Quintin Jardine's blog

Nine years ago, my step-son’s birthday party took place in a garden in St Marti d’Empuries. There was a band, a trio who sang Flamenco, led by a girl with a voice like a bell.  She’s a solo artist now. Her name is Silvia Perez Cruz. Check her out, folks.

I don’t watch a lot of daytime TV. Most of it is too cheap and cheerful to hold my attention for long, but there are a couple of exceptions. One is Bargain Hunt, on BBC1. I rarely watch it all the way through, usually tuning in for the business end when the two teams, Reds and Blues, find out how just sharp their three buys at antique fairs have actually been, when they’re sold at auction.

Regular viewers will know that break even is a good result; somewhere in the world there will be an anorak who could tell you what the average score actually is, but my guess is that it would be in double figures and would have a minus in front of it. But analyse it more deeply, to produce stats for each of the auctioneers who feature regularly and that would vary. For there is one who stands out head and shoulders from the rest . . . metaphorically, for she’s not very tall.

Those contestants who are lucky enough to have their choices sold by Anita Manning, at Great Western Auctions in Glasgow, are on a winner from the off. I can’t remember a show where Anita didn’t return a profit for the teams on the majority of items, and in one I watched last week, she was in the plus column with eight items out of eight. I need to move on some paintings soon to create some wall space. I know where they’re going.

This morning I downloaded a bill from BT. On reviewing it, I saw that my direct debit payment for May had not been collected. I wasn’t sure whether this was BT’s fault or my banks, and so to check, i used the BT live chat system. The following is the text of the discussion.

My on-line question: ‘I’m looking at my latest bill which has led me to review my bank account. I note that my monthly direct debit  to BT for May has not been collected. Who’s at fault here, you or my bank?’

‘Mohd Khalid: Hello. I’m Mohd Khalid. Thanks for that information, I’ll check it and get back to you in a moment.
 Mohd Khalid: Hi Quintin
 Quintin Jardine: Yes
 Mohd Khalid: Quintin once the bill is generated it will take 14 days to be taken from the bank account.
 Quintin Jardine: I know that. My point is that last month’s bill  has not been collected and  is showing as unpaid on the bill I’ve just downloaded. I don’t like this and I want to know why it has happened.
 Mohd Khalid: Quintin have you paid your annual line rental saver amount?
 Quintin Jardine: Yes, on April 26.
 Mohd Khalid: Quintin your bill amount was take from your line rental saver and it will be carried forward to your next bill
 Quintin Jardine: I do not understand that. My line rental saver has nothing to do with my monthly bill. Simple question. Did you present a direct debit at the beginning of May?
 Mohd Khalid: Quintin, when ever you make a line rental saver payment , that months direct debit is not take from the bank account, its take from your line rental saver and later it is carried forward to you future bills and once you receive your next bill it will be very clear to you.
 Quintin Jardine: If last month’s payment is taken from my line rental saver account, why is it showing as unpaid on the bill I’ve just downloaded?
 Mohd Khalid: The bill was generated on 23 rd however you made payment of line rental saver on 26th if you make line rental saver within 14 days of bill generated, it will be take from your line rental saver and, prior to that you had an amount of 18.72 has been taken from the line rental saver, once you receive your next bill it will be very clear, Quintin
 Quintin Jardine: Mohd, it will not be clear. It will never be clear. It is idiotic, but I accept that BT is the idiot, not you. Thanks for your attempts to help.’

Watched the end of Scott and Bailey last night, the best series yet, IMO. I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last. And yet . . .

I read something a few days ago which argued that it is the most sexist show on current television. The writer may have a point, for  there isn’t a single male in the series who isn’t either a murderer, an adulterer, a cuckold, or an idiot, with the exception of the one black character in the show, who seems to be the token male good guy, and maybe also the new sergeant, but he hasn’t been around long enough to reveal his character flaws. 

