SHOULDN'T HE BE PLAYING A DANE?:

Meet TV's new Inspector Morse … he's grumpy, a big drinker and, oh yes, he's Swedish (TIM CORNWELL, 1/11/08, The Scotsman)

STEP aside, Rebus and Morse. The actor Kenneth Branagh, perennial darling of the English stage, is bringing a grumpy, diabetic, hard-drinking Swedish detective to the small screen.

BBC Scotland's drama department will oversee production of a £6 million TV series based on the best-selling Inspector Wallander novels by Sweden's Henning Mankell.

Branagh, dubbed a leading "luvvie" of the British acting world, first found fame in 1989 as a Shakespearean actor in his film of Henry V.

He said: "Wallander is a wonderfully complex and compelling character and I am excited to be playing this fascinatingly flawed, but deeply human detective."