- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Alison Graham
There is a shocking moment at the start of this new Kenneth Branagh Wallander story: Kurt smiles. Yes, the miserable Swedish detective, the man who is cut to the soul by the horrors of his job, actually looks happy and even quite healthy. He’s moved in with that perfectly nice woman he met at the end of the last series, Vanja (Saskia Reeves), and they are settling into a new home in the country.
But this is Wallander and such uxoriousness cannot last, even though he claims, to general uproar: “I’m basically quite a cheerful person.” It’s gone within minutes when Wallander discovers a skeleton in his back garden. This is after he’s started investigating the disappearance of a young woman who’s thought to have been pushed off a ferry into the Baltic Sea. Soon the Wallander pallor is back, along with the air of torment that hangs above him like a black chandelier. Branagh is great, as always, and you’ll be entranced by the Scandi gloom.
About this programme
1/3. New series. The recently knighted Kenneth Branagh returns to his Bafta-winning role of the Swedish detective in three new adaptations of stories by Henning Mankell. Wallander moves into a new home with his girlfriend, only for their dreams of domestic bliss to be shattered when they discover a skeleton in the garden. He must find the killer if he has any hopes of getting his life settled again - and is surprised to discover the body was buried more recently than he first thought. Saskia Reeves and Sarah Smart co-star.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Kurt Wallander
- Kenneth Branagh
- Vanja Andersson
- Saskia Reeves
- Ann-Britt Hoglund
- Sarah Smart
- Fredrik Thorson
- Donald Sumpter
- Jan Petrus
- Con O'Neill
- Eva Petrus
- Claire Hackett
- Stefan Lindeman
- Mark Hadfield
- Lennart Mattson
- Barnaby Kay
- Kristina Albinsson
- Rebekah Staton
- Nyberg
- Richard McCabe
- Marinka Nowak
- Paula Videniece
- Snezna Botez
- Maya Wasowicz
- Czerwinski
- Georg Nikoloff
- Jorgen Thorson
- Matthew Hickey
- Peter Andersson
- Albert Maris
- Jon Tavori
- Daniel Cerqueira
- Sanna Hoglund
- Rosamaria Elsley
- Thure Bergsson
- Louis Hilyer
- Ellika Petrus
- Helen Carter
- May-Britt Thorson
- Laura Dos Santos
- Kersti Plejel
- Barbara Wilshere
- Shop worker
- Harry Kershaw
- Ferry captain
- Nick Moss
- Stewardess
- Daisy Ashford
- Doctor
- Anna Brook
Crew
- Director
- Toby Haynes
- Producer
- Sanne Wohlenberg
- Writer
- Peter Harness
- Share this episode
-