Roseanna - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Roseanna - 

I saw this series recommended in a crime blog I subscribe to, The Rap Sheet. where I get a lot of good information about TV and film and ideas for reading material covering the crime genre. The series was described as one of the best crime series ever written. Well I had to take a look!


Have to say I did enjoy this book, Roseanna, the first in the Martin Beck series, but it's not exactly easy to say why. The story was not particularly riveting and the tone and mood were rather bleak. However the writing was clear and succinct, the characters were interesting and I liked the dogged approach of Martin Beck, the Stockholm detective and main character.


The authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were both Swedish journalists and communists; their books were apparently intended to be an assault on Swedish society.  The Sweden they describe in the novels isn't what my image of Sweden is like however I didn't feel that it affected my interest in the novels. 


The novels are set in the sixties, in the days before the police had access to the luxuries of our current forensic science and new technology. No genetic fingerprinting, no mobile phones and computers were in their infancy. Here we see basic policing methods and procedures. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I liked the book, it seemed real. Perhaps we've become sated with the CSI type programmes and action films and need to get back to this type of crime novel and programme. Apart from the low technology, the novels haven't dated that much, well mind you I noticed they did do a lot of smoking! 


What I particularly like is that in each of the books I've read so far, there has been a really interesting review which I have found very useful. I like seeing whether my impressions match other people's and maybe find something I've missed. 


I've read the next two books in the series, The Man Who Went Up in Smoke and The Man on the Balcony and I have to say I'm really enjoying them. I'm getting to know the characters now as a little more about them is revealed in each book. The books are getting darker and have something of the bleakness of the Wallander novels but I have to say I can't put the Martin Beck books down once I pick them up. 


Next in the series to read is The Laughing Policeman which I understand was made into a film in 1973 starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern. Apparently they moved the location to San Francisco for some reason. Not sure how that would work but I'll keep a look out for it!


I started this post way back in March this year! However I've been very poor at blogging in recent months but I have been reading and knitting a lot and that's my excuse. Well I've sadly reached the end of the books in this series that I can read as the library just doesn't have any more. It's so disappointing but I'll keep a lookout in the charity shops as I did like this series.  If you haven't come across this series and you like crime/police/detective stories they are well worth reading. 


I'm disappointed but never mind I moved onto Michael Dibdin's Zen series prompted by the telly adaptations which I really enjoyed and posted about.  They have definitely filled the gap!

Watching the Detectives

I like the telly!

Well I did identify it as one of my guilty pleasures a little while back. I try not to watch daytime telly too much as I don’t get anything done. However during the daytime now that Wanted Down Under has finished, I really only watch Diagnosis Murder. Yes I know it’s a bit lightweight in the drama stakes and it’s often corny, but I love it. So now I’m listening to the radio in the morning, Radio 2 of course!

When I started to think about my telly watching, I realised that I mainly watch comedy and crime dramas as I don’t like the reality and talent type of programmes and I’m not into the soaps. There’s not a lot of decent comedy around so it’s mainly crime drama that I watch now.

What am I watching in the crime drama stakes at night? Well I’ve been watching Lewis, Inspector Morse’s old sidekick. It’s not quite in the same league as Morse however it's good but sadly it’s finished. Well there were only six, two hour episodes. I do like the two hour programme format that they introduced with Inspector Morse, they get more story into it and you don’t feel they’re cramming everything in to the last five minutes.

I’m also watching the new series of The Number One Detective Agency I posted about recently. I do love it. The scenery is great, the music is lovely and the characters are just wonderful.

Ashes to Ashes is back again thank goodness. It’s not as gripping as Life on Mars, but it’s good and funny too.

When I think back over the years there have been so many good TV crime drama series. The first one I remember was Dixon of Dock Green with the lovely Jack Warner as Sergeant Dixon. He was everybody’s idea of a what a British bobby should be like, even though he was well over retirement age when he made the series. I think it was that one that got me hooked on crime dramas!

Over the years there have been dozens I’ve enjoyed, some I never could take to and a few that I’ve loved. At Easter ITV3 had a programme on the Top Cops where you voted online for your favourite TV Cop Show. Well that’s what it said and although I missed the voting for the top fifty, I thought I’d get to see some of my favourites I haven’t seen in years. Well I watched for three hours and guess what? I didn’t get to see some of my favourites! I won't bore you with the whole fifty, only the top ten. Here they are:

10 - The Sweeney with Jack Regan and George Carter from the Flying Squad who were just about as bad as the villains they were chasing, rough and tough. Not one of my favourites.

9 - Rebus – the alcoholic troubled and tormented cop. Again not one I took to.
8 - Sherlock Holmes - He was played by over 100 actors but most popular has been Jeremy Brett. Still great to watch after al these years.

7 - Foyle’s War with Christopher Foyle the gentle, quiet and unassuming detective during second world war. One of my all time favourites and they're bringing him back for another series.

6 - Inspector Frost – A crumpled, dishevelled character who irritates everyone especially his boss, Superintendent Mullett. I love the humour and the real feel to this series.
5 - Inspector Morse – This has got to be the most intelligent and classy TV detective series ever made and in the wonderful setting of Oxford. I didn't take to it at first but I can watch it now over and over again now, and I do. First class TV!
4 - Midsomer Murders – Once described as Miss Marple on acid! This series makes rural England more dangerous than downtown Basra! However very easy viewing.
3 - Poirot – I love David Suchet as Poirot, he's amazing. It's a wonderfully produced series with beautiful clothes, wonderful touches of humour, brilliant actors and lovely thirties settings.
2 - Life on Mars – Oh this was one you couldn’t miss! You had to see whether Sam Tyler, the modern politically correct cop came out of his coma and got back to the 21st Century after an accident had sent him back to the perils of seventies policing. Brilliant and compulsive viewing.
1- The Professionals – Bodie and Doyle working for CI5 in an action packed programme full of car chases, fights and guns in the seventies. Not one I felt a great liking for and I find it hard to believe that this was the number one in the vote. In fact I find it impossible.

No I don't believe this was a fair ballot, not because The Professionals came out on top. It's because the fifty were selected for you and you could only vote for those that somebody at ITV had selected. What a swizz!

You probably noticed that all the top ten were British programmes, well there were lots of American ones in the top fifty such as Kojak, Magnum and Columbo. However I can tell you that some of my favourites didn't make the top fifty. Why? Because they were not included in the list!

Whatever happened to Harry O for goodness sake? I loved this series. Probably the best American TV detective series ever made. So which prize pratt at ITV 3 didn't include him?

Oh and what about The Rockford Files? Yes I know his character wasn't as well drawn as Harry O but it was great viewing and there were nice touches of humour.

Monk wasn't in the list, nor was Cannon, Due South and neither was the wonderful Newcastle based 55 Degrees North. So I think it’s time for me to whack off an email to ITV 3 to tell them what I think about their so called Top Fifty cop shows.

In the meantime I think I might take a nostalgia trip and do a few postings on my favourite detective shows. Watch this space!


Credit: Harry O photo front cover of The High Cost of Living - Lee Hayes