Romanzo Criminale second series episodes 3 to 5

It was a good decision to separate the first two episodes of the second and last season of Romanzo Criminale which entered a significant new phase with the third shown on Tuesday evening October 2^nd in the UK. A feature of this series is that there are few good people. The time setting of the series coincides with the discovery of Roberto Calvi

’s body found hanging under a bridge in London, the then Chairman of the Italy’s largest private bank which collapsed and was known for being the Bank used by the Vatican, the Mafia for laundering money and infamous Masonic Lodge P2 regarded as a state within a state with the most prominent and well known figure the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlosconi, one of whose publications was behind the criminally obtained photos of Duchess of Cambridge while she and her husband were on holiday.

The episodes open with men from the Italian security services filming a prominent Italian Member of Parliament enjoying a bondage and sadism session at the brothel operated by Patrizia the woman companion of Dandi, one of the key figures in the Rome drug distribution gang. This coincides with a raid by the Police Commissario whose purpose was to put pressure on its manager to yield the dirt on Dandi and other gang hierarchy and to yield to him. The discovery of the Member of Parliament being filmed enabled the Government officers to be arrested and charged with attempted blackmail and the tape of the session held as evidence. When the Member of Parliament requests the tape and the Commissario refuses despite the offer of being made a police chief, the girl involved changes her story and says the film was being made by the subject for his private use, this part of the case has be dropped and the film handed over. We know that the girl was offered a significant amount of money to change her story and the same again if the outcome was the return of the tape. However it does not lead to the release of the security men who are told they will stay in prison for a time by their immediate boss so as to keep below the radar.

The holding in custody, a feature of the Italian system without bring to trial for up to a year is one to perils of travel in that country/ Patrizia is stripped and examined on arrival in custody and Dandi keeps his distance. When her only visitor apart from the Commissario is her faithful assistant who presses Dandi for news about getting her out of prison and if he has a message for her. Dandi says she is always in his thoughts which the Commissario says means she must fend for herself. Dandi is prepared to abandon his woman when the Mafia make doing so and finding himself a proper wife a condition of their intention to make him head of the Rome drug distribution. When the Inspector decides that she can be released on bail and Dandi goes to meet her she tells him to get rid of the flowers he has brought and then drives of in the car he has travelled. She then calls on the Inspector and takes him to a hotel for sex. She is not yet done with Dandi.

Meanwhile Dandi is apprehended by the former Drug distribution king for a major part of Rome who still provides the Gang with their Cocaine supply, Sardo, of the Sardinians who supplies via the Comorra of Naples and area, Mafia like but with a single hierarchical command. He demands a doubling of his take and control of the area previously operated by the assassinated Lebanese. He tells Dandi that their problem is Freddo and demands that Dandi helps them get rid of Freddo by bringing him to them. Dandi who I think is tempted by the offer, given the likelihood he would be taken out if he refuses is also approached by the rest of the gang who had previously waited in his home uninvited to express their discontent that a woman and someone previously unconnected with them had been put in control of the sector previous controlled by the Lebanese. Dandi tells the other members he has a solution.

Freddo arrives on his motorcycle separate from Dandi in his expensive racing type car and while Freddo is frisked for a weapon Dandi is allowed his because of Sardo’s intention they should take Freda out. Instead Dandi shoot Sardo dead in the head while the rest of the gang have come through woods and fencing and take out the guards. The price for Freddo release is Lebanese’s sector which is to be shared. Freddo tells the girl offering her to manage his area. She refuses. Suggesting that he is no longer in charge.

Whether it arose from his night with Patrizia, the Commissario gets a warrant to inspect the offices of the Ministry where at the ground level with an external door and locked armoured door behind which is the arsenal of the gang. The security man, paid to the keep door closed. is able to identify that all the members of the gang used the facility but they are tipped off and disappear before they can be arrested. They go in hiding to a place used by Sardo where they are contacted by the Comorra and invited to the meeting with the head to discuss business; Instead he demands to know what happened to Sardo or who was responsible for his disappearance. They have two days and they take Freddo as prisoner who will be killed if their concerns are not resolved.

Dandi first uses the girl friend of the “Kid“, killed in the attack on the Deputy chairman for the Mafia in relation to the P2 and Bank scandal. She is tasked to contact the child of the security guard who continues to go to school while his father and mother are in protective custody. She gives the boy a message whispered in his ear which had the desired effect. He retracts his statement alleging that the only person with whom he had contact was the Lebanese. He is released on bail but will still go to prison because he provided the place for the weapons for significant payment. However this means the rest of the gang are able to return to Rome without fear of immediate arrest.

However the security officer is not off the hook because those examining the weapons discover that the gun used to kill Leban is one of those found. As the Inspector tells the security guard, how is it the weapon found its way back, by a ghost? Someone must have asked the security guard to open the door!

Dandi approaches the Mafia to see if they are willing to help secure the release of Freddo. They ask him to do a favour via a third party. This is to kill Nemo, one of their mutual associates and weapons expert. They do not tell Dandi but Nemo and the Kid were responsible for the taking out of Lebanese for the Mafia. They tell Nemo to disappear because the gun has been found as well as the gun used in the attack on the deputy bank manager and other killings. Dandi appears to decline because he does not know who the third party is. He gets Nemo to arrange an immediate fresh gun supply in exchange for new identity documents which he pays a source exceptionally well to deliver quickly.

Nemo secures the required weapons from a Professor a Fascist who has accumulated weapons for an uprising, They pay him 2 million lire despite his wanting 4. Dandi insists the young man accompanies them on an arrange exchange for Freddo. The rest of the gang and Nero are under the impression they are about to go to war with the Comorra to get Freddo back. However Dandi is showing himself worthy of being groomed to be the new King of Rome by the Mafia. He shoots Nemo in front of the Comorra saying the man was responsible for the death of Sardo.

