Executive producer Kenneth Branagh and MASTERPIECE executive producer Rebecca Eaton discuss Swedish detective Wallander’s three gripping new episodes. (Premieres Sundays, September 9-23, 2012)
Photo credit Rahoul Ghose/PBS.

Returns to PBS on Sunday evening September 23rd

By Valerie Milano

Beverly Hills, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/8/12 – “I found it agreeable, and I ticked the box,” says actor Sir Kenneth Branagh. And, now one may refer to him As Sir Kenneth Branagh.  Recently Branagh has been through a major personal change and though he is not playing an Englishman today, he received an official notice from the cabinet office, “it said, “In strictest confidence,” which was in huge, bold type and underlined. And then it went into a very sort of, old world, the sentence finally ending up with “conferring upon you a knighthood. Please tick the yes box if you would find this agreeable.”

From BBC and Left Bank Television, “Wallander” returns to PBS on Sunday evening with the third series in the Swedish detective series of the Wallander mysteries. The Scandinavian detective and crime fighter is based on the novels of Henning Mankell.

At the end of II, producer and star Kenneth Branagh as Kurt l has fallen in love with Saskia Reeves and seems to be on his way to personal growth and happiness and this carries into the beginning of Sunday evening. Smiling is not really a usual Wallander facial expression, though not completely void of humor, he’s ever sad and suffering, as is also true with his daughter Linda.

Branagh has played Detective Wallander nine times to date, many of the “Masterpiece Mystery” pieces becoming cult favorites. But Sir Kenneth feels he still hasn’t gotten it quite right.

And if you’ve read the novels you may feel as though you know what is coming up; next however, Sir Kenneth explained simply, “with Henning’s permission, we have often moved around elements of plots, certain characters from novel to novel, but all more or less within the world of the existing novels with a couple of exceptions.”