El Príncipe (TV Series)
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''El Príncipe'' is a Spanish television series of drama and suspense created by
Aitor Gabilondo Aitor Gabilondo (born 1972) is a Spanish screenwriter and television producer. Biography Aitor Gabilondo was born in San Sebastián in 1972. He began his career as a writer in Cadena SER, Canal+ (Spanish TV channel), Canal+, and EiTB, ETB. He wo ...
and César Benítez for
Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...
. The series, produced by
Mediaset Spain Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian mass media and television production and Television syndication, distribution company that is the largest commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding c ...
in collaboration with Plano a Plano, is aimed at a young audience. (in Spanish) Its plot is centered on the love between a Christian policeman from the Spanish mainland and the young Muslim sister of a drug trafficker. (in Spanish) Most of the stories are set in the troubled El Príncipe Alfonso neighbourhood of
Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...
, near the border with Morocco. The series debuted on February 4, 2014 in Spain with a multichannel broadcast that gave high viewing rates. (in Spanish) On its launch it obtained 21.9% viewing rate (27.7% in multichannel) and was leader in all its broadcasts during the first season.


History

The project's history goes back to October 27, 2011, when the company Mediaset Spain Communication announced they had in mind a new project based on the detective genre. The statement further explained that the setting would be the fight against drug trafficking; its plot revolves around the presence of a policeman stationed in Ceuta who tries to fight drug trafficking between Spain and Africa, and who is pursuing a Moroccan leader whose younger sister falls in love with him. It was also reported that the main character of the series would be the actor
José Coronado José María Coronado García (born 14 August 1957) is a Spanish film and television actor and former model. His performances playing (often corrupt and/or morally dubious) law enforcement officer roles have brought him some of the greatest succ ...
, who had starred in the film '' No Rest for the Wicked'' in the role of Santos Trinidad as a police inspector - this film was produced by the same company and was a big success at the box office.


Plot

In the troubled neighborhood of El Príncipe, Fran, a veteran police officer, has no doubts about using unorthodox methods to enforce order. This seems to be in danger with the arrival of Morey, a CNI agent, who uses the police station as cover to investigate a suspected police collaboration with a
jihadist Jihadism is a neologism for modern, armed militant Political aspects of Islam, Islamic movements that seek to Islamic state, establish states based on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief that armed confrontation ...
network. Morey's situation is complicated with the arrival of Fátima, an idealistic Muslim teacher who is looking for her vanished little brother, Abdu, while opposing the criminal activities of her other brother, Faruq, one of the biggest drug dealers in the neighborhood. However, Faruq is not the villain of the story. Then everything gets complicated when they become aware of a terrorist gang called Akrab, which blows up young people to terrorize the city. Meanwhile, Morey offers Fátima a chance to go to the
peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
with him, but, as they are about to depart, her brother Abdu returns to Ceuta on a tour bus with a bomb on board. When the police get to know this, they try to talk to him. The bomb does not go off, but Abdu is shot in the head by Morey. This leads into a second season with an impossible love affair between Morey and Fátima. (in Spanish)


Cast and characters

*
José Coronado José María Coronado García (born 14 August 1957) is a Spanish film and television actor and former model. His performances playing (often corrupt and/or morally dubious) law enforcement officer roles have brought him some of the greatest succ ...
as Francisco "Fran" Peyón: a decisive man, with leadership and people skills, a police officer who has been in post in Ceuta for twelve years and is in charge of the police station in el Principe. When chief inspector Morey arrives as his superior officer, the veteran cop hinders the younger man's plans and covers up what has been going on in the neighborhood in all that time. * Álex González as Javier Morey: discreet, serious and with guts, a young chief inspector working under a fake identity, sent by the CNI to el Principe to investigate the recruitment techniques and sources of funding for Islamic radical groups that capture teenagers in Ceuta. Meeting Fatima makes him rethink his priorities. *
Hiba Abouk Hiba Aboukhris Benslimane (Arabic: هبة أبوخريص بنسليمان; born 30 October 1986), known professionally as Hiba Abouk, is a Spanish-Tunisian actress. She is known for her roles in television series, especially that of Fátima in '' ...
as Fátima Ben Barek: entangled in the doings of her relatives, a young Spanish woman with a Muslim background who works as a teacher in the local civic center. She is obsessed with finding Abdu, her younger brother, who disappeared months ago. However, with the arrival of Morey, she finds the support she needed. Her objective is to stop the conflicts in the peninsula and fight to put local people on the right track, but this causes numerous confrontations with her brother Faruq. * Rubén Cortada as Faruq Ben Barek: the older brother of Fátima, a troubled man who seeks danger. He is considered to be one of the biggest drug dealers in El Príncipe and causes serious clashes with Fran due to a conflict of interest that will finally unite them. Faruq is foremost a family man who values tradition and everything he does is for them. When agent Morey arrives in the neighborhood and Faruq sees the developing relationship between Morey and his sister Fátima, the young man becomes angry because Fátima is about to marry Khaled and his family would never accept it if the marriage did not go ahead. *
Stany Coppet Stany Coppet (born 22 June 1976) is a French actor. Biography In 2003, he left Paris for New York City where he studied acting, dancing and singing at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. On stage in New York, he performed at the Repertory and ...
as Khaled Ashour: a Moroccan businessman in the construction trade, engaged to his cousin Fátima. His brother-in-law Faruq is convinced that Khaled's companies might be useful to hide his illicit dealings. But with the arrival of inspector Morey, he will be forced to confront many difficulties. * Elia Galera as Raquel: Fran's wife and the mother of two children. A stylish and cultivated woman, who at times gets into difficulties that her husband has to get her out of, because she has still not got over the murder years ago of her son Alberto. She has become weak and has gradually become distanced from her family. * Samy Khalil as Abdessalam "Abdu" Ben Barek: he is the third child of the Ben Barek family, and the absent protagonist of the first season, when his family is trying to get him back from the jihadists. He appears in the final episode of the first season on a coach arriving in Ceuta, intending to blow up the coach and himself. A moment before he sets off the bomb, Morey shoots him fatally. *
Carla Díaz Carla Díaz (born 19 July 1998) is a Spanish actress and dancer. She is known for her performances in ''Tierra de lobos'', '' El Príncipe'' and ''Seis hermanas''. Biography Diaz was born in Madrid on 19 July 1998. Her parents operate a dance ...
as Nayat Ben Barek, the youngest of the Ben Barek siblings. ''Sources:'' (in Spanish) (in Spanish)


