Henning Mankell on Branagh as Wallander

In The Times, Stephen Armstrong talks to Henning Mankell about the new adaptation of his book, The Pyramid, starring Kenneth Branagh as Inspector Wallander.

“My ambition from the beginning was to show a man who was always changing, never fixed,” Mankell says. “That is one of the secrets to his success. He has a working-class background, and to become a police officer, he had to choose his place in society. At that time, you had to be conservative. But he’s not completely sure about what’s right and wrong. I call this changing process the diabetes syndrome. After the fourth book, I asked a doctor friend of mine, ‘Having read the books, what kind of disease would you give him?’ She said, ‘Diabetes.’ Immediately. So I gave him diabetes and that made him even more popular.”

The Pyramid, adapted by Richard Cottan and Richard McBrien, will be shown on BBC One next month.