María Galiana, whether she likes it or not, could be described as the grandmother of Spain. In 2001, when she had just retired as a teacher, she received the role that would mark her career with Solas, the Benito Zambrano film for which she won the Goya two years earlier. She was given the role of Herminia Alcántara, the grandmother of a large family in the series Tell me how it happened, which in turn tried to tell the history of the country from the perspective of a working family. And, now that the broadcast of the final season of the series is approaching, the actress has dropped a spoiler about these last episodes.
The statements belong to an interview she gave to the FormulaTV portal, where they asked her if we would see an outcome for Herminia and she herself hinted at more than she wanted. “Herminia has an end. “She will have to have it like Chanquete had,” she expressed, comparing her character to that of Antonio Ferrandis in Verano azul. And, as any viewer knows about the RTVE classic broadcast in the early 80s, the series said goodbye with the death of Chanquete.
If the statements are not misleading, this implies that in the next seven weeks we will not only say goodbye to Cuéntame, which premieres its final season next Wednesday. It has been broadcast since September 13, 2001, when Galiana was 65 years old (“I started so late and so old,” she said with humor in the interview), and in this time it has happened to Herminia like other fictional grandmothers like Violet in Downton Abbey, the character played by Maggie Smith: there comes a time when it is better not to even consider how old the character is because it already borders on the implausible.
Of course, Galiana recognizes in the interview that Cuéntame will leave “in an elegant and polite way” thanks to the seven new episodes that will focus on each of the members of the Alcántara family: Antonio, Merche, Herminia, Toni, Inés, Carlos and Maria. This might not have happened if, as feared at the beginning of 2022, the series had been canceled without having filmed a conclusion due to low audiences and high production costs.
During the presentation of the season at the San Sebastián festival, Galiana highlighted the work of the team: “They have made a series with a lot of love in which we have put our soul, we have collected many awards, gathered large audiences, but the most important thing is that we have won the affection of the people and have touched many hearts.”
The first episode, which airs this October 18, will focus on Mercedes, “the strength” of the family. It was recorded last summer between Madrid, Guadalajara, Segovia and Toledo and will show the Alcántaras meeting in Sagrillas on the occasion of a sad family celebration in 2001. The relationship between them is broken and the origin of the confrontation must be sought in the winter of 1994. , when Merche goes through a medical check-up that makes her rethink many things. After talking with her husband, they make a decision that turns the family “upside down.”