W A L L A N D E R Series 4
A Left Bank Pictures Production for BBC One
Series Synopsis
Kenneth Branagh returns for a new trilogy in what will be a dark, thrilling and emotional finale for our dedicated Swedish detective.
In The White Lioness Wallander is drawn into the case of a missing Swedish national while attending a police conference in South Africa. It is the start of a physical and emotional journey that leads him from the aching beauty of rural Africa to the intense poverty of the townships.
Back in Sweden for A Lesson in Love, Wallander investigates the murder of a middle-aged woman. As the investigation unravels, Wallander senses he is being followed – targeted – but by demons he cannot identify…
In The Troubled Man, Wallander is in a race against time as he embarks on his final case – the disappearance of Linda’s father-in-law. Becoming entangled in cold war politics and fractured familial relationships, Wallander must prevail against the odds if he is to safeguard his daughter’s future.
SIR KENNETH BRANAGH as WALLANDER
Where do we find Wallander at the beginning of this series?
He appears to be sorting out his life. He shaves, he combs his hair more. He seems to have a potentially satisfying relationship with a woman. His relationship with his daughter is much better, too. He adores being a grandad. But just at that point, life intervenes. There is additional poignancy in the fact things start to go wrong for Wallander at the very moment where he seems to be getting his life back together.
What else is disturbing him?
He has father issues. Perhaps inevitably, he is surrounded by images of his father. Povel spent his lifetime doing the same thing – painting the same image over and over again. Wallander is trying to understand whether that’s a good thing. Writer Malcolm Gladwell says that you need to spend 10,000 hours on something before you can become an expert in it. Wallander’s father spent 10,000 hours painting grouse, and Wallander has spent 10,000 hours policing. Maybe that has made him a very good policeman. But, he is now faced with thinking about that and considering what his life adds up to.
Why is “The Troubled Man” such an appropriate title for the final episode of Wallander?
Wallander always was troubled. Henning Mankell enjoys his characters being ruminative and meditative. He enjoys them being troubled. He enjoys situation and plot, but mostly he enjoys what’s happening in people’s interior lives, particularly Wallander’s. He believes his audience is interested in that, too.
Is it his job that makes him so troubled?
Wallander is preoccupied with the substance and circumstances of crimes. He can’t ever be indifferent to discovering dead bodies. It’s never just his shock at the violence – it’s everything else, too. He knows he’s going to have to make a phone call – ‘Yes, she’d been dead a few days, she lives locally, she’s a teenager.’
Tell us more…
He immediately connects with the human cost of crime – whose daughter, whose sister is it? In a place the size of Ystad, people know each other. They’re interconnected. So he can’t help being really driven to find answers for, and about, people he knows.
Does the bleak Swedish landscape exacerbate Wallander’s sense of isolation?
The landscape is like another character. The size and space gives time to think. For good or ill, your imagination has freedom to roam. This area provides that.
Does the extreme weather shape people, too?
The wind blows viciously across this flat landscape. You can’t get away from it. It is a landscape of extremes. When winter kicks in, people dig in. The Swedish midsummer can be very pagan and lunatic. You see that in August Strindberg’s play, Miss Julie, where the midsummer revels are an extreme contrast to the darkness and the containment of winter. That can’t help but affect your personality.
Why has “Nordic Noir” become so popular?
It’s partly the rich atmosphere of somewhere completely different. In Britain, we tend to be reliant on being quick with words. We try always to come up with an answer and feel embarrassed if we can’t find anything to say. Scandinavians don’t so much. They often just look at you in silence, unembarrassed.
BENJAMIN CARON – DIRECTOR
What is Wallander’s state at the beginning of this series?
From when we first met Wallander in the first series eight years ago, the character has changed significantly. Though he still finds it hard to make relationships work, he is now more open with his feelings and slightly less angry. For instance, where previously there was tension between Wallander and his daughter Linda, since becoming a grandfather Wallander has softened and their relationship has become close. There is a sense of the generations moving on and he is letting go of some of the heavy burdens that weighed on him in the past.
How does Wallander cope with the stresses of the job?
It's a question he addresses in the first film, “The White Lioness”. At the end of the conference in South Africa, he asks if the police can make a difference. He concludes that every small action counts. He knows he can’t change the world, but he keeps trying and he does care.
