Quintin Jardine's blog

I finished reading a book last night, and now I’m trying to recall if I’ve ever enjoyed a debut crime novel more that I liked ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling‘ by Robert Galbraith. I don’t believe I have. I predict that Mr Galbraith has a big future as a mystery writer, if he isn’t taken up by other interests.

If you don’t know who Robert Galbraith is, look her up!

Back in Spain, where the ex-pat community is in a state of fear and foreboding over the imminent switch of FreeSat broadcasting to a new satellite with a  smaller footprint. There’s been a lot of misinformation, much of it circulated, it is said, by people with an interest in selling streaming devices which are probably illegal and probably don’t work, but it does seem that dark skies are looming.

That’s FreeSat, but what about Sky? It’s estimated, possibly conservatively, that there are a million ex-pat subscribers to its channels, each one paying five hundred quid a year or more through UK proxies. That raises an interesting question. Will Newscorp be prepared to watch an annual income stream of half a billion pounds vanish from its coffers? Let’s wait and see.

What I find hard to understand is why, in modern Europe, where every EU citizen can cross every EU border, a television signal may not.

Patterson Hood – Killers and Stars

You couldn’t make it up. A chauffeur-driven scooter?!?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10564698/Francois-Hollande-faces-personal-and-political-crisis-as-claims-of-affair-with-actress-revealed.html

http://www.scottishreview.net/?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8427-310122-Two+useful+lives+are+being+unjustly+ruined

Does anyone know how to get SAGA (AKA in our house as Sex And Games for the Aged) to leave you alone? For many years they have been bombarding me with unwanted mail. Although it goes straight into  the shredder and it’s starting to wear the damn thing out, they never seem to get the point..

January 2 is a milestone day for me, and for Bob Skinner. Pray for the Dying, his 23rd tale, is published in paperback format. Click on the link to http://www.campbellreadbooks.com to order a signed copy.

A nice surprise on Twitter, from Hive. Cheers, people.

http://www.hive.co.uk/author-of-the-month-january-2014-quintin-jardine?utm_content=buffer51a04&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

To all our family, friends, readers, blog visitors, indeed to every person of goodwill, Eileen and I extend our best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year.

I have to give all credit to Lee Child. He has the priceless gift of keeping the reader engaged, and that’s what it’s all about. I’m halfway through the new Reacher, and last night I only put it down because I couldn’t focus on the page any longer.

And I never thought of Tom Cruise; not once.

To one and all, the merriest of Christmases!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s213/ripper-street/news/a537546/ripper-street-to-get-third-series-as-part-of-co-production-deal.html

Watch this space.

There is now a Facebook petition to save ‘Ripper Street‘ from the BBC’s ill-considered and indefensible axe. Like and share, please.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Petition-for-Series-3-of-Ripper-Street/769738846373840?fref=ts

I read at the weekend that 92% of Radio Times readers are opposed to the axing of ‘Ripper Street‘. The decision has been taken on the ground that the series doesn’t attract enough viewers, yet it still has two episodes to run. If those audience figures were to double for tonight’s and next week’s episodes wouldn’t the decision-makers at New BroadcastingHouse look more than a little silly? Tonight is an opportunity for fans of the series to fight back. Let’s spread the word on Twitter.

To keep the debate alive, I have a question for those in charge at the BBC. Given the millions of people who now watch telly through devices that allow them to watch one programme while recording another to be watched later, just how accurate are those viewing figures?

In common with my correspondent George (see below) I’ve just learned that Ripper Street is being canned by the BBC, because of poor ratings. And I am having a Howard Beale moment.

Does that mean that everything our hugely expensive public service broadcaster does with its annual taxpayer-funded budget of £5 billion, including its much-trumpeted ‘Original British Drama’,  is being measured against brain-dead pap like I’m A Celebrity Get me Out of Here? Seems so.

Every household in Britain contributes £145 a year towards the BBC, in  the expectation of quality programming. Nobody is forced to watch Jungle Jim on a Sunday evening, yet those who are daft enough to make that choice seem to have been given a right of veto over those of us who prefer entertainment that requires even a small degree of thought. It’s not right, and it can’t be allowed to stand.

Outstanding Ripper Street episode last night, marred only by the casting of Paul Kaye, the guy from  those awful Victor Chandler ads, as Gabriel Cain, the crazed villain. All the way through I waited for him to ask for odds on Sergeant Drake surviving to next week.

It’s December and so QJ’s Mo-vember moustache is no more, and my Just Giving page is closed. Thanks to everyone who sponsored my whiskers, and contributed a nice sum to Marie Curie.

I might have kept them for a few weeks longer, but last Friday someone told me that I looked like Hulk Hogan.