Sad news for all Tatort fans! Investigating for over three decades Udo Wachtveitl (65) as Franz Leitmayr and his colleague Miroslav Nemec (69) alias Ivo Batic in the popular ARD crime thriller. The Munich duo regularly attracts millions of viewers to their screens on Sunday evenings. Only Ulrike Folkerts (62) as Ludwigshafen investigator Lena Odenthal has been on duty for even longer. However, the Munich investigators will soon be retiring.
As the Bayerischer Rundfunk announces, after 35 years it’s over for Batic and Leitmeyer. Before that, seven more films with the two of them are to be broadcast by 2025 – in order to complete the 100 cases. “As ‘crime scene‘-Chief Commissioners have Udo and in recent years I have said goodbye to some real police colleagues and a Munich police chief as they retire. They were all a little younger than us. “It’s a good reason for us to say hello at some point,” explains Miroslav her farewell. The actors were originally only hired for six episodes in 1991.
So in the 100th case comes the farewell – as is usual for the “crime scene” with a dramatic death? “Ivo, Franz, Miro and I enjoy living too much for that. But we’re not Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who still have to work at 80,” jokes Udo. Until then, they are really looking forward to the next two years and their final episodes. Who will succeed her will be “announced in due course.”
