ABSTRACT
There are no less than three distinct televised versions based on The Kurt Wallander Mysteries , written by best-selling Swedish author Henning Mankell, in existence. Each interpretation of the titular detective is different, but remains relatively faithful to the weary dishevelment – both in dress and demeanour – of the fi ctional original. Rolf Lassgård was the fi rst to play Kurt Wallander, in a set of Swedish TV-fi lms that span the mid-1990s to 2007, starting with Mördare utan ansikte ( Faceless Killers ) in 1995. Krister Henriksson was next to take the role. His tenure lasted from 2005 until 2013, with his fi nal performance in Sorgfågeln (2014, Grief Bird ), after he decided to quit the role, saying, ‘I thought: “We don’t have anything more to say to each other,” because it would be too complicated. So in a way I was relieved’ (Frost, 2014). Next came Kenneth Branagh, who played the character as a deeply troubled soul, profoundly affected by the crimes he has witnessed, in the UK primetime BBC One adaptation, Wallander (2008-16). The British actor describes Wallander as ‘living in a raw world . . . perceptive and intelligent about human behaviour’ (Hoggart 2008, p. 20). Still, and as this chapter will explore, how exactly does ‘living in a raw world’ shape the interpretation of global crime and local justice in the Swedish and UK versions? How is the law embodied in the different interpretations of Kurt Wallander? And how do these various creative endeavours designed to travel circulate within a broader, more globalised, broadcasting ecology, as each series, individually and collectively, stage a vibrant dialogue concerned with crimes that routinely spill across territorial borders; and how, in turn, does the nation-specifi c dimension of justice concerned primarily with representation , in terms of social belonging and who is represented in the community alter as a consequence?
