Crimes of Passion - BBC Four - TV review

BBC Four's new sub-titled Scandinavian crime series, Crimes of Passion, started last week, and the second episode, King Lily of the Valley, was screened tonight. I missed the first episode, but heard positive thingss about it from a friend who is a keen Christie fan - and in fact, the stories are based on books by Maria Lang, who was often described as "Sweden's Agatha Christie". Coincidentally, I bought a Maria Lang book a few months ago from another friend who recommended her work, though I have yet to read it. So I decided to give the show a go.

The one actor I recognised was the lead detective, Christer, who is played by the charismatic Ola Rapace, who has appeared in both Wallander and Skyfall. The jaunty music which accompanies the credits and the brightly lit camera work make it clear from the outset that this is not yet another sub-Wallander show. Instead of Nordic Noir, we have Scandi Sun. I've read a few rather sniffy reviews of the first episode, but it may be that these reflect the general tastes of the reviewers rather than a truly objective assessment of the merits of Crimes of Passion, at least if episode two is anything to go by.

The story began with that classic situation - all the guests arrive at church for a wedding, but the bride is nowhere to be seen. The luckless bridegroom has to announce that he's been dumped - but where is the bride? The answer turns out to be that her corpse is lying near a local lake - but she was killed after the wedding was due to take place, rather than before. So what has been going on? And why does her best friend say that she last saw the bride-to-be entering a florist's shop, when the florist denies that the woman ever came into the shop?

It's a whodunit in the traditional style, and so it won't appeal to people who don't care for traditional whodunits. The next question is whether it is good enough to provide good entertainment for viewers like me, who do like whodunits. And on the evidence of this episode, I'd say the answer is yes. I enjoyed it, and the fact that it wasn't as gloomy as the steretypical modern Scandinavian TV crime drama is supposed to be struck me as no bad thing. I am a Wallander (and Sjowall and Wahloo) fan, but there's room for Crimes of Passion on the screen too. I must get round to reading that Maria Lang novel....

Thorne: Sleepyhead and Wallander: The Joker

Thorne: Sleepyhead reached a very grim conclusion in the third and final episode. I thought this was a very good new series, with David Morrissey leading a dynamic cast. The pace seldom faltered, even if there were occasional over the top moments. The finale wss deeply depressing, not my idea of cheery Sunday evening viewing, but even so, I'd guess Mark Billingham will be very pleased with the outcome, and so would I be in his shoes.

I've been catching up on one or two episodes from the first Swedish TV version of Wallander, the one featuring his daughter Linda, very well played by the late Johanna Salstrom. Ola Rapace is also excellent as her colleague Stefan. I'd missed The Joker the first time around, but I read good things about it, and they were certainly justified.

The story is cleverly plotted. I thought I'd figured out the twist early on, but the script had a good trick in store. This was a story about the murder of a woman outside her failing restaurant. The reason for her death can be traced back to events some years before at another restaurant, called The Joker.

Again this was a bleak story, if not quite as dark as Thorne. Much as I enjoyed both shows, I found myself longing for a bit of light relief by the end of them, so I may delve back into the Golden Age now. Apologies, by the way, for delays in responding to comments etc. I'm experiencing a few pc problems which are slowing me down at present.

Wallander - The Secret

I have caught up with the final episode of the Swedish TV series about Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander. This was The Secret, and it has to rank as about the darkest episode in a television cop series that I’ve ever seen. Not easy viewing, but impressively done.

The story involves the abduction and murder of an 11 year old boy. Early scenes also detail the abuse of another young boy. Wallander and his team soon identify a prime suspect, but he is found murdered. By this time, Stefan (brilliantly played by Ola Rapace) has become very personally involved in the case. He knows the dead boy’s father, but this does not seem to explain the depth of his rage about the crime.

A retired cop who was associated with the dead suspect comes into the frame. He appears to be a sinister character, but it turns out that he has a track record of pursuing paedophiles with considerable success. However, there are further twists in the story before the traumatic final moments of the story.

I found this series – and I watched almost all of the 13 episodes, something I don’t often manage to do – exceptionally good viewing. At its best, it was outstanding, and even the weaker story-lines were competently done. Krister Henriksson was superb as Wallander, but part of the strength of the series lay in the quality of the supporting cast, notably Rapace and Johanna Sallstrom as Linda Wallander. Others have written about the sad death of Sallstrom after the series was filmed. Suffice to say that hers is a tragic story, and a great loss.