Branagh as Wallander
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
I was intrigued to see in the promo promoting the forthcoming BBC drama schedule (you know, the one with Elbow singing in the background) that Kenneth Branagh is starring as Kurt Wallander in an adaptation of the Henning Mankell books.
I recently discovered the joys of Scandanavian crime fiction, which is a generally magnificent and undiscovered literary genre. The Wallander mysteries are great but for my money not quite as enjoyable as the Erlendur series by Arnaldur Indridason, which are set in Iceland and are just that bit darker and more miserable. The recent film adaptation of Indridason’s Tainted Blood, aka Jar City, is outstanding.
It will be interesting to see if Branagh can take Wallander into the mainstream proper, although it’s always slightly annoying when something cultish becomes popular - the Mail on Sunday has already billed Wallander (the series) as “the new Morse”, which is just depressing.
I suspect Branagh will be good in the part as he is said to have a passion for the books. However, I’ve realised that considering he is “one of our great actors” I’ve actually seen virtually nothing with him in. In fact, all I can think of is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and that nifty drama from a few years back about Ernest Shackleton.
Internet rumour suggests the first of three 90-minute Wallander dramas will be on BBC1 on 23 November.
Jar City trailer:
No. 1 — October 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Branagh talks a bit about Mankell and Wallander in this BBC interview, about half way in:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7640338.stm.
My favourite Scandinavian crime writer is Jo Nesbo. If you haven’t read him yet do read them in the order: Redbreast, Nemesis, Devil’s Star rather than the order they were translated in :-). There’s a subplot running through them which is a bit spoiled if you read them out of order.
No. 2 — October 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
You will find a wealth of really great crime fiction from Scandinavia and us ‘cultists’ don’t mind it becoming ‘popular’. I read the masters of Swedish crime fiction Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo thirty years ago and Henning Mankell about 8 years ago. Arnaldur Indridason won the CWA Dagger Award a few years ago and then award was split into two, with one specifically for translated crime. There is also some superb Italian and French crime fiction out there as well lead by Andrea Camilleri, Fred Vargas and Dominique Manotti.