Victorian crime drama, Vienna Blood

Imagine a period crime drama set during the Victorian era, featuring a dedicated detective who joins forces with a medic to solve crimes in a major city.

Now, which show is being described there?

No doubt a few people are imagining the much-missed Ripper Street, and they wouldn’t be wrong. It’s also rather reminiscent of Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. However, the series that concerns us is Vienna Blood, which is back on our screens for a new three-part series.

Based on Frank Tallis’ best-selling Liebermann novels, it focuses on the unorthodox partnership that develops between Max Liebermann, a gifted young doctor and Freud advocate, and the no-nonsense Oskar Rheinhardt, a local detective inspector.

The latter is portrayed by Austrian thespian Juergen Maurer, while rising British star Matthew Beard tackles the role of Liebermann, something he’s thrown himself into since he first read the inaugural batch of scripts more than three years ago. It seems he’s just as dedicated to his work as his alter ego is to his.

“The first thing I did was to sit down with the scripts, but then sat down with Freud too as it’s a crucial part of the show and is what Max is interested in,” says Beard. “I got to Vienna two weeks before we started shooting, which gave me a chance to soak up the city because obviously Vienna is another central character.

“So I had time to explore that and that was really valuable – I went to a lot of the art galleries and I watched a lot of documentaries about what was going on at the time because in 1906 there was huge burst in architecture, art and science. I went to see the Egon Schieles, I went to visit the Adolf Loos buildings and tried to get a feel of what was going on.”

A particularly crucial aspect to the show’s success is the relationship between Liebermann and Rheinhardt. Thankfully, the actors playing them get along like a house on fire.

“I think Max and Oskar’s working relationship is a classic buddy relationship that you see in many films throughout history,” explains Beard. “Juergen is such a joy to work with that it was so easy. Pretty much from about minute one I knew I was going to love our scenes together.”

This time, their opening case involves venturing into the fashion world – a young seamstress has been found murdered. The duo soon realise that underneath the industry’s thin veneer of glamour lies something very dark indeed… Before long, Liebermann must utilise his knowledge of the psychology behind sexual attraction, and it leads the duo into the sinister world of exploitation and blackmail.

It proves to be a tricky investigation, but one that Beard believes he could have dealt with: “I think I would be good at solving murders,” he claims, with a mischievous grin. “Although I think my friends would probably say I’m more likely to have done the crime than solve it…”