He suggests to the Don, the head criminal, that surely it would be better that the gang is allowed to peddle their drugs throughout Rome than engage in war. The head recognises how ruthless and single minded Dandi has become and accept the deal releasing Freddo.

They return to the Sardo hideaway where news comes that the security has changed his story and they can return to Rome in time to witness the last moments of the World Cup 1982 in which Italy beats Germany 4.1 leading to wild celebrations throughout Rome. Dandi gives the rest of the gang the explanation why he sacrificed Nemo without making reference to the Lebanese, although Nemo had admitted that he had pulled the trigger for the Mafia. He sends Freda home knowing that he has saved him twice from death recently.

He calls on the girl to thank her for doing the set task and she says it was a test because he suspected she had said where their guns were being held. She tells Dandi to look closer to home, suggesting to us that she knows it was Patrizia, Dandi leaves saying that Freddo is home and alone without anyone to celebrate the World Cup win. He seems to now be in control of the girl.

Meanwhile the Inspector has recognised the girl in two photos associated with surveillance of the gang and starts to keep personal watch seeing Dandi arrive and then leave. He then tails the girl as she makes her way to the home of Freddo and through a window sees the couple begin to have sex. Dandi meets the Mafia and wants to know why Lebanese was killed. He is told that Lebanese had become mad and out of control. In any event he was taken out to make it easier for Dandi to become the new King of Rome a title which they now officially crown him. He asks, “what of Freddo,” and the reply is that this is for Dandi to decide. It is a night for celebration and not for questions.

In the fifth episode the disintegration of the original gang and the elevation of Dandi in terms of personal wealth and potential power under the direct control of the Mafia continues. He is offered a land deal which involves the purchase of a substantial area of farming land which will yield tremendous returns when Italy gain the World Cup and which they did in 1990 thus suggesting the Mafia money was behind the decision and also the selection of sets including new ground developments. Over the series we have seen the private accommodations of the gang members and their associates improve exponentially in terms of locations, sizes and quality of furnishings including original artwork. This was the era when internationally the Mafia and other criminal networks and known to have intensified their move into legitimate business in which to launder their criminally obtained money primarily from drugs, gambling, prostitution and human trafficking.

A side story is one of the members of the gang who has invested heavily in a supermarket run by his father in law, Perfumery for his wife and another enterprise but as no elementary business skills fails to keep up with bank loan repayments and is threatened with foreclosures if he does not come up with 200 million lire a modest some say around 100000 euros given the millions of euros involved in the drug trade alone. He turns to everyone except Dandi and then agrees to torch the supermarket but the insurance refuses to pay based on the assessment that the blaze was professionally ignited. He eventually turns to Dandi who agrees to the give him the money but takes two of the premises in exchange leaving him and his wife with the perfumery.

The main story of this episode is the fate of the two gang members in prison because of the failed attempt to kill the man they believed was responsible for the death of Lebanese and when Dandi got cold feet in the get away car and drove off. Freda has a plan well used by others to have is closest ally declared unfit to plead and moved to a psychiatric institution from which he can expect to be discharged within a couple of years compared to the 30 anticipated from the charges. Freddo is confident because the psychiatrist appointed by the court is known for being bribable. Unfortunately before he can submit his report the Mafia decide that he is to be killed for taking money from a number of sources other than they authorise and they ask Dandi to arrange this but Freddo insists that they wait until after the submission. The man is nevertheless found dead and the two gang members are sentenced to 24 and 28 years respectively.

Freddo is incensed and accuses Dandi who denies that he killed the man so Freddo orders everyone to go out and find who is responsible. By this time the girl previously taken on to run Lebanese territory, but removed when Dandi saves Freddo from the Comorra, advises a name in the territory of other gang members where the takings are down 30% allegedly because someone is also selling drugs from a different source.

Freddo then discovers that the man was actually killed by his new girl friend paid for by Dandi who is able to say he did not kill the man himself. Freddo realises that he is no longer dictating what the gang should do, moreover one of the men sentenced effectively to life imprisonment tells Freddo that it was not Gemito and his brother who killed Lebanese as the gun came from their own arsenal of weapons, something which Dandi knew and kept from him and the others.

Meanwhile those controlling the area with the taking down, kill the man fingered by the girlfriend despite being told to bring the man to Freddo, suggesting that it one of the area controllers who in fact as been selling drugs from another source and now covering their tracks. Dandi remains convinced, rightly, that it was Patrizia who revealed the location of their weapons arsenal in retaliation for being left in prison on the orders of the Mafia as he is told to get himself a regular wife and family. He learns that her homosexual assistant and friend has been sighted in Accona and he arranges for associates to lean on the man to reveal the whereabouts of Patrizia. He finds her running a flower shop and expresses contempt for her and her friend. She sends him packing. Back in Rome Dandi is enjoying a new level of company attending “sophisticated” parties during which he meets and beds an attractive woman from Sweden. They are interrupted by Patrizia who had decided to come back to Rome because she misses the highlife. But she warms Dandi that if he betrays her again she will betray him again to the police. The episode commences with Dandi in prison and being stabbed by one of the men he abandoned at the attempted Gemito killing. It is a nightmare. As is the state of the original gang, one dead, two in prison, one sidelined others with major problems and Dandi another instrument of the Mafia and the Comorra. The near becomes more close.

Celia Imrie Who Do you Think You Are?

Celia Imrie Who do you think you are started as a disappointment because she was only interested in finding historical figures of political importance which given the family tree was not difficult.

