SIDETRACKED opens with a burst of yellow. A teenage girl runs through a rapeseed field in full bloom, glowing gold beneath a huge Scandinavian sky. The serene scene, from the first of the BBC's adaptations of the hugely successful Kurt Wallander novels, quickly takes a dark turn, but it's one that flaunts the elemental beauty of Skåne province in southern Sweden.

The films star Kenneth Branagh as the saturnine Swedish detective. Branagh, a Wallander fan, and his crew knew what they were doing when they chose to shoot their three films exactly where Henning Mankell set his novels - the area around Ystad, a pretty town on the windswept Baltic coast, 60km (40 miles) southeast of Malmö.

What Oxford was to Inspector Morse, Ystad is to Kurt Wallander, or Inspector Norse, as his growing army of British fans refers to him.

The curmudgeonly sleuths are so similar that the BBC chose to differentiate their Wallander by doing away with his penchant for classical music. But he remains grumpy, middle-aged, bibulous, with a broken marriage - and inextricably linked to his violent home town.

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During the course of Mankell's eight Wallander novels, which were published between 1991 and 1998 and have sold more than 25 million copies, the fictional Ystad endured more than 100 gruesome killings.

The real one has a more reassuring murder rate: only one in the past seven years. But Wallander's paunchy shadow is never far away. Wander down Ystad's cobbled streets and you're almost as likely to chance on a film crew as you are a colourful half-timbered house or a 13th-century Franciscan monastery.

“We are quite used to it now,” says Anna Maris, project manager of Cineteket, “an experience centre for film”, whose exhibits include sets from the Swedish Wallander productions.

“Since 2004, it's been more or less constant Wallander,” Maris says. Five actors have played him in more than 20 films - it's like James Bond. Rolf Lassgård is the Sean Connery.” Cineteket (www.cineteket.se) is next to Ystad Studios, an impressive facility that, on the back of the series, has produced a stream of films including the award-winning Mother of Mine, transforming Ystad into one of Sweden's film-making centres.

The inhabitants of the town are proud of its new celebrity: an estimated 15 per cent of its population of 17,000 has appeared as extras in a Wallander production, and many have also benefited from the influx of tourists from Sweden, the rest of Scandinavia and Germany, where Wallander is huge. “That anti-hero thing appeals very much to the Germans,” Maris says.

Several tours have sprung up, catering for various levels of Wallander obsession: “the general tourist who has seen the films and wants to know a bit more, Wallander nerds with an unhealthy interest, and discerning cultural tourists” who pretend to come solely for the scenery and the food and are “almost embarrassed” about liking crime novels.

The latter group, apparently, also includes a fair few Brits, and Ystad is bracing itself for that number to skyrocket when Branagh's Wallander makes his debut at the end of this month. British fans will be able to make a pilgrimage to their hero's bachelor flat on Mariagatan, munch on mountainous Wallander cakes at his favourite café, Fridolfs Konditori, or peek inside the glass-fronted police station, which is actually the town's pool. The locals are bemused by the latter choice; the Swedish version uses Ystad's gabled railway station, a more atmospheric site, for Wallander's HQ.

The BBC's decision to film in Sweden also introduced other dilemmas: should Wallander drive on the left or right? (Right.) Should signs be in Swedish or English? (Swedish.) Should the protagonist's surname be pronounced “VaLANder”, as the Swedes do, or “WOLLender”, as we Brits mangle it? (The latter, sadly.)

But the Swedes find the British version to be generally respectful. A scene in which Branagh eats outside on a midsummer evening, surrounded by wildflowers, scored particularly well for authenticity.

With its mesmeric light and vast horizons, the area, particularly Österlen to the east, is a haven for artists: the annual art fair in March is the most important in Scandinavia. Menkell, who owns a farmhouse near by, even decided to make Wallander's fictional father an obsessive painter. Step on to Ystad's sweeping, 2km-long beach and you can see why Wallander Sr paints the same stark landscapes again and again.

Farther inland is a sandskogen (sand forest), planted to shield Ystad from the sand blown in from the beach and studded with wooden summer cottages, one of which doubles as the home of a key character in the BBC production. Branagh and his crew also filmed at one of the dozens of country houses in the area. Several have been converted into high-end restaurants, serving deft combinations of traditional and modern food. Seasonal delicacies include asparagus, crayfish and goose-blood soup.

Tasty local cuisine can also be had at Vendel, the Österlen branch of the Swedish chef Anders Vendel's empire. Fortified by an array of tasty breads and excellent pumpkin and salmon soup, you can climb to the top of the Kåseberga headland, home to the Ales stones. At least 1,400 years old and arranged in the shape of a boat, they are Sweden's answer to Stonehenge, but with a much better view - on a good day you can see the Danish island of Bornholm.

Indeed, Ystad benefits from its proximity to Denmark. Many visitors fly to Copenhagen to the northwest and make their way by train or road across the strait dividing the Danish island of Zealand and the province of Skåne, which have been linked by the world's longest border-crossing bridge since 2000.

The journey from Copenhagen to Ystad takes about 90 minutes, but you can break it up by stopping off in Malmö. Sweden's third city has great seafood restaurants, a regenerated Western Harbour and significantly cheaper shopping than other Scandinavian cities - many Danes make regular trips to blow their kroner.

But if you're a Wallander fan, and value a unique blend of sleepy civility and bleak splendour, then head straight to Ystad. Just remember that in this town the doors open outwards, a detail that scuppered the BBC crew when they were shooting a scene in which the police kick one in. “What can we do?” wondered a British crew member. “We tend to knock first,” answered his Swedish colleague.

NEED TO KNOW

Getting there Scandinavian Airlines (0871 5212772, www.flysas.co.uk) flies to Copenhagen from Heathrow and London City airports from £135 return. Rail Europe (0844 8484070, www.raileurope.co.uk) has return fares from Copenhagen to Malmö from £22.

Staying Anno 1793 Sekelgården Hotel (00 46 411 73900, www. sekelgarden.se) in Ystad has double rooms with breakfast from about £67. It is the hotel, Wallander experts will recall, where the witness in The Fifth Woman stayed. The Hilton Malmö City (00 46 40 693 4700, www.hilton.com) has double rooms from £96, including breakfast.

Further information www.ystad.se; www.skane.com; www.visitsweden.com

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