Inspector-Wallander.org News Archive

Inspector-Wallander.org
The Site for English-Speaking Fans of Henning Mankell's Detective Series
Featuring Kurt Wallander of Ystad, Sweden,
A small town outside of Malmö in the southern province of Skåne.

News Archive

More news about UK films of Kurt Wallander series

Posted 19 July 2006

Yellow Bird continues to move forward with plans for a British TV series based on Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander stories according to an article in the Observer entitled "Just what we need instead of miserable Morse... a gloomy Swedish detective."

Reporters Alex Duval Smith and Rob Sharp write that an English-language Wallander series could be very successful for British broadcasters because television audiences are eager for a replacement of the long running Inspector Morse series:

Morten Fisker, managing director of Yellow Bird, confirmed he is in discussions with two major British broadcasters over a multi-million-pound television production, with a British cast, to be set in Ystad, a small, 13th century port in southern Sweden where Wallander's beat is centred.

'Every last corner of Oxfordshire has been investigated,' said Fisker in reference to the landscape which Morse scoured in his Jaguar Mk II. 'Ystad is exotic and interesting. The question is not whether Wallander is going to have an English series but who is going to do it. We're in talks with several parties, which are among the biggest and best production companies and broadcasters.' Channel 4 and the BBC are thought to be involved in the discussions.

Before the arrival of Wallander on British television, viewers will be given a taste of Mankell's work in a one-off Yellow Bird co-production of his mystery The Return of the Dancing Master. The story will follow another Swedish detective, Stefan Lindman, who throws himself into the investigation of a former colleague after discovering he has tongue cancer. Fisker continued: 'Dancing Master will be a way for us to get to know British viewers.'

Continue reading the full article at the Observer's web site.