For three spectacular series, Welsh actor Elen Rhys has teamed up with Viennese star Julian Looman to solve frightful crimes on the sun-drenched island of Mallorca. Playing the part of buttoned-up British detective Miranda Blake, she’s competently tackled arson, fraud and smuggling, while maintaining a will-they-won’t-they romantic tension with roguish German counterpart Max Winter. So, what does Elen think of her ‘second home’?
Was The Mallorca Files your first introduction to the Island?
I did the touristy-nightclub thing in Magalluf when I was younger. It was a really lovely holiday actually, not that intense or hardcore to be honest, but I’ve obviously got to know Mallorca much better from working here for the last, gosh, almost seven years.
Mallorca must have become a huge part of your life.
Yes, it’s amazing. Mallorca has absolutely everything and it’s like a paradise.
Where’s ‘home’ while you’re filming?
By choice, I live in an apartment in Palma. We can stay in and around Palma, or somewhere else if we wanted, but I love the city for the convenience as the hours are so bloomin’ long. Of an evening, or a weekend, if I want to catch up with people, it’s all on my doorstep.
You mention the hours, it appears to be the dream job, but the schedule seems hectic.
Julian and I are in every scene, pretty much, and we do about 11 hours on set each day. I leave the apartment around five thirty or six in the morning, shoot all day until seven in the evening, and then we’ve got at least two hours of line learning. We genuinely work really hard on this job, there’s not much time off to socialise.
No days off?
We have weekends off, but I travel to be with my young son. On a Sunday, Julian and I used to break the back of line-learning together. Just a few hours made a difference tackling the bulk of stuff we had to learn for the coming week. In between shooting blocks, we’d stand down for a week. But yeah, it’s quite intense.
Does the ‘paradise’ location make up for it?
It is indeed a dream job in terms of the beautiful sets. Mallorca is the main protagonist, so a lot of The Mallorca Files is shot outside, and it’s gorgeous in that sense. But, I am always jealous of the guest actors who come in. They take the job because, of course, they want to come to Mallorca, and they’re like, ‘we were at the beach, and we did this, and we did that’. It would be nice to have a bit more balance, to really enjoy the Island.
What time of year do you film?
The first two series, we went from about November through ‘til May, but the last series, the one we did for Amazon, we shot up to the end of July. Temperature-wise, this was no joke. Doing running and stunts in 40-degree heat is pretty fierce, it’s hard not to sweat through the costumes. Series three, episode three, we did a boat chase. It was the end of July and we were melting, but I thought great, the sequence is coming up where Julian rugby tackles me off the side of the boat and we’re going to cool down as soon as we hit the sea. When I went in the water, I was like ‘you are kidding me’ - it was a warm bath. If we came back, it would be nice to revert to our usual winter pattern.
Why did it happen this way for series three?
It wasn’t our first choice, but Julian only had a five-month window where he could shoot, because he was on another job. In all respects it’s more expensive filming in the summer - hotels, locations, flights - but our options were limited.
On the flip side, there must have been some chilly moments filming series one and two?
We were quite cold a lot of the time. I am fairly sensitive to low temperatures so my lips would go purple or I’d get goosebumps, and there’d be someone shouting: ‘Look warm!’. We were filming in conditions that you wanted to be wearing a jumper, but we were in a T-shirt - but that’s the magic of tele isn’t it.
The pandemic memorably interrupted series two.
We shot six episodes out of the planned ten, then got sent home for what we thought would be a couple of weeks, but we never made it back. By the time that the whole industry opened back up again, which was about a year and a half later, the BBC didn’t want to pick it up and restart it. That’s when we had to start looking for a new home for The Mallorca Files, and thankfully Amazon Prime Video took it on. Of the four episodes we didn’t film, a couple didn’t make it, but a couple did - albeit modified.
Any standout locations?
The episode we shot in the Caves of Drach, that was pretty cool, I didn’t really know such a thing existed as a concert venue. But I wouldn’t say I have a particular one standout location. Everywhere was such a treat, plus you get access to places that you can’t go to as a normal person, secluded spots, or amazing villas.
How do you feel about being compared to Death In Paradise?
Look, it’s definitely the same genre. We’re both island-based and solve the crime within the same episode, but I think the similarities end there. The Mallorca Files is more fast-paced, metropolitan, and we have a greater choice of backdrops, including the city. But it’s fair to say that if you like Death In Paradise, you’re probably going to like The Mallorca Files.
It has to be asked, you and Max, will there be romance?
You want people to really wish for them to get together as a couple but, I think the moment that happens, where does it go? The will-they-won’t-they tension keeps it alive.
Will there be a fourth series?
We don’t know - you’ll be the first to hear if we ever announce it.
Would you like there to be one?
Yeah, I mean, the whole thing, the people, the crew, the cast, the friendships, we’ve formed a little family over the last few years - plus I get to spend a lot of time in Mallorca. It really is great, you know, it’s hard work, but it truly is a lovely job. And it’s fun. We get to run around and do silly things and laugh.
In the meantime, you’re playing another detective, Ffion Lloyd.
When I got offered the role of DI Ffion Lloyd in the recent BBC series - The One That Got Away - I was actually in Mallorca. My instant reaction was, I can’t play another detective. I was worried that people would go, ‘oh that’s what she does’, but the genres are completely different. It never felt familiar. In The One That Got Away, it’s a slower pace, there are interviews, interrogation, while The Mallorca Files is high-energy with a lot of repetition, over-explaining, tongue-in-cheek - a different set of skills.
Do you have a preference for either style?
I don’t know, to be honest, because they’re very different. I have really embraced the job that I did for the BBC and have been waiting for an opportunity like that for a while. I can tell you we are doing more of The One That Got Away and I’m super excited for that.