What does Kenneth Branagh bring to the role of Wallander?
Just a spectacular amount of nuance, control and authenticity. Ken has carried the weight of this particular character through his whole journey, making us feel completely connected to him and his story.
Ken has a piercing intellect. He throws himself into the world of Wallander. He is constantly trying to seek the truth of the character and he also has an incredible work ethic. He is always the first to arrive on set and the last to leave. In the past, television detectives have sometimes been a bit glib about the murders they are investigating. But Wallander feels everything very deeply and each crime takes its toll on him. Ken wants that truth represented on screen and delivers every time.
What does the austere Swedish landscape add to the drama?
I love filming here because these wonderful landscapes directly express the drama. People bandy around the word “cinematic”, but that’s exactly what it is. It’s beautiful, but bleak. The heavy grey sky feels like it’s pressing down on the characters, especially Wallander. Weather and landscapes add an extra dimension and atmosphere to the drama.
Is Wallander affected by the fact that the sheen has come off the image of Sweden’s once ideal society?
Yes. Wallander represents the general disillusionment with the perfect society that Sweden once appeared to be. Mankell said that people in the UK were misguided in thinking Sweden perfect and for believing the mythology about Sweden's ideal, peaceful, democratic society. Look at what’s happening in Sweden now with immigration, for instance. Wallander’s story is entwined with the story of Sweden’s lost dream.
What appealed to you about Peter Harness’ scripts for Wallander?
Peter is a terrific writer. He is able to get under the skin of Wallander and understand the character's complexity in a way that not many writers can. It’s very difficult to render Mankell’s books on screen. But Peter lives in Sweden, and it’s in his blood.
Why do audiences love “Nordic Noir” so much?
Scandinavia has this vast wide landscape that is tremendously atmospheric. It also has these very long, very dark winters which give the country a kind of melancholia which is visually striking and also ripe for tales of dark deeds.
Tell us about the final film, “The Troubled Man”.
Wallander is still pursued by psychological demons but this story is his attempt to solve his final case and safeguard his family’s future. It shows him as a noble man. It’s a very fitting goodbye.
Finally, how did you find it working on Wallander?
It’s been the most thrilling experience I’ve had in my career thus far.
PETER HARNESS – WRITER
What’s the secret to Wallander’s success?
I think it’s been successful for a number of reasons. The reflective, slightly philosophical nature of it, it’s a detective show which is less about the crimes and more about the detective himself. Usually the crimes somehow mirror what’s going on in his personal life, what’s going on in his brain at the time. There’s more time to go on those personal journeys with him. Another element in its success is the landscape. Scandinavia is very close to us but it’s also very different and we’ve always made full use of the Scandinavian landscape. I think Wallander really kicked the door open for Nordic noir. All of the Swedish series, The Bridge and The Killing, all came in the wake of the success of the BBC’s Wallander.
What’s new for Wallander?
I think a big change for him is that he’s become a grandfather and that’s made him very happy. I think it’s mended a lot of things in his relationship with his daughter as well. He has the same kind of relationship with his granddaughter that his dad had with Linda. He feels a lot calmer and he feels as though he’s let go of a lot of the stuff we saw him deal with in the first couple of series. He’s moved on to a calmer and more peaceful place in his life I think.
How is the new series different?
This series does feel different. It looks different actually because we shot it at a different time and it’s been such a grey, sunless, rainy autumn here. It looks very different to the cornfields in the sun of the first couple of series. We wouldn’t usually say that we were fortunate to be rained out but it’s brought a very lost, melancholy, cloudy quality to it, which mirrors what he’s going through. The last two films certainly are the most personal films, you follow him very closely seeing more into his personal life than ever before. They feel a lot more emotional, compared to other series.
How Sweden is represented?
I think Wallander is a very clear distillation of the Scandinavian mindset. It’s very philosophical and it doesn’t mind getting quite dark and serious. It’s really about the disjunction between this supposedly perfect set of societies, which are well-functioned, well-running, peaceful societies and the considerable darkness that lurks underneath.
