Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Kenneth Brannagh, Bonnie Henna, John Kani, Tumisho Masha, Alex Fearns, Deon Lotz, Tessa Jubber, Lemogang Tsipa, Jeany Spark.
Corruption reaches everywhere in the end, political jealousy just makes it a harder subject to palate and stomach; for greed on such a scale makes those who fought for freedom and an end to suffering seem even more dishonest than those whose behaviour from the start was only self interest seem like the actions of choir boys sneaking a cigarette behind the vestments during Hymn practice.
Corruption and the eye on the large glittering prize makes frauds of us all, it is a corrupt world at times but then we have to go beyond our shore line to see how it affects others less versed in dealing with it. It is a situation that Kurt Wallander, struggling with being half a world away delivering a speech to other delegates in South Africa and far from home, finds himself in as he is drawn into a scandal and the death of a fellow Swedish national in the story White Lioness.
The new series of Wallander brings a universal truth to the detective’s life, that no matter where you look, one crime is normally joined by another, that the criminal will always make at least two mistakes in assuming that their plan will go sailing on with no problems, usually the second is by accident.
It is such an accident that precedes the first that of other’s corruption being greater than theirs that makes the criminal act so easy to understand but hard to fathom. It takes the gentle spirit of Kenneth Branagh’s performance to bring the subject out into the open and make the whole unpalatable business one to see being distorted and twisted as the argument behind ideology giving way to materialism such a powerful reminder of what is at stake.
A good start to the series but one that feels at times forced to concede that the shock of finding corruption is nothing to worry about, that it only takes dogged detective work in which to make it alright and that the final act of the story is the best get out clause. In such moments the urge to ask television producers and makers to show a harder line is one that swells up and gets cut off in its prime.
White Lioness might not seem to be all that it can be but it does roar in a delight of well adapted stories to surely come.
Ian D. Hall