You wouldn’t think the story of a child murderer would lend itself to comedy, but this Austrian television production, shot on location in wintry Vienna, sprouts some dark humour. It also has the cheerful banality of a TV police procedural. Do all police eat unhealthy food? An inspector played by Sarah Viktoria Frick wins sympathy […]
1983
I didn’t know they made good TV shows in Poland. I didn’t know they made any TV shows at all. . This dystopian thriller is set in an alternative 2003. Poland is subject to totalitarian rule ever since a terror attack twenty years earlier which led to the installing of a dictatorial regime. A young […]
Wallander, which one is your favourite?
Henning Mankell, novelist extraordinaire I first found Henning Mankell through his crime fiction featuring the melancholy Swedish sleuth Kurt Wallander. That’s understandable, those novels have been translated into more than 40 languages and have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. I was thrilled by the film adaptations and the TV series too. The landscape […]
Tacky TV
So I watched the pilot of Reign. After the first 10 minutes of anachronistic folly, I stopped laughing and became, instead, quite cross. Yes, I watched the pilot and the first episode but one can only take so much torture. I’ll have to give it an award for Worst Historical Drama Ever. Was it worse […]
Jane Austen, Detective
One of the great pleasures of my life has been introducing Jane Austen to my children. Now here’s a side of Jane that I’m going to introduce to you. Who would have thought it? Jane Austen discovering clues, sifting through evidence, unravelling nefarious plots and solving grisly murders. But, when you consider it, the same […]
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Sumerian Slave!
Do you ever get the urge to yell “You have too many things!” to your grandchildren? It’s not worth giving way to such an urge. They won’t know what you’re talking about. They brush aside your posturing and ask for some impossible thing that they want you to get, now. It’s just pointless telling them […]
Counting Kisses – A Book for Nannas
How many kisses does a tired baby get? How many kisses does it take to say goodnight? In this lovely little Kiss and Read book, you have the perfect goodnight story for your little one. Perfect for Nannas! A fussy baby receives “ten little kisses on teeny tiny toes/nine laughing kisses on busy, wriggly feet/eight […]