One of her great grand parents was a leading Whig, Lord William Russell whose family lived at Woburn Abbey and was executed after a famous Treason Trial as the picked Jury believed he had been threatening the King although his concern was against a Catholic Monarchy and the enforcement of the Catholic religion on the people. When the King died and James I came to throne and established a Catholic monarchy the rebellion led to the arrival of William of Orange and the establishment of constitutional monarchy and quashing of the indictment against Russell who was declared a hero and Martyr and the great defender of Constitutional Monarchy as a plaque remains in Lincoln Inn Fields where he was executed.

She also followed up his grandmother who was a member of the Howard family and engaged married when 13 to someone 14 where the marriage was unhappy and annulled by the Archbishop. She married the Kings Favourite and after two years of marriage and the birth of a daughter she and her husband was tried and convicted of involvement in a murder nut then reprieved although serving sometime in jail. Her marriage broke up and she within ten years of leaving the Tower a comparatively young woman having never known happiness since her Early childhood. I went to bed soon after the news headlines and read more of the Snack Thief.

　

　

Montalbano Season 2 episodes 2 to 5

Today I begin my adoration of the second series shown in the UK of Commissario Salvo Montalbano although I will keep up a diary as I watch or listen to sport and my day on day activities.

While there are other characters in the series, the second being shown on BBC Four in original Sicilian, Italian and Sicilian Italian (reminding me of Gibraltar Spanish and English) Commissario (Inspector) Salvo Montalbano dominates each episode from start to finish.

One reference describes Salvo as honest, loyal and decent but I have to disagree. Although Salvo is basically honest he is prepared to break rules and turn the blind eye but always in the course of justice and fairness as well as from his humanitarianism. He is a good guy. He has strong views about integrity, especially of the police dislikes those who pretend to be what they are not or adopt or misuse the power and privileges of office. He has rime for Aging Mafia bosses who want settle issues in the traditional way as long as they know he will take action against them if they are caught breaking the law.

I describe him best as a man who cares and in last night‘s programmes he cannot bear to look or yet another body of a slaughtered young girl. He is loyal to his men and there are no female police at his station or it appears to be the situation in Sicily, but while his head wants him to be loyal to his long term woman friend, Livia who lives and works in Genoa on the mainland, he only resists some of the opportunities which come his way by women, often younger women who adore his looks, his manner and his role.

In the first season shown on the BBC between February and April she appears in several episodes but so far the second series which commenced in August she has only be heard on the telephone. I do not know is this was a writing decision of the author or something which the TV series adapted because the actress was not available to be filmed although he has engaged in phone calls with her in several episodes of the second series to date

It looked as if the couple would marry and live together during the first series, but the truth is Salvo likes his way of life, his home on the beach and his pasta and his fish. Good food at his favourite restaurant or eating out on his balcony overlooking the sea are as important if not more important than a companion in his bed. Livia and the others with whom he has a relationship know that they are a poor second when he is involved in a troubling case, but when on holiday or with a free weekend, he is with them as any woman could wish, or any partner in a same sex relationship.

I will also remind that while the BBC is showing 16 episodes in two seasons this year in terms of published scheduling, they were first shown in Italy from 1999(2) 2000(2) 2001(2) 2002(4) 2005(2) 2006(2) 2008 (4) AND 2011(3). I am acquiring the books to read 11 so far with six episodes written only for TV and will acquire series 1 DVD 10 episodes in the future. I did write about the first episode in the present series Turning Point based on the book Rounding he Mark so that leaves the five others since to cover.

I will also sat at the outset that setting of Sicily is gorgeous as is the orchestral accompaniment and I am constantly struck by the lack of traffic in his town of Vigata. There is grandeur about the towns and often the houses and flats he visits are huge buildings with large rooms, tall ceilings, great wooden double doors and antique furniture. There is a feeling of space, light and warmth although sometimes it is so hot that they struggle to cope and when it rains, it floods down as I have experienced.

While the series is about the work and life of the Commissario he had a team of three men who have been with him throughout. His deputy Mimi (Domenico Augello), a ladies man who is now married with a child but with a roving eye which he finds difficult to control did consider leaving for the mainland when he became involved with a police woman he had met on a course or conference

Their assistant (Guissope) Fazio, is loyal, dependable and often taken for granted and (Agatino) Catarella, came top of the computer course which amazed everyone, usually goes into doors which he bands, often forgets what he has come into say, manages the front desk, the communications system and the police station as far as one can judge. In addition to Livia Mimi’s wife Beba Beatrice di Leo has become a regular while Mimi’s sister and brother law are visited as Salvo keeps contact with the fostered/ adopted boy that he and Livia nearly adopted after his mother was murdered and his father was found dead in an early first season episode.

I begin with latest episode The Wings of the Sphinx which engaged me throughout and touches on the influence of the Mafia and politicians and others have for self protection. A young woman is found dead, naked on a beach with her face obliterated and a butterfly Tattoo on one shoulder, but she did not die there and had been dead for some 24 hours. Salvo works out that she probably died somewhere which was closed on a Sunday and the body removed to be found before the premises opened. He arranges for the photo of the Tattoo to be shown on TV and he is contacted by an old man who had a carer arranged from him when the relative who looks after him had to be away. The girl was Russian and lived in, she had come to Italy via an organisation and then was helped by an organisation which liked to be called an association and which used volunteers to recruit prostitutes and girl who worked in clubs to save them for a better life and looked after then at an establishment which could accommodate over a dozen of the girls. This girl had suddenly left. It was not the dead girl however but the Tattoo is identical

When Salvo is going home one night he is overtaken by a fast car driven by Ingrid who was part of a previous story with an important husband now a Member of Parliament in Rome, spending a lot of time away. She is also a womanly with a history and I believe she had a temporary relationship with Montalbano. She cancels her engagement claiming a headache after learning that Salvo is on his own and that a meal has been prepared by his housekeeper. Over the meal she asks about his current cases and he mentions the murder and the Tattoo. This startles the woman who mentions that she a live in young female help with a Tattoo on her shoulder who had come from Russia and who had disappeared taken jewellery with her.

