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Walter Iuzzolino: Arbiter of Britain’s Nordic Drama Tastes
When Walter Iuzzolino quit his job, he switched on the television. Two years later he emerged with Walter Presents, a curated collection of his favourite dramas, available via Channel 4 in the UK, and via various channels in Australia, Italy, Belgium and the United States. The head of a three-person team, he’s introduced followers to varied and innovative Nordic series that have challenge the long-held dominance of ‘Nordic Noir’…
Walter, the world’s been in quarantine, you’ve been at home… this isolation must have been pretty similar to when you were launching?
You’re right – my life hasn’t changed! I’m Italian so I grew up with foreign drama, I worked at Channel 4 and when I sold my independent production company to Discovery, and I had enough savings to last me a couple of years. My colleagues thought we had a unique opportunity, so we settled down to watch series from around the world. We weren’t earning, so it was nerve-racking of course, but it was also incredibly exciting to watch series from France one day, Argentina the next, and so on – I’d get through ten episodes a day. Obviously, if I didn’t like something, I’d only watch two instalments, but otherwise I always saw them through.
What’s the ratio between the hours you watched and the hours that have made it to our screens?
Well I work with a couple of colleagues, Jason Thorpe and Jo McGrath, so I have help. We must have burned through well over five thousand hours together. But the standard of shows I’m receiving has gone up so much recently, so I’d say we’ve gone from airing about 1 in 20 to 1 in 4.
‘Nordic Noir’ took off a few years before Walter Presents launched in 2017. By the time you watched these shows, did you feel they were targeting the UK audience as much as native viewers?
It’s important to remember Scandinavian crime goes not only to the UK, but around the world. The producers are well aware they’re a factory of ideas, but they’re constantly reinventing themselves to make sure they stay fresh to native and foreign audiences alike. It’s a balancing act, but I think they manage it.
With the success of ‘Nordic Noir’ established, were you nervous about how Brits would respond to comedy and family dramas?
I’ve forged a close relationship with the viewers, and I hope they trust me. But, certainly, it’s easy to fall into a trap where you play to the safe zones. There are certain things off limit to us (I will never include animation, for example) but, as a one-man band, it’s my job to lead my followers in new directions. Luckily, I think people have enjoyed our comedies – ‘A Very Scandi Scandal’, and so on – so they’re ready for new ideas.
‘Walter Presents’ includes dramas from France and the Mediterranean. Do these genres have anything in common with their Northern European counterparts?
Every crime thriller is based on the same structure, but every series, crime or otherwise, comes at things in a different way. Nordic series are very Lutheran, Italian shows are nostalgic, and the French are more convoluted in their aesthetic. A country that really interests me is Belgium. It’s sandwiched between France and Scandinavia, and they’ve taken inspiration from both regions to create quirky, funny cop shows.
Your platform is now international, with spin-offs in Australia and America. Americans are often uncomfortable with subtitles, so how was their response?
Well to be honest, launching in Britain was a challenge too. There’d been ‘The Bridge’ and ‘The Killing’, but they’d been huge hits on BBC Four, an arty and very intellectual channel. When we launched on Channel 4, a much more mainstream channel, we were taking a massive bargain. ‘Deutschland 83’ became the most watched foreign drama in the UK, doubling the figures of Scandi noir, so we needn’t have worried! In America we’re on PBS, already known for its British series, so we try to fit in with the general European narrative.
Walter, thank you very much for speaking to me.
Thank you so much!