In 2006 Yellow Bird managing director Morten Fisker opened discussions with British production companies about developing English-language adaptations of the Kurt Wallander novels, to which Yellow Bird holds the distribution rights. The BBC and Channel 4 were believed to be involved in discussions; the BBC had already announced plans to adapt Mankell's
The Return of the Dancing Master. Fisker wanted to bring a new detective to British screens to replace Inspector Morse, who had been killed off on-screen in 2000. Actors proposed to play Wallander were
Trevor Eve,
Neil Pearson,
Jason Isaacs,
David Morrissey,
Clive Owen and
Michael Gambon. Negotiations were still under way in 2007, when Kenneth Branagh met Henning Mankell at an
Ingmar Bergman film festival and asked to play Wallander. Branagh had started reading the
Wallander books "relatively late" but enjoyed them, and read all nine translated novels in a month. Mankell agreed to let Branagh play the role, and Branagh visited Ystad in December to scout for locations and meet Film i Skånes chief executive Ralf Ivarsson. A series of three 90-minute adaptations was commissioned by
BBC Scotland's
Anne Mensah and BBC Controller of Fiction
Jane Tranter in January 2008. Like Morten Fisker, the BBC wanted a returning series that would have the same audience appeal as
Inspector Morse,
Prime Suspect and
Cracker. Yellow Bird was contracted as a co-producer, working with
Left Bank Pictures, a production house formed in 2007 by former ITV Controller of Comedy, Drama and Film
Andy Harries. Harries described
Wallander as "more than just a detective series" and that it would be visually "very picture postcard". The first series consists of adaptations of
Sidetracked,
Firewall and
One Step Behind.
Philip Martin was hired as lead director of the series, and met with Branagh, Harries and Left Bank producer Francis Hopkinson in January. The four discussed how the adaptations would appear on screen, agreeing that the characterisations, atmosphere and ideas would be difficult to portray on screen. Richard Cottan was hired to adapt Mankell's novels, and delivered his first scripts in February. Cottan changed the plots of some of the books in order to fit them into a 90-minute adaptation, though made sure the scripts retained Wallander's "journey". The following month, Martin began discussions with cinematographer
Anthony Dod Mantle about what visual style the films would have. They agreed to use the
Red One digital camera to shoot on, Casting of British actors, which was done in London, was completed by April, and the whole crew moved over to Ystad to begin rehearsals. Martin wanted the actors playing police officers to know how to fire a gun, so arranged for them to spend time at a firing range using live ammunition.
Series 1 A £6 million budget was originally assigned to the first series, Half of that came from the BBC, and the rest from pre-sale co-production funding from American
WGBH Boston and German
ARD Degeto, and a tax deduction for filming in Sweden. ARD Degeto and WGBH are credited as co-producers for their budget contribution. Using scripts adapted by Richard Cottan and Richard McBrien, filming ran for 12 weeks from April to July 2008 in Wallander's hometown of
Ystad,
Sweden. Location filming was principally set in Ystad. Interior sets were constructed at Ystad Studios under the supervision of Anders Olin, who also designed the sets of the Swedish
Wallander films. The main police station set is 500 square metres, twice the size of Olin's previous sets. For exterior shots of the police station, a combination of the
Ystad railway station and swimming pool was used. Mock-ups of
Ystads Allehanda, a local newspaper, were produced as working props. Producer Simon Moseley explained that the mock-ups use Swedish words that can be understood by English-speaking audiences. Moseley also explained that some pronunciations of Swedish words are Anglicised (such as the pronunciation of "Ystad" and "Wallander"), as "the authentic local accent is very strange to English ears and we didn't want to stray into ''
'Allo 'Allo!'' territory". Filming was scheduled for 66 days over 12 weeks in Sweden; each film would be shot back-to-back over 22 days. Scenes set in the rapeseed field were filmed at Charlottenlund Mansion. Location scouts had been impressed with the look of the winter rapeseed. The team from Danish Special Effects had difficulty setting the field on fire. Using the Red One digital camera meant that
rushes could be viewed on set, saving time on the already tight schedule.
