From Spy to Sleuth

In May we learned that Apple TV+ would be adapting the late Philip Kerr’s series of World War II-era crime novels for the small screen. Now comes word that 35-year-old Scottish actor Jack Lowden, who currently stars as once-up-and-coming MI5 agent River Cartwright on Slow Horses (another Apple TV+ production), will lead this coming program’s cast as German cop-turned-shamus Bernie Gunther.

As RadioTimes reports:

The first season is expected to be based on Kerr's [2019] novel Metropolis, the last book published in the series but set [in 1928] before all the others and providing the origin story for Bernie Gunther, the character Lowden is set to play.

The synopsis for the series, which is currently untitled, says: “Bernie is a police officer, newly promoted to the intimidating and elite Berlin Murder Squad, and must investigate what seems to be a serial killer targeting victims on the fringes of society.

“Bernie’s Berlin is a city of unprecedented freedom and dizzying turbulence, the Nazis just a distant nightmare waiting in the wings. With the political and social world shifting to a new norm, we see Bernie fighting for truth, whatever the cost.”

Deadline adds that “BAFTA nominee Tom Shankland will direct as well as executive produce the Apple TV+ series … Peter Straughan, who won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Conclave, will serve as showrunner as well as adapt the script and executive produce. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman will also exec produce through their Playtone banner. Playtone and Apple most recently teamed on the World War II series Masters of the Air. The new series will be filmed in Berlin.”

(Above) Jack Lowden as River Cartwright in Slow Horses.

I admit, I’m having some trouble imagining Lowden as Bernie Gunther. I might have hired somebody a bit bigger and beefier for the role, to better fit my image of the character. But then, I didn’t think sexagenarian actress Lesley Manville was right for the part of book editor-cum-sleuth Susan Ryeland in Magpie Murders, the 2022 retailoring of Anthony Horowitz’s novel of that same name for television—and boy, was I wrong. So I am more than ready to give Lowden a chance here. I’m just glad to finally see Kerr’s heavy-drinking, heavy-smoking, and enthusiastically womanizing gumshoe finally make it to the small screen!