TV’s Next Inspector Morse?

The London Observer reports that Kurt Wallander, the opera-loving, diabetic, Swedish detective inspector who’s starred in a popular succession of novels (Faceless Killers, The Fifth Woman, etc.) written by Henning Mankell, may soon be brought to British television. “Morten Fisker, managing director of Yellow Bird [Mankell’s film company], confirmed he is in discussions with two major British broadcasters over a multi-million-pound television production, with a British cast, to be set in Ystad, a small, 13th-century port in southern Sweden where Wallander’s beat is centred,” according to the paper.

Meanwhile, speaking of the late Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, his sidekick in Colin Dexter’s long-running series (and a subsequent British TV serial), Detective Sergeant Robbie Lewis, is set to take the lead himself in a TV movie called Inspector Lewis, which will premiere on PBS-TV’s Mystery! series on Sunday, July 30. Actor Kevin Whately, who portrayed the honest, earnest Lewis in the original Inspector Morse series, will resume the role (with a promotion in rank) in this small-screen film, which producer ITV says will be followed by four more two-hour Lewis episodes.