head.
Subtitles, sass and sex are the latest must-haves for broadcasters who are serious about satisfying their audiences. British viewers’ expanding appetite for foreign-language shows has taken in the mafia in Gomorrah on Sky Atlantic, the chilly Icelandic landscape of Trapped on BBC Four and the visceral drugs drama Prófugos on Channel 4’s new online service, Walter Presents.