I lived in Sweden for about seven years, prior to working on Wallander. I’ve fallen in love with it I think after time. It’s quite a reserved country. The people are quite reserved and they take some time to get to know but once you have it’s a very easy place to live. It’s a great place to bring children up but slightly bi-polar in the sense that, the winters are miserable and the people are miserable during this time but as soon as there’s a ray of sunshine, everything just blossoms.
What was your working relationship like with Henning?
I had a very enjoyable working relationship with Henning, and I feel very privileged that I did. He was kind and supportive, and the last time I saw him he was in good spirits and full of fight and bravery. A remarkable man, a fantastic author and a real champion of justice in the world. He’s sadly missed.
What is the background behind ‘A Troubled Man’?
The series reveals, there were many submarine incursions into Swedish waters in the 1980s, with the first one definitely Russian. It ran aground, as the captain was drunk. A number of other cases were never brought to the surface causing a political scandal. Many thought they were let go so the government didn’t provoke a diplomatic confrontation with Russia. There was also a lot of doubt surrounding each submarine’s origin – were they Russian, from another country or even NATO? The truth of it has never really been discovered. We find out Linda’s father-in-law (Håkon) was a commander on one of the boats charged to discover these submarines and was not allowed to do so.
Remarkably, in the past month or two there have actually been incursions by unknown submarines in Swedish waters! The same kind of questions have arisen, whether they were purposely let go because they don’t want to provoke a confrontational conversation with Putin, or whoever it might be. It’s been fantastically topical, so thanks to Putin or whoever sent them for making our films seem a lot more up to date than perhaps they might have done.
Does Wallander provoke empathy?
He provokes empathy in the audience because he doesn’t disguise his feelings, perhaps he tries to, but he isn’t very good at it. A lot of awful stuff does happen to him; you want things to go well but seemingly it never does. For that reason, he’s always got the audience’s sympathy and the fact that he will always do the right thing, no matter what the cost.
Has Wallander paved the way for Scandinavian drama?
I think Wallander did pave the way for the craze of Nordic noir. It was a very rich field waiting to be explored because there are so many good crime novelists and they all have this trick of exposing the difference between the social exterior, and what goes on underneath. All of them are also quite political; they’re about something with quite a big underlying theme which people can really get to grips with. They are also very good at telling stories over ten or twelve episodes, which we’ve started to do more in the UK. Before imported series came in we were not doing that so much, using two, three, six episodes max to tell the story. Now it seems we are more open to that novelistic, deeper storytelling.
What are your thoughts on the series ending?
I hope with this final series we’ve given him the send off that he deserves. I hope I’ve given him something to be cheerful about and of course there is going to be a lot of misery, angst and soul searching along the way. As I got to the end of it, in a very perverse way it’s a happy ending. Wallander is in a much better place as a man than we’ve seen him.
Synopses
The White Lioness
Wallander is attending a police conference in Cape Town when he’s asked by the South African police to help with the case of Inga Hedeman, a Swedish voluntary worker in the townships who’s been missing for ten days. Of course Wallander finds himself unable to confine himself to talking to the husband as requested and instead becomes deeply involved in the search for the missing woman – at times alongside local detective Sergeant Grace Thembu and at times on his own. A combination of gut instinct and inspired police work lead Wallander first to a deserted farmhouse where he finds evidence of Inga’s presence and a severed black finger; then to a drinking den in one of the townships where he comes face to face with the finger’s owner – a low-life criminal in his early twenties – Mabasha. But even as Wallander tries to get Mabasha to open up to him about Inga’s fate, an armed man tries to attack the young black man. Wallander saves Mabasha but he subsequently escapes.
After a dressing down by elderly black Tourism Minister and one-time ANC freedom fighter, Max Khulu, Grace invites Wallander back to a family braai. Here Wallander discovers that this dedicated detective is a single mother with a tragic past. As they talk he is deeply impressed that despite the immense problems facing her country she has a deep-rooted sense of hope.
On returning to his hotel Wallander finds Mabasha waiting for him. Desperate for help and badly wounded the young man forces Wallander to drive him out to the now almost deserted rural village that was once his home – like so many his family moved to the city in the hope of making their lives better only to find this dream crushed. Slowly Wallander earns Mabasha’s trust. The boy reveals he was recruited and trained as an assassin by a white man (Meyer) – that he tried to save Inga Hedeman when she stumbled upon them. Mabasha tried to help her but Meyer cut off his finger and he fled. With Mabasha’s health deteriorating fast Wallander has to go for medical supplies but when he returns he finds Meyer has been, with devastating consequences.