The girl has been located by her husband’s accountant who comes to the station after being contacted by the friend and he mentions the association, a charitable body which is run by a priest akin to a bishop. This is an influential man who criticises Montalbano for being five minutes late and who explains that while he is the Patron and Treasurer, he has not met one of the young women in the five years of his involvement. He puts Salvo in contact with his Director of Operations and from that meeting Salvo is taken to where the girls live by two of the volunteers including the man who recruits the girls on Saturday evenings. Afterwards there is a complaint that Montalbano had undertaken a raid on the organisation and he is given only four days to complete investigation by his superiors and told not to upset or involve the Association further except without exceptionally good grounds. Neither of these girls can be found nor the murdered girl named.

Then the elderly man calls on Montalbano and says he saw the girl when returning from a visit by bus heading in the direction of a Parish Church. Salvo visits and finds the priest is working out and a former boxer who denies having contact with the girl or knowing her present whereabouts but expresses strong disapproval of the charitable organisation. Salvo is convinced the priest does know where the girl is but is protecting her.

There are then two developments which enable him to begin to solve the mysteries. The son of his visiting housekeeper who is in prison (covered in a previous episode) asks to see Montalbano to mention unofficially that a hardened criminal who had shared his cell had admitted to being in love with a Russian girl who had lived with him and the man had changed as a consequence. The girl had a butterfly on her shoulder. The man and the girl are not at home when the Commissario visits.

He is then contacted by the fire service because of a fire at a paint shop which is unusual as well as suspicious and where the owner lives in a flat above. The evidence is that the fire started within and where there are no sings of forced entry but it is not an insurance fraud as the man is of good means. Salvo Fazio visits and do a double act in the questioning. They check if the man has a revolver which Salvo points out they will be able to check if it was recently fired. They ask if he has a safe or where does he keep the takings from the weekend and he shows them his desk where the taking before the fire are still kept. Although they leave they expect the man to come to them with an admission. He had been woken at night to find someone in the flat and later followed to where they were riffling the till. He had called for the individual to stop and the pulled trigger killing the person with the second shot fired. This accounted for the traces of material found inside the skull as the thief had covered their face. There have also been traces of a substance used to create gilt effect under the finger nails and when her had fired a quantity of the substance had covered the body. He had found that the person was dead and the female cleaner. He had disposed of the body where it was found and thought he had got away with it but then the news had mentioned that the persons teeth and been smashed by the force of the bullet and would been still at the scene of the murder. For this reason he had attempted to burn down the shop and not just the clothing of the girl and his own.

Then the man who did the recruiting is shot in his car in the face. How can this be? The answer comes with a message from the son of the cleaner in prison to say the likely whereabouts of the criminal who had shared a cell. It was his girl who had been killed and he had taken his revenge in the same manner on the man who recruited her. The man is captured at the place where the son of the cleaner housekeeper said he was likely to be hiding.

Before the capture Salvo received a message from the former boxer priest to say that the missing girl who worked for the old man was with him as was one of the other girls who had been badly beaten up and had come to his home for refuge via the girl already with him. They were both willing to testify in court their story. There were four girls from Russia who had come to Italy with the promise of work via an agency whose families had struggled to find the money for a ticket. Each group of girls was given a different Tattoo and in order to repay the full cost of their passage and stay to those sending them and their families they not only had to work in the clubs but go with men afterwards. The Welfare association seemed a good way as the organisation they would also arrange for their release from their existing contract and commitments. However they were then told to steal jewellery or valuables from where they were placed and they would be able to retain a quarter of the value. It was from a photograph of all four girls together that Salvo was told the dead girl friend had been the girl friend of the criminal. Because of his backgrounds and involvement the welfare group had been unable to do anything when she left them and went to live in with the man but she had wanted to send money to her family and had persuaded to be allowed to work further and agreed to go for the weekend takings at the paint store. The priest urges Salvo to ensure those involved go to prison and he says he will do his best. He is told to pass on the case which he willingly does because of the wish to spend a few days with Livia. He tells the person taking over and the media sufficient to ensure the organisation is exposed despite all those seeking who protect it.

Before saying more about the relationship with Livia there is one other story in the episode which has its amusing moments. Unattractive older women call to say her husband was kidnapped and where inquiries reveal he had money with him and his passport. There has been no request for a ransom although a delay sometimes occurs in such cases. When the media become interested in the story a business man contacts Salvo to say that on a visit to Cuba where he has three girl friends he had seen the missing man in a club with an attractive young woman. He appeals for discretion as he has a wife and child back in Sicily. Salvo arranges for his face to be blocked from the photographic proof with him and breaks the news to his wife who denies it is husband or that he would do something like this. The husband reappears saying he was released and his passport taken as well as the money on him. It appears he is financially dependent on his wife and the kidnapping ploy was a way to get a short break away from her.

At the dinner with Ingrid Salvo admits that he got into a rage at Livia when she returned for the hotel with a male friend and his yacht and he had admitted to her he had a short relationship with a young girl. They had broken up and although he wanted contact again he was not sure of the reception. Ingrid says that given the length of time they were together he should persevere and he attempts to ring her several times without success. Eventually she rings and it is agreed that they will spend a few days together at a neutral venue, but only when the current case is ended.

Because oft he way the case develops Salvo is able to meet her flight and as she has said if he fails to arrive she will return home he books the next fight back to Genoa where she lives. He arrives in the rain and finds that she has set off without her mobile which explains what he was unable to contact her during the day to explain what was happening. She instead of returning had gone to his home when he is able to contact on the land line. It is left open if they get together on the remaining days of his holiday.

