International dramas are hugely underrated, and Walter Iuzzolino is on a mission to change that! As the curator behind Walter Presents, Channel 4's global drama collection, Walter has spent the past decade immersing himself in award-winning interntional dramas to find the most gripping and exciting shows being made today — then bringing them to UK audiences in all their subtitled glory!
Forget language barriers. Forget "niche" appeal. For Walter, a great series is a great series — whether it’s a haunting Belgian dystopia, a sizzling Italian noir, or a slow-burn love story set in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
We sat down with Walter himself to talk about how it all began, the art of finding your next TV obsession — and why international dramas should 100% be going on your My List!
Our chat with Walter Iuzzolino: the exclusive interview
What do you think was missing from the UK television landscape that led to the creation of Walter Presents?
Although I've been living in London for 30 years, I'm Italian — and in most of Europe, including Italy, all foreign-language shows are dubbed. Aesthetically it’s not ideal, but dubbing means that language is not the barrier for the appreciation of foreign language content. When I was growing up, I’d watch French dramas on Monday, German shows on Tuesday, and American sitcoms on Wednesday — all in Italian. It meant we were naturally sampling stories from across the globe.
When I moved to the UK and went to film school, I remember thinking: something’s missing here. British television at the time was dominated by English and American shows. Fantastic shows, of course — but I found myself missing the French, German and Italian dramas.
Back then, subtitles in the UK were still seen as niche — very elite. But I knew that wasn’t the case elsewhere. Ten million Italians were watching Sunday night police dramas. Ten million Germans were watching their own costume dramas. I knew this was mainstream entertainment in these countries. It just wasn’t coming to the UK.
So I spotted that niche. And to be completely honest, the real opening of the door happened through BBC Four… The Killing and The Bridge. If those did well, there was an opportunity to go global. And they did — so we spoke to Channel 4, who loved the idea. And that’s how Walter Presents was born.
Was there a particular show that sealed the deal?
Deutschland 83 is the show that made us decide we’re going to launch Walter Presents… I remember Fremantle, the production company behind the show, sent me episode one — it wasn’t even finished. There was a title sequence where they projected bombs exploding onto Jonas Nay’s torso… They were trying to capture the conflict of East and West on his body. I remember watching and thinking: this is amazing. We are going to launch a channel because Europe is producing television of this calibre, which is such fun, riveting, serious and humorous at the same time.
How do you go about discovering new series now? Has it changed much since those early days?
I have to say, it was harder at first — literally scouring online for Brazilian, Italian shows… what are the top ratings? Then we’d try to find out who was distributing them, who was making them — and it wasn’t always that straightforward to get them.
Now that the brand is so established after ten years, we have a deep set of relationships with distributors, TV channels and producers… Every month we get a set of links from all the distributors around the world — about 40 to 50 programmes — and then I dedicate a number of days where I just watch non-stop.
The criteria is: if I’m not into the show by the first or second episode, I give up. Not because I want to be ruthless, but because I think in this day and age, with attention spans being so limited, you can't say to an audience, ‘watch five episodes and then it becomes good’… if at the end of the second episode you don't feel that propulsion to keep on watching, you go, it's not for us. And if I do [like it], then I watch the entirety of the show. I never make an offer until I’ve seen the entirety of the programme.
What was it like seeing Astrid: Murder in Paris adapted into Channel 4's Patience?
Scary — because creatively, you fall in love with something. But what becomes clear is that you should never copy. An adaptation has to be reimagined into a different cultural context… the moment you write about being a young autistic woman in the UK nowadays, the tonality is entirely different.
The actress in Patience is genuinely autistic — and that brings an incredible sense of authenticity. It's not a comedy like the French version. Astrid is cheeky, playful, like a French pastry. Patience is more nuanced, more emotional. Both shows are brilliant. Just very different flavours.
What do you want first-time viewers to feel after watching a Walter Presents show?
My greatest joy is when someone discovers a show — like Deutschland — and goes, ‘I want to consume everything else.’
If this is a shop and that’s the bread you serve, then I want to try all your breads and pastries. You feel like you're travelling the world — hopping from Rome to Paris to Madrid — without ever leaving your sofa!
Fancy a deep dive into one of Walter Presents latest drama on Channel 4? We’ve got youuuu! And you want even more Channel 4 suggestions, we've got you too!
