The three ??? have been inspiring audiences for over 50 years, and have also been available in radio plays for over 40 years. On nine CDs, the Berlin series expert Christian R. Rodenwald looks back on the beginnings of the cult series and allows a look behind the scenes.
A standard work on the history of the most successful radio play series in the world is now also available for listening. The Berlin series expert C.R. Rodenwald set his non-fiction book “Die Drei ??? und die Welt der Hörspiele” (2020) to music. On nine audio CDs, fans of the three junior detectives from Rocky Beach will learn countless anecdotes about the history of the series.
Why was creaky Horst Frank no longer Commissioner Reynolds’ spokesman at some point? Why has such a fierce legal battle erupted over the theme song? Where do the radio plays differ from the book originals, which were first translated into German in 1968, and why? The whole thing is enriched with numerous interview excerpts, radio play sequences and music. Rodenwald – a huge fan himself since childhood – had previously authored The World of Three Question Marks, which focused on the story of the series.
His second work also focuses very strongly on the phenomenon of the audio book publisher Europe and the “grand dame of German children’s radio drama”, Heikedine Körting. “The three ???” radio plays are produced in Hamburg for the Europa label. More than 200 episodes have been recorded since 1979 and around 50 million records have been sold. The main roles have always been spoken by Jens Wawrczeck, Oliver Rohrbeck and Andreas Fröhlich.
Adults make up about half of shoppers these days, according to Europa. According to the parent company Sony, there is still strong demand for audio cassettes in the series, with between 8,000 and 10,000 pieces on cassette tape (MC) being sold for each new episode. Europa also releases on vinyl, on CD and in streaming.
