There’s no peace in sight for the villagers of Upper- and Lower Rieslingen: The shooting of scenes for the second part of season two of this Swabian comedy series started in Ingersheim on September 16th. Once again, Ulrike Grote served as director as well as co-wrote the scripts with Sören Hüper (episodes 19 – 23) and Elke Schuch (episode 24). Also on board are the actors Christian Pätzold, Karoline Eichhorn, Rainer Piwek, Sabine Hahn, Franziska Küpferle, Meike Kircher, Elena Jesse, Jürgen Haug, Tilbert Strahl-Schäfer, Christian Koerner, Janna Striebeck, April Hailer, Reinhold Ohngemach, Hartmut Volle, Frank Stöckle and Joachim Raaf. Fortune Cookie Filmproduction GmbH produced the series for the public broadcasting channel SWR; editors are Margret Schepers and Thomas Martin, while Ilona Schultz is the executive producer.
Following the shooting of the first six episodes of season two during the winter, the filming of the summer episodes began just recently. The two families, the Rossbauers and the Häberles, are subjected to major upheaval: new alliances are forged and old enemies are at the root of lots of dubious action. After young Klara, Grandma Anni now also comes up with a shady business idea; ghost “Ludwig” still can’t float but, in the meantime, once again feels very attracted to his still living widow while the priest gets more involved in the intrigues of his harmless little parishioners than is good for him. And, as if this wasn’t enough, a wedding takes place but one can seriously doubt that the right couple has come together to tie the knot. In any case, “The Church Stays in the Village” remains staunchly and adamantly Swabian with lots of black humour.
The first half-hour episodes of season two will be broadcast as a double feature as part of SWR’s Christmas programming, on Mondays starting on December 8th.