Book Review, Most Recent, Probably.

The Railway Detective by Edward Marston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A nice easy-going read. Set in the 1840s, prior to the Great Exhibition so not hot sex or such distractions. The first in the series.

View all my reviews

TV both old and new : Interpol Calling

Here I will begin a feature dealing with the TV that has tickled my fancy over the years. That's MY fancy, it will be MY review. I have never been one for paying attention at the back when it comes to what the critics have to say about anything.

Having said that, let's begin:

This first one is an early TV detective series and one I certainly did not watch as a child as it pre-dates me by a few months.

It was a 1959 series called Interpol Calling. To set the scene we have the following:

"Crime knows no frontiers. To combat the growing menace of the international criminal, the police forces of the world have opened up their own national boundaries. At their headquarters in Paris, scientifically equipped to match the speed of the jet age, sixty-three nations have linked together to form the International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL!"

It stars Charles Korvin as Inspector Duval and Edwin Richfield as Inspector Mornay.

As usual, there is a wiki link at Interpol Calling and a Youtube one at Mr. George . You'll also find a very limited link at The IMBD . To date, I have not managed to find any fan sites. Sad that, as they often have a fund of information.

However, if what I say tickles your fancy, you might want to point your mouse over this.

The link provides a summary of the episodes, like most of the Google hits.

Why does it interest me the voice in my head asks? I went looking around on the good old 'net. Like I said, I did not see it on TV originally and I did not have the funds as a teenager to go looking for videotapes. It was only with the advent of DVD that this became available to me. I must have been on Amazon's site and either found it with a search or good old Amazon and the "cookies" offered it to me as something I might like.

But to answer the question: It is set in Europe, mostly. I know this. The Backlot of the film studio doesn't fool me.

Anyway back to the script:

These programmes are rather short at about 30 minutes give or take. Who says that our attention span has diminished?

As a cop/detective show, the usual low-lifes are out in force. Drug smugglers, people smugglers, counterfeiters, etc. Our heroes, using wit and guile, manage to put them in the hand is the local police and all ends well.

Suspend your disbelief right at the start - just before the bit that says "the jet age"? In the 21st century?

As usual, feel free to read this and leave any comments.

Richard John "Rick" Parfitt, OBE

Richard John "Rick" Parfitt, OBE

12 October 1948 – 24 December 2016

I have never heard, or seen, a better rhythm guitarist.