The Fifth Woman

The final (for now) Kenneth Branagh Wallander is on tomorrow at 9pm on BBC1 : The Fifth Woman

An elderly bird-watcher falls to his death in a meticulously-planned and brutal murder. In an apparently unconnected case, a local man disappears and Wallander gets too close to one of the suspects. Wallander believes he is on the trail of a serial killer bent on revenge.

My review of the audio book is here.

As one Wallander closes, another one opens...

The brilliant Swedish series of Wallander has just finished on BBC4 with The Secret, but Kenneth Branagh's version returns on Sunday at 9pm on BBC1 with Faceless Killers (the first book in the series and fourth to be televised). The BBC press release is here.

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And like buses, not only is there one but two crime programmes on on Sunday. Which to watch and which to record? Scheduled against Wallander is Poirot: Three Act Tragedy (on ITV1 8-10pm) and the guest stars include Martin Shaw and Art Malik.

The full ITV press release is here but here are a few paras from David Suchet concerning Martin Shaw and also the filming locations:

"Three Act Tragedy is to do with this great star, played by Martin Shaw, who swans around and we see his world, his theatrical world if you like, of how he lives, his loves and his tragedies. In it we see crime, we see murder.

"The way the adaptation of Three Act Tragedy works is terrific. Ashley Pearce, who has directed other Poirot’s and therefore knows Poirot very well, has been wonderfully creative and done a sort of theatrical presentation of it.

"It was particularly wonderful for me to be reunited with Martin Shaw. Martin and I go right the way back. It was the first time we worked together since The Professionals, so the best part of 40 years ago. Martin is a really great actor and it was really good to be working with him again.

The main locations we used for Poirot: Three Act Tragedy were Knebworth House and Eltham Palace. Speaking about these David says, “On Poirot we have the great privilege on this series of going to some of the finest locations in England. To go to Knebworth is like going back into another era.

“Although the exterior of Crow’s Nest was filmed in the South West of England we looked for an interior location that we could make look as though it fitted the outside, and we found this at Eltham Palace.

“It was a great joy for me to film at Eltham Palace. It is the most extraordinary location and place to visit. It is very 1930s and very art-deco as well.

“I have two great soft spots for Eltham Palace, one because I do the audio guide there – so if you ever go to Eltham Palace you will hear my voice saying, ‘And on your right is...’ And my other is that it was where we filmed when I played Robert Maxwell, for which I received an Emmy. Going back there was very special to me.”

More Wallander for Branagh...

The Guardian is reporting today that three more episodes of Wallander have been commissioned:

Three further novels, Faceless Killers, The Fifth Woman and The Man Who Smiled, will be filmed, with the drama shot on location in the Swedish town of Ystad once again.

BBC1's new Wallander adaptations, which will see Branagh reprise his role as the moody detective Kurt Wallander, created by Swedish novelist Henning Mankell, will be filmed this summer.

Read the whole article, here.

The first series of Wallander won a BAFTA for "best drama series" and is available on DVD (episodes are: Sidetracked, Firewall and One Step Behind).

The order of filming seems to take the same random approach as the translation to English did. The books were written in the order:

Faceless Killers
The Dogs of Riga
The White Lioness
The Man Who Smiled
Sidetracked
The Fifth Woman
One Step Behind
Firewall

Wallander - BBC Interviews Branagh & Mankell

The BBC Press office now shows that the first of the three Wallander films, Sidetracked, is due to be shown on the 30th November between 9 and 10.30pm. A related press release also contains interviews with Kenneth Branagh, who is playing the title role, and Henning Mankell, the author of the best-selling series.

A couple of snippets:

To KB:
What did you enjoy about the role?

"The world that Wallander lives in is a raw world where people have to deal with terrible news and with the death of loved ones in terrible circumstances. Wallander is very self-aware and perceptive and intelligent about human behaviour.

"For me, this is more of a straight part as Wallander's character does not have all the same eccentricities that would normally appear in these types of stories."

To HM:
What do you think of the British Wallander?

"I saw the tape of the show and I liked it enormously. I liked it because they had showed Wallander's warmth and also that the director and producers had gone in their own direction to create something that was completely new."

