TV Review: Wallander Series 3, Episode 2 - The Dogs of Riga

Henning Mankell's second Wallander novel finally gets the adaptation treatment in another classy episode of beautiful bleakness. A boat washes up near Ystad with two murdered Latvian informants on board. Soon Inspector Kurt Wallander is joined in his investigation by a taciturn cop from Riga, Major Leipa. The two spend time together, enough time for Leipa to know that he can trust Kurt. Upon his return to Latvia, Leipa is murdered. Wallander flies out to aid the investigation but realises that he can trust no-one. As well as that, Kurt finds himself drawn to Leipa's widow, Baiba.

Even by Wallander standards, this is a bleak episode. It starts with a washed out Kurt, waking alone in his washed out cottage bathed in washed out colours. No smiles for our hero this week - his recent domestic idyll is over and he is still plagued with guilt at Anne-Britt being in a coma following the incidents of last week. Of course, this is how we like our Kurt and Kenneth Branagh plays it so well, every look and slight gesture suggesting his fatigue and quiet despair. In Major Leipa he seems to have found his Latvian equivalent and the almost friendship that develops is very nicely sketched in just a few scenes.

The woman who will become the most important love of Kurt's life (in the novels, anyway).

But if Skane is bleak, it's nothing compared to Riga with its narrow streets, Stalinist offices, CCTV cameras and ex-KGB officers that reek of corruption and paranoia. We find a Wallander without his usual trappings, isolated and exposed in more ways than one. For fans of the books the appearance of Baiba, the love of his life, is nice to see and Ingeborga Dapkunaite conveys the vulnerability and strength that makes her character so appealing. In a relatively short space of time the pair convince that they share a bond, Branagh especially able to get across the confusion of falling for a dead colleague's widow. For fans of Kurt in action he even gets to knock out a couple of people this week and run around with Baibi, evading villains as if he's in a Bourne movie. Truth to be told, The Dogs of Riga is one of the weaker books but full marks to the BBC for turning it into an effective slice of sweaty tension. These adaptations of Mankell's work continue to set the gold standard for modern crime drama, elevating the TV detective to an art form.

GK Rating: ****