Podcasts from Previous Events

I have now posted podcasts from the first meetings in the Nordic Noir Book Club on the website and this blog (see the pages “Shadows in the Snow” and “Secrets of the Ash” at the top of the blog page). We have recorded the talks and following discussions with Håkan Nesser, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Francis Hopkinson and Richard Wall, and hope many more than the fortunate book club members who could make it to London will now be able to enjoy the wonderful talks we have had so far. Please leave comments on the events and podcast on the relevant pages.

Francis Hopkinson, producer of the UK Wallander, added to 3/2 book club meeting

The coming Nordic Noir book club event (Shadows in the Snow) on 3 February has added Francis Hopkinson to the bill also featuring Håkan Nesser.
Francis Hopkinson of Left Bank Pictures will be joining us to discuss the UK adaptation of Henning Mankell’s Wallander, starring Kenneth Brannagh. As executive producer of the series, Hopkinson was a key figure in the decision-making processes behind the programmes. He will share his unique overview of the programmes with us, taking us all the way from the inspiration for the series to the finishing touches, and will join our discussion of imagery of Sweden in crime fiction.
Left Bank Pictures is an independent television and film production company founded in July 2007 by Andy Harries, Marigo Kehoe and Francis Hopkinson. Hopkinson’s production credits include a range of high-profile drama series.
http://www.leftbankpictures.co.uk/television/wallander/series-2.html

There are still tickets available – buy your tickets online now, or sign up for the event by emailing nordicnoir@ucl.ac.uk.

Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction (BBC documentary)

Monday, 20 December @ 9pm on BBC4:

Nordic Noir on BBC4

From the BBC: “Draw the curtains and dim the lights for a chilling trip north for a documentary which investigates the success of Scandinavian crime fiction and why it exerts such a powerful hold on our imagination. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a literary blockbuster that has introduced millions of readers to the phenomenon that is Scandinavian crime fiction – yet author Stieg Larsson spent his life in the shadows and didn’t live to see any of his books published. It is one of the many mysteries the programme investigates as it travels to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland in search of the genre’s most acclaimed writers and memorable characters. It also looks at Henning Mankell’s brooding Wallander series, with actor Krister Henriksson describing the challenge of bringing the character to the screen, and it asks why so many stories have a political subtext. The programme finds out how Stieg Larsson based the bestselling Millennium trilogy on his work as an investigative journalist and reveals the unlikely source of inspiration for his most striking character, Lisbeth Salander. There are also segments on Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian rock star-turned-writer tipped to inherit Larsson’s mantle, and Karin Fossum, an author whose personal experience of murder has had a profound effect on her writing.” Visit the programme website here. This documentary also  features Dr Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (UCL Scandinavian Studies)