Wallander: The Pyramid

SYNOPSIS

We're accustomed to shapeshifting Sherlocks and morphing Marples, but it's been a challenge these past few weeks adjusting to Rolf Lassgard's woebegone Viking take on our beloved Swedish tec. Messrs Branagh and Henriksson are tough acts to follow, although in fairness the role had been Lassgard's since 1994 and this 2007 case was effectively his swansong. It adapts elements from Henning Mankell's short-story collection The Pyramid to weave its own punchy narrative. An aeroplane making a drugs drop is blasted from the sky. Two aunts hide a secret at the rear of their haberdashery. And a single mum OD-ing on heroin makes her last call to Kurt - reopening 25-year-old wounds. Cue colour-drained flashbacks to the start of Kurt's career and yet another actor as Ystad's finest (Gustaf Skarsgard, son of Stellan).