(For a review of series two Wallander - showing in January 2010 - go to: The welcome return of Wallander).
The ring tone of Kurt Wallander's mobile phone - as portrayed in the recently broadcast BBC dramatisation of Henning Mankell's books - is shrill, insistent, impossible to ignore and just a little bit hypnotic.
As such the phone represents the pull of the job on Wallander's life: it is always on; liable to go off at any second; it has an unbreakable hold on him.
The phone is a tiny detail. But that detail is rich, well-observed and illustrative of the high production values and careful attention to detail in this superb dramatisation.
Of course the heart of the programme is the headlined star himself, Wallander - given a far more elevated billing than Mankell ever handed his creation. For the programme to be a success, a command performance in the lead role was required. Branagh delivered in spades and if there is any justice in the world he will be up and down from his velvet seat with great regularity when the television gong season begins.
Branagh utterly dominated the screen, making it all but impossible to look away. His unshaven face, stooped gait, and tired red eyes held a raging storm of conflicting emotion as well as an uplifting humanity. It was a moving, mesmeric performance, understated and yet dramatic, absolutely as good as anything I have ever seen on the small screen.
The canvas on which Branagh was painted was equally dramatic. There is a quality of light and space in Scandinavian countries in the summer that is quite different to anything I have experienced elsewhere. It is captured exquisitely by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. But despite the light and the space Wallander also captures that essential quality of Nordic gloom. It is quite something to pull this off.
And finally there are Mankell's stories: compelling, complex, convicing. I only ever read one, about five years. And I found it dark and depressing, certainly enough not to return. But I can't help feel I made a mistake, and that Branagh has shown me the error of my ways. I will read more.
But for now it is enough that the BBC has shown that television can still be a powerful medium for drama, and that the British have not fully ceded this ground to the Americans making the Wire and other great shows. Let's hope for more.