The first YLE TV drama picked up for international distribution by ZDF Enterprises had its premiere last Sunday on YLE1, reaping 531,000 viewers and a 27% share. Now the Finnish pubcaster has asked writer/director JP Siili to start working on Season 2.

Season one of the 6x50’ eco-crime thriller Tellus is based on an original idea by Prix Italia winner JP Siili. “About three years ago I realized that I had turned my eye away from the issue of climate change. I started to work on this idea which evolved into the story of a group of young people who find the efforts to stop climate change insufficient and decide to act. Their choice is illegal actions against institutions, business and factories that they blame for hurting mother earth,” said the show runner to nordiskfilmogtvfond.com.

The group of young activists known as Tellus accidentally kill someone during their sabotage operations and they have to decide if they want to stop now or continue their actions to the next level which would mean killing carefully selected people. Among the key characters is the young female activist Eevi (Minka Kuustonen), her boyfriend Alex (Lauri Tilkanen) and police inspector Taneli (Pirkka-Pekka Petelius).

YLE produced the eco-thriller in-house with a higher end budget to target local and international audiences. SVT and NRK came on board as well as ZDF Enterprises that shares world distribution with YLE Sales. Fred Burcksen, Executive VP and COO at ZDF Enterprises said: “At first sight, we found Tellus' central issue - what would you do to save the world? - to have both global relevance as well as a transnational appeal. Then, we were fascinated by the unique storytelling, projecting deep inner conflicts on the large-scaled background, combined with an extraordinary sense for shooting mind-blowing beautiful scenes. And on top, we met the wonderful cast & crew and saw the magic taking place.”

The opening episode of Season one was watched by 531,000 people last Sunday on YLE1 at 21.05, making it the first time this year that slot passed the 500,000 mark according to YLE producer Pekka Ruohoranta.  An extra 60,000 people saw episode one online or mobile via YLE Areena.

For Ruohoranta, Tellus was the ideal crime-oriented TV drama to pitch to other Nordic and international partners and he is hoping that more YLE TV dramas will follow the same route. Burcksen added: “Finland is adding its own note not only to high profile Nordic drama, but to Premium fictional programs worldwide.”