One Step Behind was filmed in May. The opening scene, featuring a multiple murder and burial in the woods, was filmed on location at the Hagestads nature reserve. A large hole was needed for the shallow grave, so Yellow Bird approached the local authority for permission. The request was granted on the same day as it was lodged, with the stipulation that the hole be filled in after filming. Niall MacCormick arrived in Sweden to film
Firewall in June, Danish Special Effects also worked on body
squibs, bullet hits and atmospheric effects. Their post-production work was completed in August. While the crew were in Sweden, editing was done at The Chimney Pot in
Stockholm. Post-production was completed by The Farm in London.
Martin Phipps composed the soundtrack to the series. The three films of series 1 were broadcast on BBC One on 30 November 7 December, and 14 December 2008 respectively.
Series 2 The production of three new films based on
Faceless Killers,
The Fifth Woman and
The Man Who Smiled was confirmed by the BBC in May 2009 to start in the summer in Ystad. The BBC broadcast the series in January 2010. Richard Cottan wrote
Faceless Killers and
The Fifth Woman, while Simon Donald wrote
The Man Who Smiled.
Hettie MacDonald directed
Faceless Killers,
Andy Wilson handled
The Man Who Smiled while
Aisling Walsh directed
The Fifth Woman. Photographer Igor Martinovic (director of photography on
Man on Wire) worked with Macdonald and Wilson while Lukas Strebel, who won an Emmy in 2009 for
Little Dorrit, was in charge of photography for
The Fifth Woman. The second series started shooting on 22 June 2009. The film crew consisted of slightly more Britons, as the Swedish-language films were still filming in the area until December 2009. Yellow Bird's Daniel Ahlqvist said, "It is a quite special that we are doing two different
Wallander productions at the same time. So it has been a little bit tougher to recruit competent personnel here in Skåne. We came to the conclusion that if we cannot get people from Skåne, we might as well bring in folks from the UK rather than Stockholm." The landscape of Skåne was a big part of the second series. Shooting started in the outskirts of Ystad but a big scene in Ystad city square was planned. Scenes were also planned to be filmed at the summer residence that served as the home for Wallander's father.
Faceless Killers was first in the shooting schedule, followed by
The Fifth Woman and last
The Man Who Smiled. As with Series 1, each episode is filmed over approximately 22–23 days, with just 3–5 days set aside for studio recording, and the rest for location shooting. On 23 June, the film team spent all day in
Simrishamn, a coastal town north east of Ystad. Scenes were shot at the local police station and in the town square. Production Manager Nina Sackmann explained that "the town was perfect for what we needed to convey with this film". On 21 July, the portions of road 1015 passing by the
Karlsfält Farmland Estate north of Ystad was closed from 11 p.m. until midnight to accommodate the film crew. On 18 August, closing scenes of
The Fifth Woman, where Kurt Wallander is dragged away at gunpoint, were shot on location at Ystad railway station. On the right side of the railway track, this dramatic scene was being filmed and on the left side, commuters were exiting the train. About 40 metres away, the Swedish language Wallander film
Vålnaden (
The Ghost) was being filmed at the same time. Earlier in the week, scenes were shot at an old automobile repair and maintenance shop from 1928 in
Hammenhög village. Part of the building had served as a flower shop when Mankell wrote
The Fifth Woman and, since a murder victim is a flower shop owner, it was convenient to shoot in the now abandoned building. Filming on
The Man Who Smiled began at the beginning of September. Location production on the episode concluded on 2 October. The first couple of weeks featured location work outside of the swimming baths—which doubles as the exterior of the police station. For the last two weeks, production moved to locations around the countryside of
Österlen. On Monday evening 14 September, the Ystad city square was closed off to film an important action scene from
