ANNIKA: PBS MASTERPIECE

PBS MASTERPIECE announced that it will present Annika starring Nicola Walker (Unforgotten, Last Tango in Halifax). Walker plays DI Annika Strandhed, the dry-witted, speedboat-driving head of Glasgow’s newly-formed Marine Homicide Unit, who juggles baffling cases and a rebellious teenage daughter.

Annika’s six episodes will have a special premiere on PBS Passport, an added member benefit which provides extended access to a digital, on-demand library of PBS programs, and on the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel on April 17, 2022. The series will have a television broadcast on MASTERPIECE in Fall 2022.

 

While other TV detectives discuss the case exclusively with their team, Annika addresses viewers directly, “breaking the fourth wall” that separates the action from the audience. “With most characters there is so much subtext,” notes Walker. “But there is no subtext with Annika because the subtext is her talking directly to you and telling you what she feels. By the end, we are going to know her as well as she knows herself.”

 

Annika draws on the popular radio drama Annika Stranded, which aired on BBC Radio 4 between 2013 and 2020. Walker was the one-woman star of that series, with scripts by Nick Walker (no relation). The two Walkers have now teamed up again to bring Annika to television in all her complexity, vulnerability, and eccentric affability.