Vienna Blood season 4 has at last been given a release date by the BBC — the new series will begin on BBC Two on Sunday, August 4 at 9 pm and it will be available on iPlayer.
It's been a long wait for fans of the detective series following the adventures of Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard), a young doctor of psychology, and a world-weary cop, Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer). The last series was screened almost two years ago and there had been doubts whether it would return at all.
However, the BBC has confirmed series 4 is arriving shortly. Based on the hit books by Frank Tallis, the series is set in 1900s Vienna.
In previous series, the pair had solved a case in each episode, but in this series they will investigate one case.
Max and Oskar get embroiled in a mystery that threatens to bring down the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. A murder of an arms dealer and the killing of a top public official rocks Vienna and it's down to Max and Oskar to restore order. It will also be interesting to see what's next for Oskar, who looked to have found happiness only to discover at the end of Vienna Blood season 3 that his girlfriend had a secret husband. We will also find out hopefully what's next for Max and Clara — might they at last become a couple again? Or is there simply too much history between the pair?
We'd argue that Vienna Blood is one of the best BBC dramas of recent times and it's been largely overlooked. It has echoes of hit series Sherlock which is hardly surprising as its writer Steve Thompson worked on Sherlock.
Talking about why crime shows continue to be so popular, star Matthew Beard previously said: "I think crime is so satisfying because you follow the story in real time with the investigators, picking up clues, hopefully a few twists and some things you didn't expect, but it always gets wrapped up neatly at the end and you have the satisfaction of a completed piece."
As to why he enjoys working on the series, he said: "I think the most wonderful thing about Vienna Blood is returning to work with the same colleagues again. So, for example, the relationship I have with Juergen who plays Oskar, I've never had with any actor, ever in my life. Because I've never worked with someone for that long."
