Sunday night September 15th on ITV

It is Monday 16^th September 2013 just before I set off to by GP Health Practice for a cardio vascular check up having by coincidence I am sure just received in the post an invitation to a scan check up £40 for one and £150 for four separate scan checks. Interesting,

The weather on Sunday was awful so I did not go to cheer on David Weir, Mo Farah and the up to 50000 others who brave blustery cool to cold and wet conditions for the Great North Run. The level of spectators which ahs reduced over the years was also significantly down not surprisingly. In the event the race between David Weir and his Canadian rival ended when the latter had mechanical problems and dropped out. And Mo was beaten as much by the condition as the current Olympic and World Marathon champion with the one of the great of all time also from Ethiopia also participating thus three generations of great runners were present.

I enjoyed watching the Newcastle victory at Aston Villa by 2 goals to 1 ( Ben Arfa and Gouffron scoring) so that they are now equal second on points and eight in terms of goal difference. Newcastle should consolidate with a home win against Hull at home Saturday, a game which I may have gone to see had I not decided to attend the 40 40 final at Lords on the same day. Sunderland will struggle to gain a point at West Brom on the same day.

I also watch the first part of Chicago Bears game in the NFL which I now know they won 31 30 having previously won their first game of the regular season at home 24 to 21 two tight finishers. The other tam I have supported being given a shirt on Christmas is the San Francisco 49ers who won their first game 34 to 28 against the Green Bay Packers while yesterday they were trounced at Seatle 29 to 3.Not good Seatle also won their first game away 12.3 so they have started the season looking good,

Yesterday evening I spent five hours looking at the programmes on the ITV channel commencing with Prince William demonstrating his concern and commitment to wild life conservation, primarily in Africa in recorded programme from Kensington Palace in the week when he formally left his role in the military after seven years and becomes a full time Royal devoting himself to official duties, supporting causes and being a good father. Late in the evening he was attending an event where one of five nominated wild life conservationists was to receive the first award he has set with the organisation Tusk and where he was accompanied by the Duchess on her first public function since the birth of Prince George.

This was followed by the gooee Surprise Surprise where the major story ending the programme was of a boy who survived two leukaemia outbreak where his life hung in the balance before a bone marrow donor was found and where the parent and the donor were not aware of identities for the period of two years. The man had offered to help someone he knew but did not match but was a 10/10 for the boy so went ahead. The programme was designed to encourage new donors to come forward and amen to that. It is difficult to watch ed the excruciating goeeyness at times but there are some good and moving stories in what will be a ten week series.

Following Surprise Surprise is the penultimate double audition for the X Factor where first there are studio auditions followed by presentation to the public. A sixteen year old boy from Scotland performed better before the audience and was the headline act getting TV interviews the following morning. A group of three brothers follow in Beejee footsteps and there was also a Take That type boy band of band but no female caught my eye.

It was then time for the last in the short series of Vera Northumbria Police Detective series which included a shot of South Shields beach walking and Newcastle club land stairways different levels from the key side. The story concerns a man ex police man stabbed just before he was due to meet a young woman he had picked up in a bar although why the two did not immediately leave together is nonsense although without the follow there would have been no story. The young was as nasty piece of work so no tears over his demise however the law is the law and various people all came into the frame although the young he had met was quickly ruled out.

There was a female corporate lawyer with the additional motive of wanting him to find info which would help the take over of a local brewery by an interested company. The brewery was owned by his brother in law where later in the two hour programme she admits she also had an affair with the man. He had been investigating her father and discovered that he had served in Ireland and subsequently changed his name. The father the daughter and the sister had all been to a function at Newcastle race course at the time when the murder occurred. Photos taken at the time confirm that the daughter was present throughout but the father appeared to be missing for about half an hour. Fortunately he had gone for a smoke with the manager of the course.

The brother had also made contact with his former girl friend who had since married with two children to a nasty bit of work. A record for violence he was found to have beaten up the former boyfriend when he came a calling and had also attacked his wife. However there is no evidence although charges are brought regarding the violence and the girl is provided with witness protection although it is not needed when it is found that the young man purchased a flat for them in the girl’s name in London. She now denied the husband was home and he admitted to the theft of lad from a church.

A petty thief was found to have used the credit card of the dead man and the thief admits to stealing and using the card but to murder. The man late also admits he broke into the property of man sister looking for documents he had not been paid because he not found what was required and had stolen the credit card as a consequence.

The sister and her husband lived at a farm which had been left to the sister alone because she had looked after the parents until their death while son had been doing his thing away from the area. It is then established that the girl had made or was giving over half the value of the property but why when there was no legal need to do so,

It the emerges that the brother had wanted the total value of the farm having discovered that her husband was wanted in Ireland for the murder of his own father It was also established that the sister had gone to lie down in a room for an hour claiming a headache. She admits to killing her brother and the husband is also arrested admitting to manslaughter.

