Katie Fforde: Family on probation

Into the wilderness in a camper van – an exciting family adventure for the Grant family. The unusually close living together in the camper not only provides for some surprising revelations, at sunset at the lake there is also finally time for emotional encounters beyond any WLAN connection.

Ravioli from rusty pots instead of room service? A vacation in a camper van is about the last thing publishing editor Jane Grant (Ann-Kathrin Kramer) would plan for the “most precious weeks of the year,” but her husband Clark (Thomas Heinze) finally wants to realize his dream of a family adventure in the wilderness. Only when Jane’s boss Wilma (Nina Franoszek) threatens her with expulsion because bestselling author John Dwyer (Bernhard Bettermann) wants to change publishers due to her criticism of his novel, does Jane suddenly make her case for the road trip. After all, the oddball Dwyer is a staunch outdoorsman and supposedly lives in a cabin on a remote New England lake. As the family sets out in the monstrous vehicle, each family member has a secret in tow: Jane has kept her true motives for the trip to herself, Clark’s mistress Ashley (Friederike Linke) takes up pursuit of the RV, and son Robin (Sam Heinze) uses knowledge of his sister Lilly’s (Pauline Rénevier) botched test for a little blackmail. It’s not just the challenges of nature and the technical refinements of the RV that put the family to the test – the unusually close living together also ensures that no secret stays secret for long.

Photos: © ZDF / Rick Friedman