　

The previous Saturday’s episode was called August Flame (22 September) with the story from the book August Heat and Mimi has rented a holiday home from where their son disappears and both parents are frantic. Salvo investigates and finds that the boy has gone exploring and has found his way into a sealed second holiday flat built in the cliff side partly under the second. This has nearly been completed with doors and windows ready to be installed but in a way which is not recognisable as a flat from the grounds of the home where Mini and his family are staying.

In a corner there is large chest which when opened reveals the remains of a fifteen year old girl. She has lain there for a number of years and is found to be the identical twin of someone who is now a young woman and who makes a play for Montalbano as soon as she meets him.

Suspicion falls on a number of people as the owner and developer of the holiday home project are identified, including a cranky neighbour while the developer appears to have a cast iron alibi and he is eventually trapped by using the girl as bait and arranging to meet him at the lower home which is the process of being sold after planning permission is contained. The two men who worked on the home are interviewed and eventually eliminated from the investigation. Because of the risk Montalbano gives he girl his gun and when she is attacked she shoots the murderer of her sister dead before Montalbano who is waiting nearby out of sight can intervene. He takes responsibility for the death and the parents of the dead girl buy the holiday complex to leave empty because it had become the grave for one of their daughters. I was left feeling unhappy and concerned at the way the episode ended feeling that the girl had shot the man too readily.

The previous week, the Game of Three Cards was an original telescript with two stories which as far as I can remember are unrelated apart from featuring two single minded women one I will describe as sexually gorgeous who is the wife of a wanted villain on the run who commands the attention of Mimi, causing Salvo concern because of the potential threat to Mimi’s marriage with Beba (Beatrice). Because of the attention he has given to the wife it is Salvo who discovers that the home has several possible exits and possibly a hideaway enabling the husband to visit and leave without being spotted by those keeping watch. The criminal is eventually caught to the relief of Salvo while the wife continues to strut her stuff about the town.

The main story arises when the Commissario is approached before eating at his favoured restaurant by the accountant of a constructor called Tarantino who is said to have been killed when full of drink close to his home in a hit and run. The accountant is convinced there is something wrong with the declared finding. The significant first piece of evidence is that several years before, as much as twenty years prior to the hit and run death a man Rocco Pensinni was convicted of the premeditated death of the partner of Tarantino in order to be able to marry the wife who had become his lover. Why he should have killed then killed partner and faked the death to look like a hit run was something which Salvo rightly questions. It is when a second man is found dead close to the isolated home of a Shepherd and whose features look as if they have been altered that separate events begin to link up. The man, Granieri has been away from Sicily for two decades and was part of a Mafia family, the same family with whom the constructor is found to have had dealings enabling him to win contracts. With the death of his partner he was able to control the whole company.

Granieri is found to have had a distinctive voice, obtained via a phone message. A key person in establishing the connections is the sister of Rocco who is blind but remembers a visitor posing a utility official who called on the day of the murder for which her brother was convicted. She identifies the man as the same as the voice. She also mentions that on the night in question she and her brother had been invited out but he stayed home and she had gone alone. He was staying in because his lover had called and said she would visit as she had done on many previous occasions with the sister hearing her footsteps and going to room of her brother. In this instance she had not come and therefore he had no alibi.

What emerges from flash backs is that the woman wanted the relationship to continue as it was but Rocco could not share with the husband and threatened to tell the husband, his employer that the relationship was continuing having promised that it had ended after it had been discovered by the husband. The lover had threatened to shoot himself thus disclosing to the wife that he had a weapon in his room. What had then happened is that Tarantino wanting to get rid of his partner and the woman Renata de Mora wanting to get rid of her lover and husband had told the assassin about the gun and he had taken it posing as an official and then Renata had failed to turn up which would have given her lover an alibi while the husband was shot. This belief is confirmed after the police had circulated a photo of Granieri and Rocco calls at the station to say he had been contacted by Renata when he was released from prison but he had not responded at first but had then gone unannounced the following day and seen the man in the photo having a heated conversation with his former lover. The man had gone off as soon as Renata had seen him approaching. He had also seen the man observing him at his home.

Salvo put the case against her to Renata and at first she tries to bluff but then admits knowing there is no proof with the death of both the contractor and Granieri. Granieri has come back and killed the contractor although I cannot remember if this was on behalf of the Mafia or on his own account. Rocco visits to say he is making a fresh start in Rome and appears amazing relaxed and accepting about the injustice which led him to spend two decades in jail. The reason why Granieri was found dead close to the Shepherd‘s home is established when it is found that the dead man is the son of the Shepherd. He has killed his son finding out the kind of man he was and pleads with Salvo to be allowed to end his own life with the gun he used on his son. This happens.

In Patience of the Spider which is based on a novel Montalbano is still on official on sick leave when a young girl goes missing and the whole community becomes concerned. The assumption is that she has been kidnapped for ransom. My recollection is that early on I worked out what actually happened and was delighted that Salvo finds a way to temper official justice with great humanity.

Salvo is woken by Catarella at six in the morning and is his usually khack handedness in explaining the situation. At first he is told the scooter of a young girl has been found and then when told the owner is missing Salvo is still not convinced it is a matter for himself and asked for Mimi and Fazio who are also at the scene which only underlines his reaction to getting the call. It is Mimi who has told Catarella to contact his boss and still unconvinced Montalbano challenges Mimi on arriving at the scene to be told the situation looks bad.

I am going to tell the story from the solution backwards. Many years ago the brother of the wife of the girl who has been kidnapped needed a huge amount of money which the family raised but never got back even when their daughter needed money to go away to study. The wife had become sick with the a situation in which despite their lovely home they had come to live on the pension of the husband and the help of his brother who had also loved the wife to the extent that he devoted his life to the couple and his niece rather than lead a separate life apart from his practice as a medical doctor.