Production

The series is produced by Plano a Plano, under the direction of Aitor Gabilondo and Cesar Benitez as creators, executive producers and writers, who had worked for the channel previously on series including ''Periodistas'' and ''El comisario''. At first there was no fixed end point, but in June 2014 the company and producers agreed that the second season would consist of 16 episodes each divided into eight sections. It is notable that the episodes were shot entirely on location in Ceuta,
Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
,
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
and
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
and later edited. (in Spanish) As for the system of writing, the team first thought of the ending for each episode and then worked towards the beginning. For the process of
post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
, Stargate Studios Malta was responsible for the visual effects of the series, which meant that through the clever use of vfx techniques a story set in Ceuta could be filmed many miles away in Madrid. The involvement of Stargate Studios Malta was announced by Aitor Gabilondo, executive producer of the series, at a press presentation in May 2013, explaining that Telecinco's new venture in 2014 would mostly be shot in Madrid, and that the Ceuta ''barrio'' of El Príncipe Alfonso would be recreated using visual effects. (in Spanish) Filming began in Ceuta on 13 May 2013. Most scenes were not shot in El Principe but in other neighborhoods of the city or in Madrid. The second and final season also made use of digital technology; in addition, some location filming for this stage took place in the cities of
Valletta Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...
and
Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
. Filming for this second season began on 9 June 2014.


Controversy

Several voices denounced the distortion of the image of Ceuta and the stigmatization of the city that it is thought the series would entail, specifically to the neighborhood of El Príncipe, by what they saw as distorted images of the city's reality. The president of the neighborhood denied that the police would turn a blind eye as depicted in the series. It is also disputed that El Príncipe is the most dangerous neighborhood in Spain as indicated in the series, relative to other districts such as in
Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...
. An opinion piece in
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...
argued that the series could distort perceptions of Muslims within the Spanish public.


Episodes and audience figures

The first episode was seen by over 4.4 million viewers and gained a 21.9% audience share, (in Spanish) making it the most-watched premiere of any Telecinco television series since the start of Aida in January 2005. (in Spanish) (in Spanish) Its broadcast every Tuesday night established the series as the most viewed show in
prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
and it was named as the program with the largest audience on that day. During the screening of the first episode the audience for that day reached a maximum, with 4,671,000 viewers and a 22.2% share. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the first episode of fiction was aired on a simulcast on six of the channels (
Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...
,
Factoría de Ficción Factoría de Ficción (; formerly Telecinco Estrellas and then FDF Telecinco) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned by Mediaset España. It is a 24-hour channel and airs both acquired and original television series and films. It is a ...
,
Divinity Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...
,
Energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
,
LaSiete LaSiete ''()'', formerly known as ''Telecinco 2'', was a Spanish digital terrestrial television channel, operated by Mediaset España. It began its broadcasts on 18 February 2008, replacing Telecinco Sport. On 18 May 2009, Telecinco 2 changed its ...
and Nueve) operated by Mediaset España, (in Spanish) which raised the overall average to 27.7% share and to 5.6 million viewers, while the "golden minute" attracted around 6.1 million viewers. The first airing of the series generated 76,402 mentions on
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
by 51,158 users, and it became the leader in social-media impact with several
hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...
s. The first season ranked as the most watched series of the last two years and the largest audience on Telecinco since 2007-08, as well as achieving the largest impact of 2014 with over 800,000 comments on social networks.


Season 1 (2014)


Season 2 (2015)


Awards and nominations


References


External links


Telecinco website

Episode list at mitele.es

Documentary - Callejeros: El Príncipe Alfonso
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Principe (TV series) 2010s Spanish drama television series 2014 Spanish television series debuts Spanish crime television series Telecinco network series Television shows set in Spain Television shows set in Africa 2015 Spanish television series endings Television shows filmed in Spain Television series by Plano a Plano