After more than 250 episodes and 20 years after the first broadcast, Terence Hill bids farewell to “Don Matteo”. The successful and long-lived Rai 1 series greets its leading actor.

"Terence leaves us" is the phrase that snaked among the crew members on Saturday in the church of Santa Eufemia in Spoleto, the set of the last scene filmed. "It's true, Terence leaves us - the comment of Luca Bernabei, producer of the series - but we want to interpret this sentence not in a negative sense but also and above all in a positive sense. We want to think of the legacy that Terence leaves us in terms of dedication, fidelity and above all love for 'Don Matteo' and for all the viewers who have followed us in these 20 years ”.

"Today we must live up to the myth that does not leave us - continues Bernabei - but that, like a father, watches us from afar and watches us grow. Aware of Terence's legacy, we have the duty to commit ourselves even more and to carry it forward with the utmost dedication and responsibility. We owe it to the millions of Italians who watch the series and to Terence ".

For the famous actor, 82, the decision to leave the series is linked to the desire to spend more time with his loved ones and his wife Lori. “He feels the need to devote himself to something else - explained his son Jessi - and also to spend more time with my mother. He leaves Don Matteo as he did with 'A step from heaven'. The fact is, these series keep him busy for months on set, every day. Dad is no longer a kid, even if he seems indefatigable ”.

The handover is with Raoul Bova, who in the new season of Don Matteo - broadcast on Rai 1 in 2022 - will play the role of a man who, after a stormy past and having touched death, decides to wear the cassock, a choice that arrives right after meeting the detective priest.

In the series, among others, also Flavio Insinna, Francesco Scali, Maria Chiara Giannetta, Nathalie Guetta, Maurizio Lastrico, Pietro Pulcini.

For Terence Hill, great emotion at the last take, and the big hug of all colleagues on the set.

(Unioneonline / vl)