''14 de abril. La República'' () is a Spanish period drama television series. Set in the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

, it is a spin-off of ''

La señora LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

'', featuring a number of characters from the latter show. Produced by

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

in collaboration with and created by Virginia Yagüe and Jordi Frades, the first season aired on La 1 in 2011. The already produced second season was put in the freeze during the seven years of rule of the People's Party, eventually airing from 2018 to 2019.

Premise

The fiction starts with Ludi, a female servant, arriving to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

from Asturias. In the context of the proclamation of the

on 14 April 1931, the Spring of 1931 in the Spanish capital is bustling with those celebrating the advent of the Republic, while those against it prepare for armed struggle. The "De la Torre" family, a landowning family representative of the "stagnant, rancid

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

", is among those opposing the new government. The son of the family, Fernando de la Torre (

Félix Gómez Félix Gómez (born 1977) is a Spanish actor. He earned early success in Spain in the early 2000s for his performance in the television series ''Al salir de clase''. He is also known for his performances in ''Amar en tiempos revueltos'', '' 14 de ...

) is engaged to Mercedes León (

Mariona Ribas Mariona Ribas i Deu (born June 18, 1984 in Sabadell, Catalonia) is a Spanish actress. Ribas received a musical education and studied dance and acting before her debut on television at the age of 15. On the stage, Ribas made her debut with a sta ...

). The members of the lower class "Prado" family work as rangers of the large estate owned by the De la Torre, showing feelings of submission towards their employers conflicted by their endorsement to the promises of agrarian reform brought by the Republic. The offspring of the Prado family are Jesús ( Alejo Sauras) and Alejandra (

Verónica Sánchez Verónica Sánchez Calderón (born 1 July 1977) is a Spanish actress. She made her debut in theatre in 1996, and came to media attention as Eva Capdevila in the Telecinco series ''Los Serrano'' in 2003. Sánchez has since developed a successful f ...

). The extremes of the ideological polarization in play are represented by characters such as Hugo de Viana ( Raul Peña), a military officer opposing the Republic and Encarna (

Lucía Jiménez Lucía Jiménez Arranz (born 21 November 1978) is a Spanish actress. She started with a David Trueba movie, ''La Buena Vida'', and she became very popular thanks to the TV series ''Al salir de clase ''Al salir de clase'' is a Spanish teen d ...

), a strong Socialist woman. The series features a number of characters from ''La señora'' such as Encarna, Ventura and Hugo de Viana, played by the same performers.

Cast

Production and release

Created by Virginia Yagüe and Jordi Frades, the first season started filming in October 2010. It premiered on 24 January 2011. The series subsequently received harsh criticism from the People's Party (PP), then the main opposition party. The 13-episode season ended on 18 April 2011 with good viewer ratings (18.2% share) and a cliffhanger. The second season was produced by Endemol TV. Slated to air in 2012, the second season of the series was shelved indefinitely because of the arrival of

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...

and the PP to government, as they preferred to bury a fiction set in the Republican period. Seven years after, in 2018, only once

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

became prime minister, the airing of the second season was programmed again. In the meantime two of the main cast actors ( Héctor Colomé and

Álex Angulo Alejandro Angulo León (12 April 1953, in Erandio, Biscay – 20 July 2014, in Fuenmayor, La Rioja), better known as Álex Angulo was a Spanish actor who performed in over sixty films during his career spanning more than 30 years. Angulo di ...

) had died. The opening episode of the second season premiered on 3 November 2018 in

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

. The broadcasting run was irregular, to the point the channel sometimes scheduled back-to-back two episodes. Mired with problems and low viewership ratings, the series ended with the back-to-back broadcasting of the last two episodes aired on 26–27 January 2019.

Season 1

Season 2

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * {{Authority control Television series set in the 1930s Television shows set in Madrid 2011 Spanish television series debuts 2019 Spanish television series endings La 1 (Spanish TV channel) network series Spanish-language television shows Censored television series Period television series Television series about the history of Spain Sequel television series 2010s Spanish drama television series Television series by Diagonal TV