# Derrick (1974)

> A veteran Munich detective and his loyal assistant methodically solve a murder case each week in this long-running German crime series.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/4362

## Facts

- Seasons: 25
- Episodes: 281
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Herbert Reinecker
- Network: ZDF
- Cast: Horst Tappert, Fritz Wepper, Willy Schäfer, Wolfgang Kieling, Lina Carstens, Lilli Palmer, Helmuth Lohner, Josef Dahmen
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070981/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: measured, reflective, understated, methodical

## What critics say

Viewers broadly regard Derrick as a reliable, well-crafted German police procedural whose early and middle seasons are its strongest, with ratings sagging in its final seasons.

## Synopsis

Derrick (1974-1998) is a German national-television police procedural created by Herbert Reinecker for ZDF. Horst Tappert plays Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick, a composed and courteous senior detective, while Fritz Wepper plays his loyal assistant Inspector Harry Klein, with Willy Schäfer as Willi Berger in the squad. The engine of the show is simple and steady: each hour-long episode follows a single murder in Munich and its surrounding towns, and the detectives work through interviews with suspects, relatives and witnesses until the pieces of a respectable household or workplace fall into place. Across a twenty-five season run, the series is a self-contained case-of-the-week format rather than one continuing story, so new viewers can enter at any point. Its tone is measured, reflective and unhurried, with a pervasive sense of quiet middle-class unease beneath polished apartments, villas and offices. The show is set in 1970s and 1980s West Germany, using the city streets and bourgeois interiors of Munich to ground its crimes. Fans of Columbo, Der Alte and Inspector Morse will find resonance in its patient investigative rhythm, its dialogue-driven deductions and its focus on the human motives behind ordinary-looking murders.

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