See a couple of photos here

Just wanted to check in and say hello - I was at the event last night. Ken was adorable and sweet, as he always is. He had on the same outfit that he wore on Craig Ferguson last night. I've seen Ken in person before, and those that haven't should know that the camera really does add ten pounds to the man. I've always loved his soft Irish face, but it looks slimmer in person, along with the rest of him. He also seems taller in person, unlike most celebs who are shorter in the flesh. The screening room was small, with 50 attendees, tops; not a bad seat in the house, so I got quite close to our Ken. I have to say that the man's eyes literally twinkle when he's being cute or saucy (which was often last night). A very very yummy man, but you knew that.

They screened the entire episode of "One Step Behind"; most of the audience didn't notice Ken slip in right before it started. He sat in the back row, seemingly to gauge the audience's reaction to the show. Both the moderator (Brian Lowry) and Masterpiece Theater executive producer (Rebecca Eaton) joked that they were mainly involved with the project and event because of crushes on Branagh (Eaton has apparently had a crush on him for 20 years, and Lowry's wife has a 'serious infatuation'). They both kept their speeches short; as Eaton said, "We know whom you've really come to see."

After the screening, Ken was introduced to great applause and proceeded to answer questions for almost 30 minutes (which I'm pretty sure was longer than planned). He talked about Sweden (the weather, the dreadful winters, the depression rates and 'Scandinavian melancholy'). He spoke of how he met Henning Mankell, which was really funny - they took a bathroom break at the same time during an Ingmar Bergman festival in Sweden (Mankell is married to Bergman's daughter). They were next to each other at the urinals and wound up chatting. "I didn't shake his hand," said Ken, "for reasons that I need not go into." The crowd howled. He told us that before he'd ever met Mankell or considered adapting Wallander for the screen, he'd finished all nine Wallander books in an unbelievable six week period. "I am," he explained, "an absolutely voracious reader."

An audience member asked him why the police station was so sparse, compared to the clutter that you so often see in British cop dramas. Ken admitted that the design was "A bit Ikea," and when the audience laughed, he quickly put his hands up (you know the way he does that - palms out, like he's going for a double hi-five?) and said "But I don't mean to disparage!" He said that they had purposely exaggerated a specific style that does exist in Sweden - long, clean lines and only essential furniture with minimal clutter.

Ken does seem to enjoy the Swedish landscape, particularly how you can take long drives through the countryside and see very few people, or a few isolated houses. He mentioned the beginning shots of "Sidetracked" - "You're looking at a rape field, bright yellow, below an amazing blue sky; you feel that you are literally inside the Swedish flag. Then this is punctuated by a shocking act of violence."

When Ken was asked (by a Swedish woman) how he related to the character of Wallander, Ken replied that he really enjoyed how the man could just "be", open and with raw feelings. He said, "One thing I really didn't want to do was have him walk into a crime scene and go, 'Okay, what have we got?' I said 'Please, let us never use that line.'" Ken seemed to really enjoy the fact that this man, after years and years of watching people be brutal to each other, "still needed to ask, 'Why?'" Ken enjoyed that Wallander could still be sensitive, as opposed to "the British stiff upper lip, let's get on with it kind of thing." He mentioned the scene in "One Step Behind" when Wallander falls asleep in the same spot on the couch where his colleague was shot. "That's kind of creepy," said Ken, "but not for [Wallander]."

Jokes were made about how the town of Ystad has too many murders for the population to survive. Ken laughed and likened the high murder rate in "Wallander" to one of his favorite shows, "Midsomer Murders" - "It features this tiny village where so many bad things happen that there won't be any people left before long."

He talked about "Conspiracy"; as many fans probably already know, he got very little sleep during the filming of that movie because he found Heydrich to be so disturbing. "I understood that I was making an important work," he said, "but I did not enjoy it." He mentioned the copious use of 'gallows humor' that the cast used to get through the long days. "I realized," he said seriously, "that I was playing a man with no soul."

Interestingly, Ken only got quiet when he was receiving praise. He was congratulated on his recent BAFTA win, of course; the event itself was partially sponsored by BAFTA LA. An older lady stood up and thanked him for being there, saying "Everything you have ever done is absolutely superb." "Thank you," Ken said, and as the crowd clapped, he added a faint "You are too kind," almost under his breath.

My favorite moment came when Lowry asked Ken whether he'd taken a moment to consider using a Swedish accent for Wallander. "Oh yes," Ken laughed. "But literally a moment. I sounded like the Swedish chef from the Muppets." The idea was quickly dropped. You can see Ken do his funny accent on last night's Ferguson, which is up on YouTube.

Those are the highlights that I can remember - feel free to reprint on the blog if you'd like. I thought other Ken-Friends, who unfortunately had to miss this special event, would like to know how it went. Our man was as he always is - charming, intelligent, funny, kind. He even spent a few minutes after the Q+A signing autographs and posing for pictures (but unfortunately ducked out before I could work my way through the throng). Pictures are up on WireImage.