Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Jeany Spark, Clive Wood, Kitty Peterkin, Harry Hadden-Paton, Terrance Hardiman, Barnaby Kay, Karen Gledhill, Joe Claflin, Cecile Anckarsvard, Richard McCabe, Marie Critchley, Glenn Doherty, Hugh Mitchell, Thomas Coombes, Felicia Womack, Miranda Pleasence, John Lightbody, Boel Larsson, Ann Bell, Marlene Sidaway, Mia Goth, Robin Gott.
There is a demon that stalks all of us, it will eventually claim us all at one time or another and as it sits waiting patiently for us to succumb, the only question worth asking is what form will it take?
The demon is something that is very much on the mind of Kurt Wallander, especially as it is one that is so close to home and one that can be triggered at any moment; getting into fights with a motorcycle gang is not going to improve matters and neither is the finding of a woman’s unattended corpse in the Swedish fields surrounding a nursing home.
A Lesson in Love is one perhaps that we should all heed, that we should take notice of and remember, for love is binding, soft and tender, frightening and prone to leaving us feeling lost, emotionally distraught and forever in a wilderness. It is the moment in which it can make us forget everything bad, everything that life can throw at us and it can also make us forget ourselves. It can also damage us and make us believe that the world has forgotten us completely.
The episode leads the viewer into the world of bitter disputes and dangerous games played with people who have little time for the law. Whilst it is easy to use motorcycle gangs as a precursor, and a set of people that for the vast majority of time are actually among the most caring in society, the point is taken and used to absolute effect and in Clive Wood’s performance as the leader of the leather clad gang, the tension between the outsiders and the law is revved up to a place in which there are no winners and only loss is the place in which to suffer.
After the much debated opening episode of the last series, White Lioness, A Lesson in Love puts Wallander back on track, the gentleness of the man as he runs from his own demons is to be explored further no doubt but like the lion in the African sun, that demon, once it gets its teeth into you, is never going to be shook off.
Ian D. Hall