Having rescued him the other uncle had turned his back on the family and having prospered was embarking on a political career. His sister’s health had continued to deteriorate, and she had taken to her bed and required 24 hour care shared by her husband and their daughter.

At first Salvo speculates that the daughter had run off unable to cope, perhaps a break down or perhaps she has found someone else other than her boyfriend who is studying law with the ambition to join the police force. Salvo is able to gradually to work out what I suspect from the outset that this was no real kidnapping but a staged action to gain revenge and destroy the reputation of the uncle who had betrayed them and destroyed the life of his sister.

The plan had been executed with the help of the brother doctor and the discrediting was successful and when the Commissario makes the point that he cannot allow them to keep the money the girl explains that it has already been distributed to a dozen international charities, Salvo who has said the visit is not officially is doubly pleased, to have his suspicions confirmed and by finding that the girl was well motivated and has an important future as she goes off to work for an international agency.

He had learned that the girl and the boyfriend did not have sex until the day she disappeared and that on returning to the family she had broken with the young man. Given that she made application for the welfare work months before Salvo knows that she had planned everything during the hours she had spent at her mother‘s bedside.

He had been able to trace where the girl had been kept by enlarge one of the photos which the alleged kidnappers had sent. This enabled him also to get to where the money had been replaced with newsprint notes before the media arrived and printed that the ransom had not been paid. In fact despite the publicity against the uncle would be politician, he had been contacted within moments of the kidnap and asked to pay the ransom which he was willing to do, especially as the kidnapped girl was a close friend of his daughter. The contact was made hours before the same demand was made to the father the girl. It was all fair and a good form of justice.

In the second of the second season episodes Equal Tine Montalbano is convinced hat what appears to have become a Mafia war because of killing is not what it seems but it is only late on the he appreciates there is a connection between the death and the disappearance of a girl from the Ukraine who had been living as a live in help to an elderly man. He had reported to her missing only a couple of days after she had not returned from her day off. We the viewers had seen that a girl with a scooter and been chased by two men in a car and appeared to have gone for help at a home of man living in an isolated cottage.

Catarella when out collecting snails which a relative cooked into a special dish for him then discovers the scooter which he brings into town. Later Salvo finds that on her day off she girl, Eva, had met up with two other economic migrants who express great concern for the welfare of their friend. By checking out the area where the scoot was found Salvo comes to the cottage and its owner who used to be called half witted but also harmless. It is Catarella who also puts Salvo on he train of what happened when he draws attention that although the cottage holder kept a couple of sheep the quantity of dropping suggests visits of a substantial number. In order to confirm the theory he arranges for one of the female friends of the missing girl to dress up exactly and Salvo bring the man and the girl together and from this the man confirms that a Shepherd who it is subsequently established is called the Puppeteer calls on his route around the hills with his flock, brings him cheese, bread and wine when staying the night and had had taken the girl with him as he had on a previous occasion in the instance of another girl from the area who had disappeared several years before. The unit track the Shepherd to his home where they come under fire and it is Catarella who kills the man before Salvo or other members the team are killed. The girl is found and is taken to hospital when he friends are with her. One of the friends gives to Salvo copies of photos she found in the girl’s underwater draw which reveal that he girl had been seeing a married member of a Mafia family the Bonspeniero’s that has started the Mafia War and which Salvo had major doubts.

The man had run a quarry business for his father and his wife tolerated his affairs with girls until in this instance it became serious and he wanted to leave her for the younger woman. What is then established is that the wife and used one of her men to kill her husband who was first hit on the head and then shot to make it look like a Mafia revenge killing. She had then made the mistake of ordering the death of the girl who recovers and is able to confirm the relationship and intention for them to be together with Salvo who summons the heads of the two Mafia families, he orders the man responsible for the original murder to give himself up and fort he wife to present herself at the police station for questioning. The man gives himself up, but the woman had to be arrested at the Quarry at which she had taken over its management. She commits suicide rather than be taken. I have thirteen of the fourteen books of those translated into English including the episode next week. There are two later books yet to be translated which included.

Downton Abbey Series 3 begins

I have watched the first three episodes of the series of Downton Abbey on ITV plus one hour on the past three Sunday evenings.

The main focus of the series so far is the threatened loss of Downton to the family because of a poor major investment on the part of his Lordship which means the estate will have to be sold and they move into a small established and a changed way of life. In those days the husband had complete control of his wife’s money until the Married Woman’s Property Acts from the mid 1920’s.

In the most recent episode there is an attempt to gain the support of the American mother of the Countess, played by Shirley McLain. She is outspoken and has no truck with the family’s way of life. Their main attempt to persuade involves holding a prestigious dinner party but the cooker breaks down and there is no hot food. She organises a buffet style picnic of cold meats cheeses breads and fruit. However she also discloses that she is unable to help because of the way her estate and income is tied up. Not surprisingly there has been a great scene of mutual contempt between MacLaine and Maggie Smith who plays Crawley’s mother, the Dowager Countess of Grantham

The only other alternative is to use the money from an estate which has come to the new husband of Lady Mary, Matthew, a third cousin once removed and therefore bears the same surname He would have inherited the estate upon the death of the Earl as the Earl has no son and the scheduled heir dies on the Titanic although someone posing as him appears in the second series disfigured from the First World War when part of the House is turned into a convalescent unit.

Matthew feels unable to take the substantial funds concerned because the money comes via his relationship with the young women with whom he was engaged and who nursed him when it looked he would spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair. She had then died from Spanish flu and out of guilt he felt he could not marry Lady Mary because his fiancée had found out he no longer loved her shortly before she be came ill and he felt that she had given up on life because of this. He recovers from disability and therefore there is no obstacle to the marriage and to having children.

