Montalbano & Me: Why Camilerri's masterpiece is a hit across the globe

With many struggling to fill up their time during lockdown, turning to television has been an obvious way to fill up time. We have been blessed with some excellent viewing across the board. From the BBC’s Normal People to Netflix’ latest original series Space Force we have been well equipped with a smorgasbord of viewing delights. However, one such programme that has enticed me over the last couple of months is Italian detective series Inspector Montalbano for which all 36 episodes, filmed over a 20 year period, are freely available on BBC iPlayer.

The premise of the show is simple, a stylish Sicilian detective and his motley crew of assistants battle the mafia, murderers and curmudgeonly locals to keep the fictional towns of Vigata, Marinella and Montelusa clean and free of crime. Unlike many other TV detective series, Inspector Montalbano doesn’t conform to the formulaic setup and structure of so many other detective series such as Death in Paradise, where one of the shows endearing features is that you can normally guess the killer before the opening credits role. 

Montalbano is complex, witty and engaging. You would think that a programme, spoken entirely in Italian, helpfully provided with subtitles, wouldn’t be particularly engaging, but it is! Now, this may be due to my Italian heritage but once you are hooked, you can’t look away. The dialogue isn’t rushed although it’s not slow, so you are able to read the subtitles before the next scene. Furthermore, you can often get a sense of what the character is saying by their typically Italian flamboyant body language. The camaraderie and playful posturing between Montalbano, played by the excellent Luca Zingaretti, and his deputy Mimi Augello, played by Cesare Bocci, is another highlight of the show. Augello seems on a mission to mess up the seemingly well-structured and tranquil life of Montalbano with his lassie-faire attitude to life, marriage and work. In fact, the show, despite being ringed as a serious BBC4, 9pm drama, is littered with humour; take the immensely comedic and bumbling fall guy Catarella, played by Angelo Russo, and his constant cries of anguish whenever he does something wrong, or even right; or Montalbano’s continuing disgust at his right hand man Fazio’s overly-detailed descriptions of suspects.  

The humour comes directly from Montalbano’s creator, the peerless Italian crime writer, Andrea Camilleri. Having read most of the source material, wonderfully captured in 10 books, all written in Camilleri’s old age, it is a pleasure to see how the show’s directors and producers have captured the humour displayed in the books and so easily translated it into the series. It makes a stark contrast to the otherwise humourless Scandinavian detective dramas that clog up the BBC’s 9pm viewing slots at other times of the year.

A further reason for the show’s success, much like Death in Paradise, is the location in which it is set. Sicily is a place not particularly well known to the British traveller. When you think of Italy as a travel destination, there are other places to choose before heading south to the island. However, over its 20 year running, Inspector Montalbano has been an effective advertising agent for Sicily. Its backdrops have seduced us, especially during the winter months when the programme is televised here in the UK. Idyllic towns such as Ragusa-Ibla, Agrigento and Syracusa have all featured heavily over the years, however, its Montalbano’s home town of Ponte Secca, fictionalised as Marinella, on the southern tip of the island that has fans eyes agog. The beachfront house, with the sand running right up to the balcony and the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean allow us to imagine we are there for a moment and not in the freezing cold winter months back home. As a result of Inspector Montalbano being televised in as far flung places as Australia and the Americas, tourism in the traditionally poor south-western corner of the island has boomed. The ‘Montalbano trail’ is a pilgrimage that all fans should make at some point. I certainly have and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The scenery is indeed spectacular, as is the food, as is the weather, as are the people.    

Another feature of the shows personality is that it is not afraid to comment on the contemporary issues of 21^st century Italy. Whether it is corrupt politicians or policemen, the influence of the mafia or the continual influx of illegal immigrants to the island, the show isn’t shy of showing the world the true Sicily. The programme garnered considerable praise in 2018 when it included a pro-immigrant message throughout ‘The End of the Thread’ in a direct response to certain far-right political movements gaining support and influence throughout Italy at the time.

Above all, Inspector Montalbano is a release from the normal; it wisps you away on flying carpet to much warmer, if not slightly more dangerous climes. The programme is easily watchable and if you decide to binge watch the entire series, you’ll have the pleasure of seeing the characters develop over the 20 year period in which the films have been made.

Sadly, with Camilleri’s death in 2019 and the growing age of most of the cast members, it seems that we won’t be able to enjoy new-releases from one of the finest Italian exported TV shows much longer, but you can be assured that when the time does come for Montalbano to head off into the sunset, his fans won’t desert him. I certainly won’t!