Wallander and Grace deduce that Mabasha was being trained to kill Bernie Meyiwa, a young radical ANC politician, and protégé of Max Khulu, running for local office on the promise of rooting out corruption. A huge manhunt for Meyer commences but Wallander pursues his own leads, finally finding Inga’s body at a deserted military base. When Meyer falls to his death here it seems there is nothing more to be done until Wallander answers the dead man’s phone and hears Max Khulu’s voice on the other end.
Wallander meets with Grace and together they put the missing pieces together. The once idealistic ANC leader was behind the assassination; as he is deeply involved with a corrupt property deal that his friend and protégé Bernie Meyiwa has promised to prevent if elected. A confrontation with Khulu leads nowhere though as there is no hard proof. Troubled by Khulu’s icy calm Wallander realises at Bernie’s rally, that Meyer trained more than one assassin.
With only minutes to spare Wallander and Grace race to save Bernie. Finding the assassin, another desperate young man like Mabasha – Wallander talks him down and lets him walk away. The case comes to a devastating end when they confront Khulu…
Despite the tragedy and challenges Wallander has faced in Cape Town, our hero leaves South Africa with a renewed sense of hope that he can make a difference.
A Lesson in Love
In our opening scene Wallander is mugged. The next morning, bruised and embarrassed, Wallander lies about the incident to his family. We meet Wallander’s granddaughter, Klara, and we realise that, for once, Wallander is putting his personal relationships ahead of his work.
Arriving late to the police station, Wallander joins the search for an elderly woman who has recently gone missing from an old people’s home. As anticipated, they find the elderly woman wandering in the nearby forest but, completely unanticipated, they also stumble across the body of a middle-aged woman, half buried in the forest swamps. She has been stabbed…
Wallander searches the murdered woman’s (Erika) house. There has clearly been a struggle and there is no sign of Erika’s daughter, Hanna (16), although they do find her blood leading the police to fear the daughter has been kidnapped.
Through his investigation, Wallander learns that Erika had been embroiled in an ongoing feud with some local bikers, whom she was campaigning to get evicted. When Wallander approaches the bikers at their nearby residence, he can’t help but feel threatened by one of the bikers – Gustav. Wallander returns home surprisingly shaken – it appears the mugging has unsettled him more than he realised…
Meanwhile, journalists are beginning to sniff around, desperate to learn more about the missing 16-year-old. Wallander returns to the bikers’ residence, but this time with a colleague and to carry out a search. It’s not long before they find the murder weapon – a bloodied knife – but the bikers are adamant that the weapon has been planted. A brawl breaks out, resulting in the whole of the biker gang being arrested.
Wallander leaves the case to attend Linda’s father-in-law’s (Håkon) birthday party. Out of his comfort zone in their imposing abode, Wallander is taken aside by Håkon who talks about his career in the navy and the challenges he faced. Wallander is left slightly bemused by Håkon’s conversation but this is long forgotten when he returns to Ystad to find a long lost love, Baiba, waiting for him.
Back at the station, the case takes an unexpected turn when it’s revealed that the prints on the knife belong to Gustav’s young son. Wallander questions why a boy would murder two people in order to impress his father but, with Gustav’s son too scared to communicate, Wallander has no choice but to keep him in custody.
When Wallander returns home from a blissful night out with Baiba to find firefighters attending to his house, Wallander becomes convinced that Gustav is targeting him, attempting to intimidate him into releasing his son. But just as Wallander confronts him, it appears Gustav has come forward with some unexpected evidence…
The investigation shifts gear and, with the new information in hand, Wallander knows he will soon come face-to-face with the killer. However, in doing so, he encounters unforeseen complications which lead to some uncomfortable truths. In a staggering climax, Wallander is left emotionally reeling.
We leave the episode with the case solved but with Wallander, our hero, looking towards an uncertain future. He is about to be confronted with his most troublesome adversary yet: himself.