Their marriage nearly does not take place because of his refusal to use the money to save Downton. While Lord and Lady Crawley appear resigned to the situation Lady Mary is now realising that her husband will not inherit the estate upon the death of her father. Before the wedding the youngest daughter of the Earl Sybil is invited to come with her husband, the former chauffer to the family and outspoken Irish Independence supporter. The dinner party is uncomfortable but it the husband who talks to Matthew and helps to ensure that the marriage goes ahead although there is no change between them the issue of accepting the inheritance.

The other subject above stairs concerns the second daughter who is attracted to Sir Anthony Strallen about twice the age if not more. Before the war he had planned to ask Edith to marry him but Mary had intervened because tradition was a second sister or son only married after the first. She persuades him not to ask to save him from rejection which is of course not true as her sister would have gladly accepted. On return from the War Sir Anthony has lost an arm and together with age this prevents him approaching Edith again although she sets her cap on him. He is invited to the special dinner for the mother of the Countess and is then persuaded to withdraw by the Earl but later he relents after pressure from his daughter and they agree to marry and announce their engagement and have a quick wedding.

A feature of this kind of programme is that life below stairs and so far there have only been three stories of any substance. In the last series the personal manservant to the Earl was convicted of the murder of his former wife and his wife now visits him in prison and attempts to find the evidence which will show that that her death was suicide faked as murder to incriminate her former husband. His place is taken on by the ambitious lying, cheating, stealing, and blackmailing Thomas who gets more than anyone’s fair share of chances and in this series he plays a dirty trick on the young valet to Matthew giving him the wrong substance to clean the dress jacket so that it has to be sent away to be repaired. That he does not possess another is absurd and there is great fuss because he wears a D, J instead. Other staff arrange for his lordships dress shirts to disappear so he too has to wear a DJ and then for the shirts to reappear. The valet also has to serve at table and is uncomfortable in the role have been hotel trained and is mocked. The main story is that of the housekeeper who finds a lump and goes for medical examination with the cook and where the first test comes back inconclusive. She is understandably worried and makes mistakes but ignores being told to rest and refuses to allow the cook to tell the Butler of her condition. Rumour has it her that she or someone well known as a cast member will die. It is difficult to see where the story will go unless the family are to face a great reality test and lose the Downton so what would he series be then called? Will continue to watch but not a priority.

Wiiliam Roache Who Do You think you are

I switched from watching Newcastle losing at Man United 2.0 in the League and all in glorious 3D to experience the ancestors of William Roache, the longest serving actor in a dramatic and comic serial entertainment in the UK, in the latest edition of Who Do you think you are? If he continues to play Ken Barlow in Coronation Street for the next couple of years he will become the longest performing actor in the same role anywhere having started in 1960. He served the army for his National Service and suffers from trinitus from a mortar explosion. The Wikipedia mentions that his paternal grandfather was a Freemason interested in spiritualism, theosophy, esotericism and homeopathy. There is no mention of his maternal grand mother and her husband and these were the subject of the programme. What was uncovered for him proved the most interesting of all the subjects to date and the way the programme was presented maintained interest from start to finish.

His grand mother had the Christian name of Zillah Waddicor and re remembered as a child visiting her at the restaurant and tea rooms she ran in part of Alton Towers in the 1930’s which she had commenced shortly after the large countryside home of the former Shrewsbury Family was sold. Revisiting the now derelict Country house he was able to remember the room where he placed on his tricycle. He discovered that in fact a quarter of a million people visited the gardens which local business had developed from the grounds of the estate and that his grand mother had owned and managed a business which could provide up to a thousand meals at a sitting with arrange of sixteen lunchtime menu meals from 2 to 4 shillings. She had then developed the Old Mill by the station into a second restaurant. She was of only a handful of women who owned and managed businesses of this size given that after World War 1 the emphasis was on finding “ bread winner” jobs for the men, something which was ingrained in working class politics until the later 1970‘s.

The second extraordinary story is that he then discovered that she and her husband had run a small shanty shop on the Golden mile at Blackpool selling ices and soft drinks. Somehow she made sufficient money from this business to open the business at Alton Towers although the programme failed to explore how she made the move, given that until then the business was in his her husband name. In fact it emerged that the great grandfather had also operated the shanty shop as a medical electrician using the new interest in electricity given that homes and street lights used gas to provide gentle shocks to the hands and arms which was believed to have a beneficial effect on nervous conditions. In addition he had practiced the cult of phonology reading the bumps of the head. He had done this until this kind of seaside business was banned by the local council. He had then moved into the purchase of properties now several used a hotels so that when he died he left an estate of over £4000 worth as much as half a million in today money and more in terms of property values.

The interesting aspect is that the Will left his estate to one of his three grand daughters and this was explained that she lived with him and not with her parents. William then was told that his own mother had gone to live with an aunt when she was only three months of age and this helped him to understand why he regarded her as a cold person unable to express feelings about and to him. The mystery of this appeared to be explained by family understanding that the grandfather who described himself as a gentleman in one census never participated in the subsequent business and was rarely spoken of within the family. The belief was that he drank alcohol excessively and the fact that two his children were almost immediately placed with relatives suggests that he was abusive/ violent or something which made his wife give up direct care of her children despite appearing to William as a kind and loving person as well as he now discovered an amazing business woman.

There were many more questions I would like to have answered but this remains the most interesting of the latest series so far. I can even forgive Roache for being a public supporter

Romanzo Criminale Episodes 1 and 2 of series two revised with episode 3

I have been able to catch up on episode three of Romanzo Criminale second series but to appreciate the significant developments I need to recap and revise what was written before. The fictitious crime drama series does follow actual events in Rome

’s crime history and the role of corrupt politicians, officials including the Security Services and secret bodies. The Crime gang whose history is featured in the two series was in fact a combination of two gangs of young men who dreamed of becoming big time and eventually controlled drug distribution throughout Rome, leading the high life of fast cars and gambling but also attempt to establish themselves through financial investments.

