The ZDF crime series “Under Other Circumstances” has a loyal fan base of between seven and eight million people. Many of them are likely to be a little disappointed this Monday. Because the second has changed its program at short notice and this evening at 8.15 p.m. instead of Jana Winter’s new case “Demons” it will be broadcasting the repetition “Forever and Ever” from 2021.
The obvious reason is the transmission of the Handball World Championship in the first. Apparently the program planners didn’t want to risk the precious new film going under in the face of strong sporting competition.
A prisoner and his pen pal in focus
In the 18th episode “Forever and Ever”, Jana Winter, played by Natalia Wörner, focuses on the relationship between a prisoner and his pen pal. Jan Littkovski (Karsten Antonio Mielke) is in prison for raping and killing a woman. He is now on day release and wants to marry his fiancée Doreen Hahn (Bettina Stucky) after his release. They got to know each other via a “pen pal agency for prisoners”.
Doreen picks Jan up one evening for the day off, and the two get into an argument over dinner. The next morning the postwoman finds the body of a young woman in the house across the street. She was killed in the same way as Jan’s victim. A strange coincidence – Jana Winter and her colleagues agree on that. The case is highly opaque: Jan denies the accusation, Doreen behaves suspiciously, a second pen pal shows up and Doreen’s father was also near the crime scene at the time of the crime.
Investigator Jana approaches the matter rationally as usual. The commissioner always seems controlled and somewhat unapproachable – quite the opposite of her hot-headed colleague Matthias Hamm (Ralph Herforth). But then Jana has to smile about his jokes. This shows that the team is not just a community of convenience and that the new hierarchy has also worked itself out. Jana is the manager, her former boss Arne Brauner (Martin Brambach) subordinates to her.
When Jana makes a mistake and is pulled off the case, the colleagues stick together and keep Jana up to date. Her son Leo (Wörner’s son Jacob-Lee Seeliger) also trusts the team. When the teenager messes up, the first thing he does is call Hamm and ask for his help.
“We focus on the characters,” Natalia Wörner said some time ago about the popular series. Producer Jutta Lieck-Klenke agrees: “No character is one-dimensional.” It is a team of investigators “that loves the work, is likeable, likes each other, but also enjoys dealing with each other and is not afraid of conflicts”.