The Troubled Man
Håkon von Enke, a retired high-ranking Swedish naval officer, vanishes during his daily walk in a forest one morning. Håkon is Linda’s father-in-law so when Wallander, temporarily suspended from Ystad police, is approached by his distressed daughter, he can’t help but investigate further.
Wallander stays with Hakon’s wife, Louise, in order to carry out his investigation but feels increasingly awkward in her presence. From talking to Håkon’s old friend, Norlander, Wallander learns about a submarine incident in 1980 where there were rumours of Russian submarines trespassing in Swedish waters that were never exposed. Håkon had become fixated on this cover-up. Had he ruffled the wrong feathers? Is there a chance he was murdered for speaking out?
Wallander meets another of Håkon’s friend, an American called Steve Wilson, who has come over to Sweden having heard the news of Håkon’s disappearance. In their discussion, Wilson lets slip that Håkon and Louise had a daughter (Signe). It transpires that she is a few years older than Hans, born severely mentally and physically handicapped, and has lived in various different hospitals since a few days after she was born. It appears that Håkon and Louise von Enke had some substantial secrets lurking beneath the surface.
Wallander visits Signe in the nursing home. It emerges that she only ever had one visitor – her father. He came regularly, the nurses say, and sat beside her bed, talking to her for hours. Looking through Signe’s story books, Wallander locates a notebook with Håkon’s handwriting. Inside the notebook he finds hidden camera photographs of Louise…
When Wallander returns to confront Louise about his recent discoveries, she cannot be found. Wallander instinctively fears the worst and as he searches the surrounding woods, he comes across Louise’s body… Is this a second suicide, or is the case delving into darker territory? Wallander fears the latter.
With Hans (Håkon and Louise’s son) and Linda reeling from the news, the case unravels in an increasingly sinister and threatening way. It comes to light that Louise had Russian microfilm in her purse. There is increasing evidence that Louise was a Russian spy (did she use her husband’s position to find out information for the Russians? Was she responsible for the cover up of the Russian submarines?), the theory being that Håkon had discovered this and left her. Could it be that Louise, ashamed of her past and devastated by her husband’s abandonment, could no longer live with the guilt?
Wallander can’t quite believe that Louise was a spy and, when he receives a call from the local police Sergeant, Ytterberg, to say that Hans had been receiving large amounts of money from his parents, Wallander starts to panic that in fact the answer is much closer to home.
In a spin, Wallander confronts Hans at his office. Hans has remained alarmingly quiet throughout the process – what does he have to hide? Wallander’s fear for his daughter makes him particularly bullish and it’s not long before he has his son-in-law in tears. Hans had been trying to stay strong for Linda but underneath he is heartbroken.
Wallander, reeling from his misjudgement of his son-in-law, exits Hans’ office dazed and confused…
In the final stretch of this perplexing case, Wallander tracks down Fanny Klaestrom, an old waitress who used to serve Håkon and his colleagues. She points Wallander towards a man called Ola Vikander – he had recently approached both herself and Håkon about a new book he was writing about espionage in Sweden during the Cold War. Through Vikander’s information, Wallander learns that Håkon had once paid off some fishermen with a large sum of money…
