Hi there,

I watched the most recent episode of Wallander on BBC; I was a bit skeptical, thinking that it was yet another detective/cop program, so how could it add to anything that's gone before. My first impression of watching it was that it was very low key, very slow, and Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) seemed to have his mind on other things rather than his job; he seemed a little wishy washy at times and I felt like putting him in a paper bag and shaking him up a bit to get a bit of pizzaz. The thing is that we are so used to fast paced cop dramas where everything happens within half an hour. The pace did pick up a bit in the last half an hour. After that I watched a programme called 'Who is Wallander' - a documentary about the character, i wanted to get some more insight into what he was all about. Apparently Kurt Wallander (pronounced with a 'V' or a 'W', depending on who was talking in the documentary) is quite big in Sweden, he is a character created by crime author Henning Mankell, who portrays him as a normal sort of guy who has weaknesses, including getting emotionally involved in cases and being visibly scared by some of the dangerous situations he finds himself in. He is also sensitive, but with the occasional outburst of temper. That is the appeal of his character.

With this insight I decided to watch another episode late last night on BBC4; I was suprised to find that this one was in Swedish with English subtitles, and Kurt Wallander was played by another actor, Krister Henriksson. Wallander has made it big on the screen in Sweden long before the recent English adaptation. According to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallander_(TV_series) the character in the books likes to listen to opera in his car or at home. In the English adaptation they dropped this trait because the film makers decided that he would be too much like Inspector Morse with whom the public here are already very familiar with. I enjoyed the Swedish version more than the English one for several reasons. First is that I thought Henriksson http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0377631/ came across better in that he portrayed the essential character without being wishy washy; it seems that Kenneth Branagh has slightly over egged the pudding when it comes to acting introverted and sensitive; Secondly, although reading subtitles can be hard work as you have to keep switching your eyes to the bottom of the screen to keep up with the dialogue, I rather enjoyed listening to the Swedish voices, and it gave more realism, as it is based in Sweden after all! All in all I would recommend any Crime fiction lovers to watch this in its English or Swedish format, especially if you like lots of gruesome murders.