The Stage

Branagh to play Swedish detective Wallander in BBC series

Published Thursday 10 January 2008 at 13:05 by Matthew Hemley

Kenneth Branagh is to star in a new BBC1 series based on the Kurt Wallander detective books by Swedish author Henning Mankell.

The three-part series, called Wallander, is being made by Mankell’s production company Yellow Bird, Left Bank Pictures, the independent company set up by former ITV Productions head of drama Andy Harries, and Branagh’s own production company, which has not yet been named.

Each 90-minute episode is an adaptation of a different book from the Kurt Wallander Mysteries. The three chosen for the BBC series are One Step Behind, Firewall and Sidetracked.

Branagh said: “Wallander is a wonderfully complex and compelling character, and as a long-time admirer of Mankell’s novels, I am very excited to be playing this fascinatingly flawed but deeply human detective.”

The drama series will be filmed on location in Sweden, which Left Bank Pictures head of television Francis Hopkinson said would “lend a magic quality to this unique production”.

It was commissioned by BBC Scotland head of drama Anne Mensah and BBC controller of fiction Jane Tranter.

Mensah said the Wallander series was “extremely ambitious” and claimed that the BBC was “looking to create a classic new detective character for British television”.

She added: “The Henning Mankell novels are well loved around the world and have a depth and complexity which will make for exciting and compulsive viewing.”