The Man Who Smiled where Kurt Wallander comes running across the square as a car explodes. The clear blue September sky caused problems with the lighting and they had to wait until the sun started to set. Kenneth Branagh explained that the challenge for filming series one was to "create" the strange world of Ystad, in part as Henning Mankell saw it, in part as script writer Rick Cottan saw it, and then upon arrival to realise that the town looks different. "To get all these different visions to work together was a bit nervous last year. This year the pressure is to develop the style of this show and develop the characters, for example the other policemen at the station. Branagh claimed that there had been no problems shooting due to weather conditions except the last day of filming: "Henning Mankell often writes about the long Swedish summer rains, but during two years of filming we have not seen any of that. No wonder British tourists like to visit." He also stated that there is a possibility of a third series. "It all depends on how these new episodes are received, but I think I really would like to film more episodes. But we also need to feel that we have something more to offer, more to tell and that the scripts are good." Any filming on a third series would be postponed until 2011, to allow Branagh to work on
Thor. Yellow Bird's Daniel Ahlqvist believes that
The White Lionesss South African setting makes it difficult to film, and the post-Cold War plot of
The Dogs of Riga is no longer relevant, but sees no reason why
Before the Frost and some new story ideas, in the same vein as the original Yellow Bird films could not be developed for the BBC. Local politicians supported and invested 8,000,000 Swedish kronor (roughly £750,000) in the second Wallander series through
Film i Skåne, a regional resource and production centre. Series 2 features some interesting choices of actors for minor roles. Fredrik Gunnarsson features in
Faceless Killers as Valfrid Strom, Gunnarson appears in 17 episodes of Yellow Bird's Swedish language
TV series as uniformed police officer Svartman. Rune Bergman had a minor role in the Swedish language adaptation of
Faceless Killers and also featured in the TV film
Luftslottet. Patrik Karlson featured in the Swedish language adaptation of
The Man Who Smiled as well as the TV film
Mastermind. Bergman and Karlson have the distinction of appearing in films starring the three Kurt Wallander actors. Karin Bertling also appears in the English language
Faceless Killers and has previously worked on the Swedish-language TV film
Before the Frost.
Series 3 The third series aired in July 2012. Screenwriter
Peter Harness wrote the scripts for all three films that made up Series 3. Mankell worked closely with Harness on the scripts. "He is too busy to talk to me all the time. But we have met to discuss the material, so he is involved in what happens", Harness told
Ystads Allehanda. Hiddleston and Shimmin did not return for this series. Actress
Rebekah Staton portrayed a new character, Kristina, in all three episodes.
Mark Hadfield joined the cast as police officer Stefan Lindeman, one of the main characters in the first season of the
Swedish Wallander TV series and the lead character in the Mankell novel
The Return of the Dancing Master (a book that has already been filmed in
Swedish and German versions).
Barnaby Kay plays Lennart Mattson, who is Chief Holgerson's successor. On 4 August 2011 it was made official that three new films were in production. The filming of
The Dogs of Riga started in
Latvia on 1 August at The Hotel Riga, and concluded on 20 August. More scenes were shot in Ystad the following week. This film was directed by
Esther May Campbell, and featured
cinematography by Lukas Strebel who worked on the second
Wallander series. The production tried to use as many
Latvian actors as possible but a problem arose as most Latvian actors had a very limited knowledge of English. Latvian actor
Artūrs Skrastiņš was the only native actor that landed a speaking role in the film. He portrayed Colonel Putnis. Romanian actor
Dragos Bucur portrays Sergei Upitis, an investigative journalist. The film was partially funded by The Riga Film Fund and co-stars
Lithuanian actress
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė. On 10 August, several scenes were shot outside the
Latvian Parliament and outside a building on Jēkaba street that was decorated with Swedish flags, to stand in for the Swedish embassy in
Riga. On 13 August, the city closed down several streets to accommodate the filming. On 16 August scenes were filmed at
Riga Central Station. The national
police cars used in for this production had been equipped with stickers that said Rīgas pilsētas policijas (Riga City Police). These stickers covered up the usual
coat of arms that Latvian police cars are decorated with, these stickers were designed specifically for the film and are easily removed. Nothing on Latvian police cars specifies what city they serve in. On 22 August the film team was back in Sweden to film for one week. The shooting started at a football pitch in
