Greek broadcaster SKAI launches "Blue Hours" ("Mple Ores"), a new drama series created by Andreas Georgiou, Vana Dimitriou and Koullis Nikolaou, on Monday, September 14, at 21:00, opening with a double episode.
The series follows Angelos and Eva, a couple trapped in unhappy marriages who can only meet for 40 minutes each day, during the pre-dawn hours when the sky is still tinted blue. Their secret relationship unfolds in the Pelion region, in the village of Tsagkarada, against the backdrop of a family-run dairy business. A brutal murder soon threatens to upend their plans.
Georgiou's return to SKAI
The project seals a renewed partnership between SKAI and Georgiou, with "Blue Hours" marking his first fiction series for the channel. Alkisti Maragoudaki, Marketing and Communications Director of the SKAI Group, described the return of Georgiou, Nikolaou and Dimitriou to the channel as a years-long flirtation. She said the channel had wanted the team back for a long time and that contact between the two sides had been frequent, and she recalled that just as she had begun to think the team might not want to return to SKAI, her phone rang and the countdown to their collaboration began. She said she did not know if she slept that night.
A second series already in the works
"Blue Hours" will not be the only project from the team to air on SKAI. A follow-up series titled "Antonios and Kleopatra" has already been scheduled. Maragoudaki said that when the team came to say they wanted to make their big series, the channel told them it did not want just one series but two. She explained the team initially had reservations about whether they could meet the deadlines for both productions, but those doubts were overcome, and the scripts for the second series were delivered alongside those for "Blue Hours". She said she was thrilled with the episode scripts she keeps receiving, adding that each one is better than the last.
The series also marks the return of actress Vana Barba to television after a 15-year absence.
Georgiou thanks his brother
Georgiou thanked the cast and crew of "Blue Hours" as well as the SKAI team for their trust and what he called an excellent collaboration. He then singled out his brother, Rafaello, for an emotional tribute, saying he was happy about his brother's progress and that he was a very proud brother.
Nikolaou thanked God for giving the team the strength and the gifts to be able to do work they love, and also thanked the cast and crew and SKAI.
The story
Angelos is the son of a wealthy family in Pelion that runs a dairy business, while Eva works as a laborer at the same company. Both are married to other people and meet only in secret before dawn. Eva's husband, Dionysis, suspects something is wrong with his marriage, while Angelos's wife, Liza, suspects her husband has a lover. Angelos has asked Liza for a divorce, but she refuses to grant it unless her steep financial demands are met.
The couple decides to slip away to Skiathos for a brief escape. Dionysis, consumed by jealousy, follows Eva, and a chance encounter she has with his friend Alekos, combined with a note he finds, leads him to a fatal misjudgment. Eva arrives in Skiathos, but Angelos never shows up, leaving her fearing something has happened to him and forcing her to turn to his mother, Stella, for answers. Dionysis, driven mad by jealousy, commits an atrocious act, and Liza's father, Dimitris, is confronted with a horrifying scene inside the family's dairy facility.
Cast
The cast includes Vangelis Kakouriotis, Izabella Foulop, Ieroklis Michailidis, Noni Ioannidou, Giannis Poimenidis, Katerina Stikoudi, Antonis Fragkakis, Giorgos Partsalakis, Eleni Vaitsou, Elena Pieridou, Iraklis Tsouzinof, Efrosyni Koutsouveri, Giannis Psipsilis, Chrysi Kasioti, Giorgos Kyriakou and Elena Cheileti.
What happens in the first episodes
In the first episode, Dimitris tells Liza's mother, Olga, that their daughter has been murdered, and she collapses. Stella is left stunned and forced to tell Filippos that Angelos is missing, drawing police suspicion onto him. Dionysis questions Eva's aunt, Eleni, for information, but she appears to know nothing. Eva packs a few belongings and leaves home, taking refuge with her best friend, Nikoleta, a move that raises the hopes of Stratos, who is secretly in love with her.
Elsewhere, Petros tells Olympia the full truth about Liza's murder, while Dionysis offers support to Vasia, who insists her husband was murdered and his death was no accident. Dionysis then breaks into Nikoleta's house, forcibly takes Eva back home and assaults her. Olga and Dimitris go to the morgue for one last look at their daughter, and Olympia realizes she is pregnant and calls Petros. A farmer discovers Angelos's rental car and alerts the police, who find Angelos bound and gagged in the trunk.
Episode three, airing Tuesday
The third episode, airing Tuesday, September 15, at 21:00, picks up with Angelos learning from Stella about Liza's brutal murder, shortly after his own ordeal at the hands of robbers who locked him in the car's trunk. He gives a statement to the police, but the officer investigating the case, Eleftheriou, remains unconvinced of his innocence, since in his view the husband is always the first suspect.
Petros meets Olympia, who confirms her pregnancy and tells him the child is his, a claim he greets with suspicion. Angelos faces the difficult task of telling his young daughter, Filippa, that her mother has died, and the child's reaction makes the moment even harder. Liza's funeral takes place in a heavy atmosphere, with her parents, Olga and Dimitris, devastated by her death; Filippa, who is present, cannot bear to watch the ceremony through to the end.
Dionysis confronts Angelos and threatens him to end his relationship with Eva, and the encounter ends in a physical fight between the two men. Eva then takes matters into her own hands to give Angelos a false alibi, going to the police to admit to their affair and falsely testifying that she was with him at the time of the murder.