What crime drama do you enjoy?

"I really dislike characters like Poirot and Miss Marple as they never change – they are the same from the beginning to the end of the story. You and I are different each day because of what happens to us and that is how I write about Wallander and my characters.

"My readers are always looking forward to seeing what direction Wallander will go in next."

Read the whole article, here.


Synopsis of Sidetracked:

In this first film, Sidetracked, a girl is seen wandering alone in a rapeseed field. Inspector Wallander is called to investigate. Before his eyes, the girl douses herself in petrol and burns to death – the event is both shocking and baffling for Wallander. A hunt for the girl’s identity begins.

On the home front, Wallander, recently estranged from his wife, has moved into his own place. Linda, his grown-up daughter, is keeping an eye on her dad as he adjusts to bachelor life. Wallander’s relationship with his own father, Povel, is difficult and, as it becomes clear that Povel’s health is in decline, Wallander strives for a reconciliation with him.

Meanwhile, Wallander’s workload soars as three apparently motiveless murders are committed. The victims are all male: a former minister of justice, a small-time criminal and a rich playboy. All are viciously killed, their scalps inexplicably taken. Wallander and his team investigate, determined to discover who the killer is and how these murders are connected.

WhereDunnit has further information about Ystad and the Wallander tours you can take there.

Reviews Delayed for Ivanov

The weekly reviews update has been delayed a bit as Petrona, Petrona's daughter and I took in Kenneth Branagh and co performing Ivanov this afternoon. I enjoyed it hugely and found it more comprehensible than Thursday night's Love's Labour's Lost, though that had David Tennant :-) which compensated for when I couldn't understand or hear the dialogue.










There's a round-up of reviews of Ivanov on the BBC website. The same site also has a 9 minute interview with Kenneth Branagh (recorded before he was forced to withdraw from directing Hamlet). About half way in there's a bit about the forthcoming Wallander series and Henning Mankell plus a clip from the show (one of the actors featured is also in Ivanov).

BBC1 - Wallander update

Following on from the announcement earlier in the year that Kenneth Branagh is to play Wallander, the press release accompanying The Pyramid, a collection of 5 Wallander stories to be published in October, suggests that the air date will be 23 November.

One Step Behind, Firewall and Sidetracked will be shown as 90 minute episodes. The tie-in paperbacks will be published on 20 November.

(Kenneth Branagh and director Philip Martin)

And good news for the other side of the pond, according to the Kenneth Branagh Compedium: "Shot in rarely seen locations in southern Sweden, "Wallander" is to air on "Masterpiece Mystery" on PBS in the spring or summer of 2009."

Ken's going to be busy...

Not only was it recently announced that Kenneth Branagh is to play C J Sansom's Shardlake then news comes via Digital Spy that he's also taking on the role of Kurt Wallander:

Kenneth Branagh has landed the role of a Swedish detective in a new BBC drama series.

The actor-director will play Kurt Wallander in the £6m production, based on the novels of Swedish writer Henning Mankell.

The 47-year-old will film three 90-minute episodes of Wallander, which is set in the town of Ystad in the Scandinavian country.

He told Broadcast magazine: "Wallander is a wonderfully complex and compelling character and I am excited to be playing this fascinatingly flawed but deeply human detective."

Producer Andy Harries said: "This is more than just a detective series. It's fantastic drama, great stories and an absolutely beautiful setting. Visually these films are going to be very strong. Ken Branagh is perfect for the title role."

The books depict Wallander as a detective in his fifties who is beset by problems including a failed marriage, excessive alcohol consumption and diabetes. He was sued for brutality during his early career and has been known to break the rules when he feels the situation demands it.

and from The Stage:

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.

Ken to play Shardlake

I missed this in the Observer a few weeks ago. Apparently the BBC are in talks to film C J Sansom's Tudor series with Kenneth Branagh as the main character:

Branagh, 46, plans to take the role of a hunchback lawyer named Shardlake who works for the key power brokers of the Tudor court, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. Negotiations to bring Shardlake, the idiosyncratic character at the centre of a series of mystery novels by CJ Sansom, to the small screen are believed to be in their final stages.

Read the Euro Crime review of the latest in the series, Sovereign.