D-Mag
D-Mag is a German-language BBC schools TV series from the 1990s and 2000s, covering German Language for secondary school pupils.
A magazine programme of interviews, drama, performances and other features for students of German language - hence a Deutsch-Magazin or shortened further, D-Mag.
The programmes are anchored by a teenage presenter, Christina Einbock, who visits places and people and introduces other segments.
This is a series going by many titles. As well as the variations on Deutsch-Magazin it is also known in listings as German File, a parallel with other BBC secondary school series branded as Files in the 1990s, including English File, Maths File, History File and Belief File. That title is never used on screen though, where D-Mag seems to be the agreed title.
BBC Most of the series is available to watch online on the BBC website, split into a series of individual clips.Programmes
The regular features of the series were presented in short clips, sometimes with more than one visit to a particular segment in each episode.
Bitte Deutsch Sprechen! - a drama in which two British teenagers on a school trip to Germany are given a mission to find and interview a particular person each day. The characters sometimes converse in English when they are alone, but the rules of the missions are to bitte Deutsch sprechen - only speak German!
Liebe Mal Vier - a serial drama about four teenagers - two girls and two boys - at school who are trying to ask each other out. English is also sometimes heard when the young Germans flirt during an English lesson.
Mit Christina Unterwegs - Christina travels around Germany, Austria and Switzerland meeting German-speaking people including dance troupes and engineers.
Deutsch Ohne Grenzen - Christina interviews German speakers from around the world, such as a family from Albania who explain life in their home country and why they came to speak German.
In addition there are fictionalised sequences woven into Christina's presentation, including a mountain rescue operation when she comes across an injured boy while talking about landscapes, a police reconstruction when a man she passes in the street is mugged, and even historical reenactments when she reads poetry by Goethe.
The series is based in the German town of Dresden
, where both Bitte Deutsch Sprechen! and Liebe Mal Vier take place, with some excursions to other German-speaking areas and countries for Christina's segments.
Episode List
| # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Deutsch-Magazin 1 | 23 Feb 1999 |
| 2. | Deutsch-Magazin 2 | 2 Mar 1999 |
| 3. | Deutsch-Magazin 3 | 9 Mar 1999 |
| 4. | Deutsch-Magazin 4 | 16 Mar 1999 |
| 5. | Deutsch-Magazin 5 | 23 Mar 1999 |
Broadcasts
The series was broadcast weekly in the daytime just once, in Spring 1999, before all secondary schools programmes moved to overnight transmissions in the Learning Zone strand.
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998-99 | Spring 1999 | Tuesday, 11:50am | BBC2 | 23 Feb to 23 Mar | ||||
| Summer 1999 | Thursday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 17 Jun | |||||
| 1999-2000 | Spring 2000 | Thursday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 6 Apr | ||||
| 2000-01 | Summer 2001 | Thursday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 26 Apr | ||||
| 2001-02 | Autumn 2001 | Thursday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 8 Nov | ||||
| 2002-03 | Summer 2003 | Thursday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 15 May | ||||
| 2003-04 | Summer 2004 | Thursday, 4:00am | BBC2 | 20 May | ||||
| 2004-05 | Summer 2005 | Thursday, 4:00am | BBC2 | 19 May | ||||
| 2005-06 | Spring 2006 | Friday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 27 Jan | ||||
| 2006-07 | Spring 2007 | Friday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 19 Jan | ||||
| 2007-08 | Spring 2008 | Friday, 2:00am | BBC2 | 1 Feb |
Credits
| Series presented by | Christina Einbock |
| Bitte Deutsch Sprechen! starring | Jessica Brookes as Joss Brown Eliot Brown as Matt McKeigue |
| With | Caroline Kaltofen woman at tram stop (episode 1) Yong Sa Park-Hammerschmidt woman in tea shop (episode 1) Katja Heiser as photo shop assistant (episode 2) Eva Ulrich, Bernhard Steinert as farmers (episode 3) Franzi Faselt as superwoman (episode 3) Petra Scheunemann as woman at info desk (episode 4) Lutz Müller as ticketseller (episode 4) Suzanne Neubert as hiker (episode 4) Robert Kuhne as teacher (episode 5) Annett Grosser as climber (episode 5) |
| Writer & director | Len Brown |
| Liebe Mal Vier starring | Maja C. Domnick as Maja Anina Fehr as Nina Markus Rasswallner as Markus Tobias Rinsche as Tobi |
| Writer | Amanda Rainger |
| Bergrettung with | Michael Ströher as injured boy Tobias Wüllenweber as friend (episode 1) |
| August der Starke with | Klaus Dietmar Matthes as The King (episode 2) |
| Goethe In Weimar with | Axel Sichrovsky as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Jan Baake as Herzog Carl August (episode 4) |
| Polizei with | Johannes Quester as victim Kerstin Winkler as policewoman Dirk Frenzel as policeman Steffen Popp as first thug Jan Rössler as second thug (episode 5) |
| Executive Producers for Goethe-Institut | Dieter Arnsdorf |
| Language and cultural consultants | Karl Pfeiffer Yolanda Schwager |
| BBC Education Officer | Steven Fawkes |
| Teacher Consultant | Debbie Walls |
| Music | Sandy Nuttgens Mike Scott |
| Graphic design | Adams Trainor |
| Editor | Rick Spurway |
| Executive director/camera | Len Brown |
| Director | Scott Ross |
| Producer | Susan Francis |
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