|
| RadioTimes interviews Kenneth Branagh & Henning Mankell |
|---|
| Posted 2008-11-24 |
 Ahead of the premier of the BBC's new Wallander series, RadioTimes magazine features Kenneth Branagh on the cover of their current issue.
Inside, the magazine has an interesting interview with Branagh and Sarah Smart, the actress portraying Anne-Britt Hoglund, and Tom Beard who plays Svedberg.Branagh explains in the interview how the series came about and how he has approached the character of Kurt Wallander:
| |
"I read lots of detective fiction for pleasure and I watch lots of crime drama. The Wallander stories are just so good; I was really caught by them. Then, last year, I was in Sweden for an Ingmar Bergman festival and I met Henning [the author is the son-in-law of the late film director]. We had dinner together, and he was very encouraging about the idea of an English-language series, and gave the project his blessing."
There are shades of Bergman in Branagh's interpretation of Mankell's deep-thinking, emotionally repressed hero. "At heart, Wallander is an existentialist," explains the actor. "He's someone who is questioning what life is about and why he does what he does every day, and for whom acts of violence never become normal. There's a level of empathy with the victims of crime that's almost impossible to contain, and one of the prices he pays for that sort of empathy is a personal life that's a kind of wasteland." |
|
And while Branagh and the other actors have the spotlight this week, RadioTimes has gotten a quote from Henning Mankell that is sure to grab the attention of every Wallander fan hungry for more novels to read:
| |
"Only my publisher knows this and I have a knot in my stomach saying it out loud but, yes, I am working on a new Wallander," says Henning Mankell. "The secret is out and now," he sighs, with something of his hero's frustrated conscientiousness, "I must write it." |
|
Be sure to buy a copy of RadioTimes magazine and read the full interview with Kenneth Branagh and Henning Mankell. |
|
