Angela Merkel becomes a detective solving murders in a TV programme branded “magnificently bonkers” by a social media user.
Italy’s national public broadcasting company, RAI, has left dozens of social media users in stitches after the release of a 32-second advert for a new TV show titled “Miss Merkel”.
The protagonist of the show is none other than a fictionalised version of the former Chancellor of Germany, played by German actor Katharina Thalbach.
The crime-solving comedy, inspired by a homonym book released three years ago, follows Miss Merkel becoming a private investigator solving murder mysteries after leading her country for 16 years.
The short trailer, advertising the release of the first episode of the TV programme on RAI2 on Friday evening, starts by describing the Miss Merkel character as “ironic, witty and resourceful”.
The show’s protagonist, sporting the German Chancellor’s renowned hairstyle and colourful suits, is asked in one scene, “Who do you think you are”, to which she sternly replies: “Angela Merkel”.
The fictional former Chancellor is also heard saying while analysing something through a lens: “I have been successful in politics, why should I not also be successful as a detective?”
The trailer, which ends with Miss Merkel in a bathtub, led many X users to draw comparisons between the legendary Angela Lansbury’s Murder, She Wrote and this new programme.
One X account, acknowledging just how many times Ms Lansbury’s crime-solving programme has been aired on Italian television, wrote: “Reruns of ‘Murder, She Wrote’ have kept us company for years, finally we have a modern version.”
Another wrote: “Please tell me it’s available in English subtitles. We cannot be deprived of this.”
A third, praising the books that inspired the programme, said: “I’ve read the book Miss Merkel & The Murder at the Cemetery. It’s actually pretty hilarious. I’m sure this will be an amazing series!”
A fourth X user simply described the programme as “magnificently bonkers”, while another added: “A play on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series. I love it.”
The programme was originally created by German broadcaster RTL, which released it in the former Chancellor’s country for the first time last year.