The thing that saves it for me is the fact that it doesn’t  spare its women either. Janet’s marriage broke up, thanks to her having it away with a colleague. Rachel’s went the same way for the same reason, plus she appears to be a functioning alcoholic. Gill, the DCI, mate one minute and martinet the next, has a cop ex-husband around too, with an eye for the female officers. And then there’s Rachel’s mother, of whom the less said the better. Even the ultimate villain in  the current series was female, Helen, played by the magnificent Nicola Walker. It’s as well she was killed off in the end; too much competition for the big three.

Whatever, roll on next year.

One good thing about the end of the football season. We’ll get rid of that appalling little Italian bastard from the Ladbrokes ads.

The boss and I enjoyed an excellent Saturday evening, dining at La Terrassa d’Empuries, in the village of Sant Marti, yards from where Primavera’s house would be, if it existed. We know all the restaurants there and visit them by rotation. Last Saturday it was L’Esculapi, next Saturday ….. We’ll see, guys.

It’s been an interesting journey, and not the easiest I’ve ever undertaken, but Skinner 24 is finished, edited, spell-checked and ready for transmission to Headline,when I’m good and ready.

It doesn’t matter how many books I’ve completed, (as it happens, S24 brings the total to 40) I always feel the same wave of relief when it’s done and dusted, just as I feel the same uncertainty whenever I switch on the computer to begin another. The day I take the gift for granted, and stop trying to do better next time, that will be the day I lose it. So far I seem to be pleasing more people than I’m upsetting, (even allowing for the guy who wrote to me today and after beginning by admitting that he wasn’t very far into Funeral Note, proceeded to tell me what was wrong with it) and that gives me great satisfaction.

What’s next? A few weeks’ R&R, then I’m on the road in Central Scotland for the launch of Pray for the Dying. Hopefully, the latest Skinner won’t get in the way , and I’ll be able to speak sensibly about it in Biggar, Edinburgh, Haddington, Glasgow and Newton Mearns. One thing I’ll tell you now, PftD will introduce you two a new detective pairing, of whom I have great hopes.

This morning an 81-year-old man was arrested in Wilmslow on suspicion of raping an under-age girl, in 1967. He hasn’t been charged as yet, just hauled in for questioning. The story would probably have gone no further than the Manchester Evening News, but for one thing. The man involved has been named as Bill Roache, who has played Ken Barlow in Coronation Street for 53 years and as such has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest serving soap actor.

If Mr Roache is eventually charged and convicted, then I don’t care how ‘historic’ the allegation is, he deserves to feel the weight of justice, and I have no pity for him. But if he is not, if he is innocent, what damage will have been done to him? 

I support absolutely, the right to anonymity of victims of sex crimes. However, the present post-Savile climate has led me to wonder, given the extent to which mud sticks and even a disproved allegation can taint, whether accused persons should have the same right, at least until charged, and possibly until they are convicted. Dunno. What do you think?

I’d forgotten about Amanda Knox. I’d have been happier if that state had continued, rather than have to read that she’s made $4m from her book. Regardless of guilt or innocence, it would be nice if she used most of that to set up some sort of foundation in memory of the girl she was cleared of killing. Will she? We’ll see.

Twice a year, I finish a book; yesterday was one of those days.

On Monday, in common with around 10 million other people, I watched the conclusion of Broadchurch. Turned out I’d guessed, correctly who’d done it. When he was unmasked I thought his motive was pretty facile and didn’t buy into that at all. That may have been because the man who played him wasn’t capable of putting it over in a way tahat I believed.

If he wasn’t he was the only one who fell short. I’ll tell you how big an impression it made, and one player more than any other.

I’ve been writing the Skinner stories for well over 20 years now. I’ve done countless public events and I’ve been asked countless times who I see as Bob, if it ever made telly. I’ve given many different answers yet in all that time I have never sat down to write and found any actor’s face forcing itself upon my personal vision of my lead character.

Until yesterday morning,when I sat down to write a first person Skinner chapter and found that David Tennant was doing the talking.