Kåseberga, which has been converted into a filming area. Producer Hillary Benson explained to local press that once
The Dogs of Riga had wrapped up, the film team would be back in mid October to start filming the other two episodes. The first two series were filmed in the summer, this time around the aim was to film in autumn and winter. The other two films in the series are
Before the Frost, based on the
novel of the same name, and
An Event in Autumn, which is based on the short story "Händelse om hösten" (The Grave), a short story from 2004 published only in the
Netherlands. Filming started in Ystad on 12 October 2011. The first days of shooting were stunts and scenes with an animal trainer as Kenneth Branagh did not arrive until 17 October. Scenes were also shot at The Chemistry Hall at the Macklean School in
Skurup Municipality. With the local
firefighters on standby, a
stunt man poured petrol over himself and then set himself alight. This three-minute long film sequence took nine and a half hours to shoot. Filming began on Friday 14 October at 6 pm and wrapped at 3:30 am on Saturday morning. The film crew later came back at the end of October to shoot a scene using
headmaster Christin Stigborgs' office. From Tuesday, 24 October and until the end of the week, three streets in central Ystad (Lilla Norregatan, Stora Norregatan and Sladdergatan) had to be closed down for a short time to shoot several scenes. Parts of the film were shot in the
Snogeholm nature conservation area,
Sjöbo Municipality. Filming took place for several days along the roads and a parking space. This was mainly shots of the environment and the nature of the conversation area and the
Snogeholm lake, according to production manager Martin Ersgård.
An Event in Autumn was the last film. Filming started 14 November and was directed by
Toby Haynes. On 21 and 23 October the crew was filming at an old small farm in the small village of
Svarte. It is around the corner from the house where Wallander's father lived in the previous films. The small farm house is Wallander's new home but the remains of a dead woman are found on the property. Due to time constraints and unusually for a
BBC production, all scenes were filmed with two cameras to provide more material for post production and cutting. The last week of shooting included filming some scenes in Germany. With the previous two series, the
Skåne Regional Council invested 7 and 8 million Swedish Krona through its subsidiary
Film i Skåne. With the third series, the
Skåne Regional Council only wanted to invest 2 million Krona. They later signed on to support the production by other means such as letting BBC and Yellow Bird use Ystad Studios for free, worth about half a million Swedish Krona. The first episode,
The White Lioness, is written by
James Dormer (
Strike Back,
Outcast), and directed by
Benjamin Caron (
Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This, Skins, My Mad Fat Diary). Most of the book takes place in
South Africa and the episode was filmed in
Cape Town in January 2015. The final two installments in the Wallander series,
A Lesson in Love and
The Troubled Man were written by
Peter Harness, not
Ronan Bennett, as previously announced, and also directed by
Benjamin Caron, and adapted from the final Wallander novel,
The Troubled Man. These two episodes were filmed on location in
Skåne,
Sweden, and
Copenhagen,
Denmark. Returning cast include
Jeany Spark as Linda Wallander,
Richard McCabe as Nyberg,
Barnaby Kay as Lennart Mattson, and
Ingeborga Dapkunaite as Baiba Liepa. The new series was shot on several locations surrounding
Ystad, including
Mossbystrand,
Östra Hoby,
Vårhallen Beach,
Tunbyholm Castle plus
Blekinge Province and the
Danish island of
Zealand. On 30 October, several scenes were shot at the Norreportskolan, a local Ystad
middle school. Several of the students participated as extras. The final three episodes had their world première dubbed into German on German network ARD, which co-produced them. They aired over three nights, on 25 December, 26 and 27, 2015. In Poland, the episodes aired on
Ale Kino+ on 11, 18 and 25 March 2016. They made their English language première on
BBC UKTV New Zealand on 11 April. In the US, 80-minute-long re-edited versions of the episodes aired as "Wallander, The Final Season" on the
PBS anthology series
Masterpiece Mystery! on 8, 15 and 22 May.
BBC One broadcast the full 89-minute episodes in the UK beginning on 22 May 2016. ==Broadcast==