Wallander firm to make two more detective dramas
Left Bank Pictures signs deals for Aurelio Zen mysteries with BBC1 and Inspector Banks drama with ITV1
Leigh Holmwood writing in the guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 August 2009

Wallander: has been a ratings and critical hit. Photograph: BBC

The production company behind drama Wallander hopes to replicate the success of the Swedish detective by launching two new television detectives on BBC1 and ITV1.
Left Bank Pictures, run by The Queen producer Andy Harries, has had scripts commissioned for three Aurelio Zen mysteries, written by the late Michael Dibden, for BBC1 and one Inspector Banks drama, written by Peter Robinson, for ITV1.
The Zen mysteries are set in Italy and feature a middle-aged detective who in the early novels lives with his mother in a Rome apartment. They are being adapted into feature-length dramas for BBC1 through BBC Scotland.
Ratking is being adapted by Peter Berry, Vendetta by Simon Burke and Dead Lagoon by Patrick Harbinson.
Robinson's 2002 novel Aftermath – one of 16 Inspector Banks mysteries – is being adapted by Robert Murphy for transmission next year.
The film will feature detective chief inspector Alan Banks, who lives in the Yorkshire town of Eastvale. Divorced with two children, he works from the local police station overlooking the town's busy market square.
It is hoped the two detective mysteries could become long-running franchises.

More at the Guardian online.