Keeping the Wolf Out

A gritty thriller set behind the Iron Curtain in 1960s Hungary

Budapest, 1963. Special Investigator Bertalan Lazar and his wife, spymaster Franciska Lazar, face formidable challenges as they try to navigate a path through the dangerous underworld of Cold War-era Hungary. Catching the criminals is difficult enough, but there are other more threatening battles raging in higher places.

In these 16 episodes, Bertalan must investigate the murder of a former member of the secret police, fight a turf war as he tries to find a child killer, probe a seemingly straightforward case of GBH that leads him to a rogue cop and enter the uncharted territory of Budapest's underground drugs scene after a rock musician is found dead.

Written by Philip Palmer, this gripping, atmospheric drama expertly conjures up the tense, paranoid world of Communist Hungary, where dissidence was dangerous, the truth was hard to find and pursuing justice could get you killed. Leo Bill stars as Bertalan and Clare Corbett as Franciska, with Andy Linden as Tibor Farkas and Joseph Ayre as Jozsef Szabados.

The episodes in this collection are:

The Wolf
The Old Days
Behind the Wall
Waiting by the River
Heroes
Gellert Hill
Spider's Web
Carnaby Street
Gypsy Dancers
Grandmother's Footsteps
Mad Dog
The Light of Dawn
The Great Society
Red Pen
The Great Tree Gang
The Magical Magyars