CANNES— TV series “Agatha Christie’s Hjerson” has been picked up by streamer Topic for North America and by the Australian channel SBS, ZDF Studios announced Tuesday at Cannes Mipcom trade fair.
“Agatha Christie’s Hjerson” is being sold as both a 45-minute series and four feature-length stories.
Topic has taken exclusive rights for the U.S. and Canada. SBS, a multicultural Australian broadcaster, has also closed an exclusive deal for the drama series.
Additionally, ZDF Studios has licensed the program to VOD platforms Google Play, iTunes, Amazon, Deutsche Telekom and Huawei for German speaking territories, as well as Germany’s public broadcaster, ZDF.
Other buyers include Viasat World, which covers the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia and the whole of Southeast Europe, Keshet (Israel), NHK (Japan), VR Films (India), LRT (Lithuania) and Walter Presents, Walter Iuzzolino’s Global Series Network for the U.K. and Ireland.
“I’m delighted that this excellent drama, which sees a spin off character from the Christie universe has come to life for the first time, has found its way to North America and Australia,” said Yi Qiao, director of drama, ZDF Studios.
The winner of MIPDrama’s award, the Coup de Coeur in 2021, this is the first time an offshoot character from a Christie novel has been adapted into a television series. Swedish comedian, actor and scriptwriter, Johan Rheborg takes the part of Sven Hjerson, and his sidekick Klara Sandberg is played by Hanna Alström (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”).
Hjerson has solved some of the toughest cases in Swedish crime history. Since then, he’s gone vegan and retired. Until a reality TV producer (Sandberg) decides to create a TV show based around him.
“It’s not every day that we get to introduce our subscribers to a new Agatha Christie detective,” said Jennifer Liang at Topic. “We are thrilled to welcome Swedish investigator Sven Hjerson to our global collection of elevated crime and suspense programs.”
Haidee Ireland, channel manager for SBS On Demand & SBS World Movies added: “We’re passionate about offering viewers content from Australia and across the globe, and thrilled to be offering ‘Agatha Christie’s Hjerson’ on the platform.”
“Agatha Christie’s Hjerson” was produced by Patrik Andersson and Ulf Synnerholm at BR•F for TV4/C More, in co-production with ZDF, Nadcon and the Government of Åland, and in close collaboration with ZDF Studios and Agatha Christie Ltd.
The series was created and developed by Patrik Gyllström at BR•F and was written by Patrik Gyllström, Björn Paqualin, Jakob Beckman, Martin Luuk and Aron Levander. It was directed by Lisa James Larsson and Lisa Farzaneh.
