The Fukushima meltdown in faraway Japan refreshed and fortified the terrible memory of Chernobyl at a time when Putin’s Gazprom grand-standing was beginning to impact European politics; but, however catastrophic the back-story, Erhard Schmied’s play is, in many ways, a nicely traditional thriller about eco-terrorism (and family secrets) in a genre that’s dominated nowadays by Nordic noir but is universally reliant on the evergreen figure of the decently dysfunctional forensic maestro and his conflicted side-kick.
GREETINGS FROM FUKUSHIMA by Erhard Schmied. Translated from the German by Andrew Morton
With Patrick Dawson as Inspector Paquet and Kathy Rose O’Brien as detective Amelie Gentner.
RTÉ Radio 1, Sunday 17 May, 8pm