I’ve just finished watching Episode 1 of the new Wallander series, ‘An Event in Autumn’, which got proceedings off to a hard-hitting and occasionally heart-stopping start.

It all begins so well! Wallander and his girlfriend have just moved into their dream home together, a fresh start designed to allow him to ‘leave work at the door’. He’s so happy he even smiles! Then Jussi the dog finds a skeleton under the blackberry bushes in the garden and it’s all downhill from there: the corpses pile up, there are scary encounters in poorly lit locations, and the icy winds of winter begin to blow. In sum: the classic, gloomy Wallander we know and love.

I do like Branagh’s Wallander very much (and isn’t Mankell fortunate to have found three such wonderful actors over the years to realise his creation?). The quality of the production, as in earlier series, is extremely high, and is undoubtedly anchored by Branagh’s performance, which allows us a privileged insight into the strengths and weaknesses of Wallander’s character. The frequent, beautiful shots of chilly beaches and bleak landscapes reinforce his nordic / melancholic loneliness perfectly.

For those of you interested in the theme music, it’s by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo, and is called ‘Nostalgia‘.

I’m already looking forward to seeing the second episode, ‘The Dogs of Riga’, next week. I’ll be intrigued to see how they adapt a novel originally set during the collapse of communism in the early 1990s.

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