Wallander

There is a great pleasure to be had in watching cinema in a language that you do not understand;an adventure and straining of your faculties in trying to derive the meaning of phrases that sometimes do resemble English, but not totally.The sub-titles help.Henriksson is the consummate actor, at once the father figure and also the failed father-man.I have always found a certain attractive sparsity in Swedish drama that contrast the more over-weighty and over-wordy cinema of British and American traditions,a leaner more trenchant quality.Sometimes quite a bit less is more, especially in convoluted and complex narrations that seemingly have no apparent solution but deliver more satisfaction and amusement in the final denouement. This is without a doubt much better that what was a very good English production.Intelligent acting,enticing cinematography,and story plots to match!

The original Wallander series is a complete triumph. As others here I caught it on the off chance on BBC4 and full expected to be left a little cold by it. But I can't tell you how happy I am to tell you I couldn't have been more wrong. The first thing that grabbed me was the complete lack of silly old hat jerky camera that was always naff anyway (and which the British for some reason still persist with). Then I began to notice other things, very little shouting, no dumb music played over the dialogue. By now I was starting to sit up as it dawned on me I was watching a very rare thing these days: intelligent drama written for grown ups and blatantly not pandering to the fickleness of the under-25s. Once this realisation had dawned the real strength of this series suddenly grabbed me: the characterisation. First of all it was the wonderful portrayal of the passionate, but lost and vulnerable Linda Wallander by the beautiful and much lamented Johanna Sällström. Then it was Kurt himself and his flimsy grip on reality and finally and sadly not until the final brilliant episode that I got to grips with the hot head character of Stefan. Dysfunctional, deeply flawed and very human characters brilliantly written and superbly executed to breathtaking effect by the excellent cast. I honestly cannot think of a TV series that could be beat this. Can we please have some TV for grown ups again made in Britain? No? I didn't think so.

Both the first series of Swedish TV's Wallander and the second collection of British TV's interpretation have recently been aired on British TV, and whilst they share a number of elements and qualities (locations, excellent filmatography, thoughtful and impressive 'takes' on the central figure of Kurt Wallander), it's the differences that seem to separate a good television drama from an outstanding one.

Obviously the two productions differ in a number of basic ways and it's worth highlighting these as a given. For the most part Swedish Wallander uses Mankel's stories as inspiration, creating unique plots per episode, whilst British Wallander uses the source material and thus far has for the most part faithfully adapted 6 of Mankel's books (interestly the choice has been to adapt out of sequence, although the original stories were also published out of sequence, in Britian at least). An exception is the depiction of Kurt's father and his struggle with dementia, which logically has to progress through the overall TV series.

A second key difference is the interpretation of Kurt Wallander's relationship with his daughter. Swedish TV puts Linda into the police force from the outset, and uses this device to explore their legendary troubled relationship with the added frisson of professional, hierarchical tensions. Also into the mix is the relationship between Linda and her colleague Stefan Lindman. British Wallander maintains the original Linda/Kurt story arc, with Linda not yet having enrolled for police duty.

A third difference is the inclusion/exclusion of the Ann-Britt Höglund character. It seems the Swedish version quickly came to view this character as unnecessary within the looser story structure, as she is dispensed with well before Series One concludes. For British TV Höglund remains integral, just as she is in the books.

However, setting aside these givens, there are a number of factors which set the two interpretations apart in terms of quality, success and viewer experience. British Wallander is quite pacey, moving the story along briskly from scene to scene. Whilst this mostly works, it does occasionally occur at the expense of scene and/or character development - the camera (and therefore the viewer) is forced to follow Kurt, leaving other characters as cyphers. This is most notable during scenes with colleagues at police HQ. Swedish Wallander adopts a slower style, allowing characters and stories to develop and unfold with greater subtlety. This approach leads to a second and quite fundamental difference, and it is this element that underlines the superiority of the Swedish Wallander. The combination of writing, direction and editing for a slower pace allows the Swedish actors to effectively 'do less' and achieve more. Accordingly, Henricksson, Bergman, Sällström, Rapace et al are repeatedly given the time and direction to use economy and skill to enable the viewer to understand what they are thinking, feeling etc. The final episode of Series One was a particular example of this, with all concerned but particularly Sällström and Henricksson underplaying beautifully to create scenes of desperate sadness, bewilderment and loss whilst actually 'doing' very little. In comparison, a combination of misjudged casting and actors being let down by script and scene construction in the British version means for the most part the viewer receives less reward. Branagh, Warner and most notably McCabe as Nyberg are the exceptions, the former not least because Wallander remains the prime focus through the British drama, and is therefore given more time, scene-by-scene, and Warner because he is quite simply an experienced and clever film actor. Yet it is McCabe who shines, underplaying beautifully, especially during scenes in Episode 4 - The Faceless Killers.

Views on casting are always contentious. Suffice to say, the Swedish series has somehow managed to secure a host of clever actors who know a thing or two about camera work, and particularly scenes in close-up. From the moments of occasional humour gratefully received from Mörck's Ebba and Gunnarsson's Svartman (an incidental and unsung masterpiece of a performance) to the brilliance of Henricksson and Sällström, it's the Swedish production which holds the treats and subtleties and warrants repeat viewings.

Let's hope the BBC transmits Series 2 as soon as possible, and let's also hope the absence of Rapace and Sällström doesn't diminish what has been an excellent television production.

I am a huge fan of detective shows, so I was interested in seeing Wallander. This series is absolutely superb, as much as I did like the English series, this series(in Swedish) is much better, it is better plotted and has a more consistent tone. Wallander is often described as the "Swedish Morse", seeing this it is not hard to see why.

The scenery is wonderful, and the cinematography is atmospheric and skillful. The music is clever and never feels intrusive or too-much. The writing is always top notch, always moving, intelligent or goosebump-inducing, while the story lines are beautifully constructed with situations that are realistic and plausible and there are plenty of chilling and nail-biting moments. The direction is excellent constantly, while the acting is absolutely fantastic. Krister Henrickssen IS Wallander in my opinion, there are so many words to describe how good his performance is here and I would probably be here all night listing them. Johanna Sallstrom was wonderful too as Linda, and I too was shocked at her death, she was to me a very good actress, and I loved how hers and Kurt's relationship was developed, while the villains are very intriguing and chilling.

Overall, a superb and I think superior series. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Being a fan of detective dramas and having watched the BBC's version of Wallander I was interested to see what the original was like when it aired on BBC4. Unfortunately I didn't catch all of the episodes but I enjoyed all of the ones I saw, in fact I preferred it to the British version.

Each episode follows a single case so it doesn't matter too much if you miss the occasional episode. Krister Henriksson is great as the eponymous Kurt Wallander, a police inspector in the Swedish city of Ystad. He isn't the only Wallander in the department, his daughter Linda is also on the force. She is played by the late Johanna Sällström who did a great job, it was rather sad watching it to know that this able actress is no longer alive.

The episodes I saw were all gripping, they also contained a bit more gore than one would expect in a British detective series set in attractive scenery, it isn't over the top though so shouldn't offend anybody unless they have a really weak stomach.

I'd certainly recommend this to all fans of detective fiction, it is a shame that it was aired on digital only BBC4 rather than getting a slot on BBC2 where it might get a larger audience; it seems they are afraid of showing anything subtitled on a major channel.