The first series ended with the leader of the combined group known as Lebanese who was rejected by his mother because of his criminality and is gunned down and suspicion falls on two brothers, why I cannot remember or if it was disclosed who killed him.

　

The first two episodes of the second and final series deals with the aftermath of the killing. Towards the end of series one Lebanese had become wild and unstable and with the second in command attempting to go straight because of a serious relationship with a young woman who had previously been the girl friend of his brother who he had worked hard to keep in college and out of trouble. The impact of the girl turning to Freddo led the brother to dropping out of higher education and taking drugs.

The death of Leban and the instinctive need for revenge results in Freddo abandoning plans to leave Rome with Roberta and to become unofficial leader. The gang are not members of the Mafia but have an arrangement as they have had with others including contact with the security services. What I am not sure is the extent to which Dandi the third of the most familiar of gang members was involved with a Mafia take over of Rome drug distribution. As his nickname suggests he is a young man with a liking for fine things especially Patrizia originally a high class beautiful whore but now runs a whore house for him with the help of her male gay companion so he can have her all to himself.

The complication is that the police detective Commissario Scialoja has a grand passion for her and she had shown interest in him. His hands are not clean and is regarded as a Communist sympathizer because his sister was part of a communist action group and who arranged to leave Italy when she was about to be arrested.

The Commissario picks up Freddo’s brother and holds him in jail knowing that there will be an attempt to get to him by enemies of Freddo and that Freddo will be forced into action. Freddo’s attempts to protect his brother in jail while he gets his lawyer to seek the release fails and the young man is beaten up and susceptible to pressure from the Commissario and agrees to wear a wire and attempt to trap his brother. This does not work and Freddo sends his brother packing.

Freddo is also at sixes and sevens with Roberta infuriating her when he abandons the trip away but she then gives him an alibi for the killing of one of the brothers thought responsible for Libanese‘s death. Later when she appears to waiver he sends her away knowing what he has to do and the likely implications, especially with the Commissario hot on his trail.

The second series opened with a flash back to how Libanese and two other formed the nucleus of their gang as boys. There is anger when they discovers that Libanese’s cars have gone and when they discover they have been taken by his father he is given the opportunity to save himself not by getting back the expensive ones but the Mini which they used in the early days. This is then pushed down a mountainside so that no one else can use the vehicle.

They also insist on the immediate liquidation of his assets in order to provide a funeral fit for a king but his mother rejects the money and one of his closest friends steals the coffin which he places in the best available so he and the other have a wake. They do this with special food and drink before returning the coffin to the mother and attending the formal funeral where the Commissioner also attends.

The police take the other brother to stop him being killed by the group and to test for evidence of his guilt but the secret power group delay returning the findings but let Freddo see a copy in order to enable the group to get their revenge and settle things. Freddo then agrees that Dandi as the driver and two other should undertake the assassination of the other brother once he is released from custody. When this starts to go wrong Dandi freezes from putting himself in the firing line to pick up the under fire other two who are wounded with one taken into custody. Dandi returns to Patrizia to lick his wounds having been approached to take over the gang by other interests. However he may not have bargained that one of the two others getting, an original friend and associate of Lebanese, getting away.

Freddo also tracks down to person who sold the brother the drugs and finds that she is a feisty female who points out the brother was an established addict in need and that she is best local distributor than all the others. Freddo’s makes enquiries and puts her in charge of the area previously managed by the Libanese much to the anger of another of the gang with whom the Roman group had previous problems.

In the third episode which moves the story significantly forward, the wounded Bufalo gets help and swears revenge of Dandi who abandoned them. This is backed up by the other member who is in police custody. Freddo refuses to sanction action against Dandi but instead orders him to kill the remaining brother in hospital. When the heavily guarded villain regains consciousness and looks as if he will survive the Police Commissario cuts a deal to save his life if he will provide evidence against Freddo and the rest of the Roman Gang, Her agrees but insists that neither he or his brother killed Lebanese. Freddo orders Dandi to take out the brother as his punishment and the price of protecting him against Bufalo. Dandi asks for help form I assume the Mafia (possibly his secret services) and they agree on the understanding that he will do a favour when next asked.

A fire at the hospital puts everyone including the police off guard and the murder suspect appears to have committed suicide jump out of the ward balcony. The Inspector had also failed to get direct help with the allocation of more men to watch the gang members in order to track down Bufalo. The Commissario presses the head of the anti drug squad to provide the men but they fail to provide anything of value except for a photo of the girl to Freddo and promoted within the crime organisation. They also provide a photo which shows a link between the Secret Services who stopped previous actions in communication with the gang. It is the Secret service who showed Freddo a file of a forensic test which appears to prove that the brother killed Leban. The episode ends with the admission that the forensic test was negative and they made up the report implicating the man who has now officially committed suicide.

The theme of second series is the disintegration of the gang following the death of Lebanese and because it is known that Freddo was on his way out and therefore lacks authority. Worse is to come when one of the gang resents that Freddo has appointed the girl to collect the money required to fund the next drug shipment because she is not yet known to the authorities as a gang senior. She hands over the money and then the man claims it is associates of her who stopped and rob him taking his credit card and other cash on him as well as haul.

When a transvestite attempts to use the credit card the gang member admits that he had gone with the individual for sex and was then held up by two obvious associates of her and only afterwards realised the extent of their haul. The Trans is found and taken and she reveals her companions who are shot in her presence but she is allowed to go to ensure everyone else knows what happens.

Bufalo manages to confront Dandi returning with Patrizia celebrating who quickly disarms his attacker, beats him up and leaves him to die in the street while he has sex with Patrizia.