Kenneth Branagh will star as a hard-drinking Swedish detective in a £6m TV series commissioned by BBC Scotland, it was revealed yesterday.
The actor will play Kurt Wallander in adaptations of three critically acclaimed crime novels by Swedish author Henning Mankell.
Wallander, which will be filmed on location in Sweden, is a major coup for BBC Scotland and comes only a few months after director-general Mark Thompson said the corporation north of the border should triple its output for UK networks.
The new series of 90-minute programmes is being co-produced by three independent companies after being commissioned by Anne Mensah, head of drama at BBC Scotland.
She said: "Wallander is an extremely ambitious project - after all, we're looking to create a classic new detective character for British television.
"We couldn't hope for a stronger team behind the project, nor for a more perfect leading man."
The books have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and the programmes will be based on three of the novels, Sidetracked, One Step Behind and Firewall.
Branagh, whose production company will make the series in conjunction with Left Bank Pictures and Mankell's own company Yellow Bird, said he was a fan of the novels.
He said: "Wallander is a wonderfully complex and compelling character and, as a long-time admirer of the novels, I'm very excited to be playing this fascinatingly flawed but deeply human detective."
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