Wallander

Main character: Inspector Kurt Wallander
Country of origin: Sweden
Main location: Ystad (Skåne, Southern Sweden)

Creator: Henning Mankell
Born in: Stockholm, Sweden
Born on: February 3, 1948
Died in: Gothenburg, Sweden
Died on: October 5, 2015
Nationality: Swedish

Literary series started in: 1991, Mördare utan ansikte (Eng. transl.: Faceless Killers)
Original language: Swedish
Publisher: Ordfront Förlag (Stockholm, Sweden)
Number of books: 17 (12 novels and 5 short stories)
Latest title published in: 2011, Den orolige mannen (Eng. transl.: The Troubled Man)
Translations: Translated in more than 40 languages

Television titles:

Wallander

TV-film series started in: 1994, Mördare utan ansikte (Eng. transl.: Faceless Killers)
Producer: SVT, Sweden
Number of films: 9
Latest film broadcast: 2006, Brandvägg (Eng. transl.: Firewall)
Latest tv film broadcast in: 2007, Pyramiden (Eng. transl.: The Pyramid)
Transnational distribution: Yes

Wallander

Television series started in: 2005
Producer: Yellow Bird for TV4, Sweden
Number of seasons: 3
Latest season broadcast: 2013
Transnational distribution: Yes

Wallander

Television series started in: 2008
Producer: Left Bank Pictures and Yellow Bird for BBC, England
Number of seasons: 4
Latest season broadcast: 2016
Transnational distribution: Yes

Case study rationale:

The first installment of Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series was published in 1991. Until his death in 2015, he published over 30 books and sold over 40 mil. copies worldwide. The narratives and the universe of the novels spun the world famous socio-critical voice of the literary couple Mai Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö into a bestselling novel series, various spin-offs and other stand-alone works. The books series has been adapted for the television screen twice, once for the Swedish PSB SVT (1994-2006) and once for the British PSB BBC (2008-16). The characters were adapted for the film and television series Wallander for cinemas and Swedish TV4 (2005-13). The Wallander stories all revolve around the small Southern Swedish town Ystad, which – based on the fame of the Wallander series and adaptations – have become a remarkable international tourist attraction. Mankell was a central player in setting up the Ystad production company Yellow Bird; as a special contractual feature, he required that adaptations should be set within the proximity of Ystad. The result today has been an astonishing Swedish production hub and an overall Southern Swedish commissioning system for local film and television production. Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander character has been instrumental in the international profile of Swedish crime fiction as well as in the growth and spread of the genre brand Nordic Noir.

Online research resources

Watch

Henning Mankell on the crime genre:

Henning Mankell’s Wallander: Behind the scenes:

Wallander, BBC series, trailer series 1:

Explore

• Map showing European Transmedia Series in the Atlas section on DETECt Portal
• Map showing the Number of European Transmedia Series by Main Locations in the Atlas section on DETECt Portal

Browse

• Inspector-Wallander.org, the English fan-site for Kurt Wallander and Henning Mankell’s authorship, including material on the TV productions and international translations
• The Wallander universe as a Southern Swedish tourist attraction

Read

• McCabe, Janet. “Appreciating Wallander at the BBC: producing culture and performing the glocal in the UK and the Swedish Wallanders for British public service television”. Journal of Media and Communication Studies 5 (2015): 755-768.
• Waade, Anne Marit. “BBC’s Wallander Series: Sweden seen with British Eyes”. Critical Studies in Television 6.2 (2011): 47-60.
• Craighill, Stephanie. “Henning Mankell: European Translation and Success Factors”, Publishing Research Quarterly 29.3 (2013): 201-210.
• Migozzi, Jacques. “Wallander and Millennium as Swedish crime tourism: Two diverging location strategies”. Location marketing and cultural tourism. Ed. Cathrin Bengesser, Kim Toft Hansen and Lynge Stegger Gemzøe. DETECt report,  2020, 19-23. Web.

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