Bastian Pastewka, the 53‑year‑old comedian and host of the podcast series “Kein Mucks”, admits that the biggest challenge in creating historical crime audio dramas is tackling outdated gender roles. “Our biggest worry with the ’Kein Mucks’ stories is the role of women” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “We’re already relieved when even one woman shows up, because the mysteries of the 1950s were a men’s world”. He thanked Evelyn Hamann, who had only spoken a few lines in radio dramas before becoming Loriot’s partner, for her pioneering contribution.
When it comes to racist stereotypes that appear in archival recordings, Pastewka prefers classification over censorship. He explained that if a drama is otherwise well‑made, problematic passages are left in, but accompanied by a clear trigger warning. “For example, there was a Sherlock Holmes production where a group of Sinti and Roma were repeatedly portrayed as suspects-always guilty because they were wandering” he said. The editorial solution is transparency: “We sensitize listeners and issue a famous trigger warning beforehand, and I think that’s the right approach”.
Pastewka also addressed the assumption that older productions are automatically too slow for today’s listening habits. “I believe that the entertainment of that era is automatically dismissed now” he said. “That assumption-that we can’t do it ‘so leisurely as before’ today-is entirely wrong”. In fact, many audio dramas from that period were designed for speed, following international models. “The Allies left us the crime‑fiction genre and also their format, something that almost didn’t exist in Germany between 1933 and 1945” he added.
He explained that the brevity of those old pieces had technical reasons as well. “Good mysteries only lasted 35 to 40 minutes. Anything longer would have tested the audience’s patience against the then‑weak broadcasting signal” Pastewka said. In contrast, contemporary dramas are typically stretched to 90 minutes or at least fit the hour of a radio show, resulting in a “more leisurely” pace.
