The Bridge

As much as I love Golden Age mysteries and 1950s thrillers, they have to be considered in the zeitgeist of the times. The shocking secrets hidden by murderers and their victims are no longer shocking. The motives that women concealed from men and vice versa were once the stuff of great mysteries. Murderous impulses could […]

Morse got there. Vera did too, and Wallender and everyone from Lord Peter Whimsey to the wonderfully eccentric Mrs Bradley – they all ended up as TV series. You can’t move without falling over Sherlocks, and even Christie’s boring Tuppences had their own show. The question I get asked on a daily basis is ‘Why […]

It’s tough watching TV when you know the tricks other writers use to grab your attention. It makes ‘Game of Thrones’ unwatchable, waiting for the next violent or sexual confrontation beat to come up with the regularity of a metronome, but at least it can be viewed as trashy fun. ‘The Following’, in which a […]

Countries like Iceland have the highest literary rate in the world (it’s pegged at 100%, while 8% of British adults are functionally illiterate and according to US Dept Education National Institute of Literacy statistics 32 million US adults can’t read). So it’s hardly surprising that Nordic literature, television and films should have finally come to […]

I rarely watch TV except in box-set binges, although I made a huge effort to watch ‘The Killing’, which I thought was fairly boring and overly drawn-out. I’m not very good with TV cop shows, and always forget who’s who. However, I fell in love with ‘The Bridge’. I know there are half a dozen […]