Wallander approaches the fishermen and learns that Håkon had paid for the fishermen’s silence over the unlawful submarine incident that occurred in the Swedish waters in 1980. They break their silence for Wallander by giving him a listening device they had fished out of the water that year. The revelation that comes next shocks Wallander to the core…
In the final showdown Wallander locates the hidden Håkon and, through guile and persuasion, finally gets to the bottom of the conspiracy. But, once he knows the awful truth, will Wallander be able to break this news to the family he holds so dear, particularly when his future is looking less certain than ever…
Cast and Productions Credits
The White Lioness
Cast in order of appearance
Inga Hedeman TESSA JUBBER
Mabasha LEMOGANG TSIPA
Kurt Wallander KENNETH BRANAGH
Linda Wallander JEANY SPARK
Conference Delegate CLINT WILKENSON
Axel Hedeman ALEX FERNS
Colonel Julian van Heerden DEON LOTZ
Max Khulu JOHN KANI
Grace Mthembu BONNIE MBULI
Bernie Mewiya TUMISHO MASHA
Detective CLAYTON EVERTSON
Detective GAVIN WERNER
Concierge PATRICK MADISE
Local Man CHRIS APRIL
Meyer JULIAN KOBERMAN
Township Boy NKCUBEKO TUTU
Miranda Khulu THOKOZILE NTSHINGA
Female Guest QUANITA ADAMS
Male Guest ERNIE ST CLAIRE
Nomalanga Mthembu LATITA NDZWAYIBA
Elderly Woman MARY TWALA
Second Assassin SIYA MAYOLA
Writer JAMES DORMER Director BENJAMIN CARON
Director of Photography LUKAS STREBEL Editor ÚNA NÍ DHONGHAÍLE MATTHEW TABERN
Composer NATALIE HOLT Production Designer CANDIDA OTTON
Costume Designer DIANA CILLIERS
Make- Up Designer FRANCESCA VAN DER FEYST
A Lesson In Love
Cast in order of appearance
Kurt Wallander KENNETH BRANAGH
Klara von Enke KITTY PETERKIN
Linda Wallander JEANY SPARK
Hans von Enke HARRY HADDEN-PATON
Håkan von Enke TERRENCE HARDIMAN
Lennart Mattson BARNABY KAY
Manageress KAREN GLEDHILL
Tobias Eliasson JOE CLAFLIN
Anita CECILE ANCKARSVÄRD
Nyberg RICHARD McCABE
Jonna Malmberg MARIE CRITCHLEY
Erik Malmberg GLENN DOHERTY
Gustav Ericsson CLIVE WOOD
Pontus Ericsson HUGH MITCHELL
Stefan Persson THOMAS COOMBES
Street Sweeper FELICIA WOMACK
Rita Larsson MIRANDA PLEASENCE
Doctor Öberg JOHN LIGHTBODY
Simona BOEL LARSSON
Louise von Enke ANN BELL
Baipa Liepa INGEBORGA DAPKUNAITE
Maja Hahne MARLENE SIDAWAY
Hannah Hjelmqvist MIA GOTH
Fire Chief ROBIN GOTT
Waiter THOMAS CHAAHNING
Writer PETER HARNESS Director BENJAMIN CARON
Director of Photography LUKAS STREBEL Editor PETER CHRISTELIS Composer NATALIE HOLT Production Designer TOMAS BURTON
Costume Designer BARBARA KIDD
Make- Up Designer CHRISTINE WALMESLEY-COTHAM
The Troubled Man
Cast in order of appearance
Håkan von Enke TERRENCE HARDIMAN
Kurt Wallander KENNETH BRANAGH
Doctor Öberg JOHN LIGHTBODY
Linda Wallander JEANY SPARK
Simona BOEL LARSSON
Louise von Enke ANN BELL
Nils Ytterberg SIMON CHANDLER
Sten Norlander CHRISTOPHER FAIRBANK
Lennart Mattson BARNABY KAY
Nyberg RICHARD McCABE
Tobias Eliasson JOE CLAFLIN
Klara von Enke KITTY PETERKIN
Hans von Enke HARRY HADDEN-PATON
Steven Wilson GARRICK HAGON
Nurse NIMMY MARCH
Signe von Enke SANDRA REDLAFF
Fanny Klaestrom COLETTE O'NEIL
Ola Vikander MICHAEL BYRNE
Fisherman ANTON SAUNDERS
Povel Wallander DAVID WARNER
Writer PETER HARNESS Director BENJAMIN CARON
Director of Photography LUKAS STREBEL Editor ÚNA NÍ DHONGHAÍLE
Composer MARTIN PHIPPS NATALIE HOLT Production Designer TOMAS BURTON
Costume Designer BARBARA KIDD
Make- Up Designer CHRISTINE WALMESLEY-COTHAM
Production
Executive Producer ANDY HARRIES
Executive Producer DANIEL GYLLING
Executive Producer KENNETH BRANAGH
Director BENJAMIN CARON
Head of Production MARIGO KEHOE
Producer SANNE WOHLENBERG
Executive Producer ANNI FAURBYE FERNANDEZ
Executive Producer PETER HARNESS
Executive Producer REBECCA EATON
Executive Producer MATTHEW EATON
Executive Producer ÅSA SJÖBERG