Do you think you know who you are September 2013

The highlight of the evening was Do you think you know who you are South Shields Sarah Milligan who forged a nationally recognised career for herself after her marriage broke up and wanted to know if her family had always lived in the north east and she discovered two to great great ancestors. The first born Whitstable on the South East Coast is shown to have been a diver and this leader her finding that he was one the first divers anywhere in world which commenced at Whitstable and led him to join an expedition to Holly Island where there had been a major sinking and loss of life off Holy Island involving a passenger steamer from Hull. Sarah was initially concerned that her ancestors had profited from raising belonging of those who died at the going rate of 40% but a notice in the Shields Gazette reveals that he brought up belongings free so they could be sold to provide for children orphaned in the tragedy.

The man had stayed in The North gaining secure and respected employment on River Tyne locating wrecks and other underwater threats to shipping. He had married and had five children but there was no money as thought at one time within the family.

The second relative was born in the Orkney islands and had then accepted a five year contract as a labourer with the Hudson Bay Fur company in Canada but because if competition had been sent across country in winter 350 miles to an outpost at Albany but because local fishing failed to provided enough food the ancestor and been sent back only for the man to found almost dead and with severe frostbite by an indigenous local. However it was necessary to sever both feet to save his life. He had eventually returned to Britain where he married and had children. Both men had triumphed over great adversity and both men were shown to have had good hearts, married and raised children, with good messages for Sarah to be proud of.

I have noticed a new direction in the most recent editions of this excellent series where the basic information about a family tree is found out in advance by a professional genealogist rather than showing or encouraging individuals to undertake this aspect themselves and thus reducing business for this growing profession as a consequence of the programme although as from my experience the professional genealogist can make mistakes, especially if they are acting for someone at a distance.

The programme is now concentrating on individuals within family trees who offer the prospect of recorded occupational or other information such as travel information of interest which is of interest to the subject and will make good programme viewing. In the instance of an Asian Indian whose family had been an Kenyan Asian the subject about whom I missed the introduction and therefore knew nothing of his celebrity nature. The programme went first to Kenya to learn why his grandparent had come to England and also to India to learn something why the move was originally made to Kenya. The majority of those of Indian nationality came to Kenya when recruited by the British to build a railway and where the work was such that an very high percentage were killed or severely injured and only a small proportion elected to stay when their contract ended. His grandparent had become an early general shop keeper in on the new towns that had sprung up along the railway line. When the country gained independence the Indian population were given the opportunity to stay and become full citizens of the new state, giving up their British passport or losing their ability to own property and occupational status, Many chose to come to the UK and many if not the majority opened the local all hours corner store as well as the Indian food restaurant and Indian food supply provisions that play such an important role in our community today, although many of their generation have progressed into all aspects of the employment society. Back in India he went to the village of his roots bringing him a better sense of identity and understanding of the courage and effort of his ancestors. In the instance of his mother/grandmother he learned that her mother had been a child bride at the age of six to a boy of ten and that although she borne many children only 2 survived, unusual even for India likely because of the very young age when she was likely to have commenced giving birth.

It is now Thursday September 12 and we shall see if it is to be a cricket day let alone a good cricket day from the Durham viewpoint.

A Wallender (The Pyramid) two more visits to Gibn with New Tricks and Minnie Driver Who Do You Think You Are.

I had intended only to write two pieces about my visit to London and to Northampton but given the impact of seeing the film Renoir and the nature of the Northampton experience it is best that I begin with the intention of restricting myself first to Renoir and the impact of that experience and to some TV..

I decided to stay in and watch the Third Test from Old Trafford on Sky via my lap top on Sunday morning August 4^th 2013 enjoying breakfast of two Danish pastries £1.20 and coffee before deciding how to spend the rest of my free time because Middlesex was in the process of defeating Durham during the third morning of the four day scheduled game at Lords. Had I listened more carefully to what fellow Durham supporters had said the previous day or checked fixtures on my computer I may well have gone to the Oval to watch Surrey play Scotland in the 40 40 over game.

The previous evening after returning from the cricket I watched Wallander in the Pyramid one of the, if not the most important of the dramatizations of the books. As with other Wallander dramatizations this season I may write at length when I have read the book although my determination to do some prolonged serious writing this autumn strengthens. In part this arose out fo the Wallander episode but more so because of film about the last years of the life of Pierre Auguste Renoir,

At one level the Wallander, as with Montalbano is a well written detective story which challenges to work out a solution and entertains through the characters involved. However I am drawn to Wallander and to Montalbano because I see so much of myself in them and their approach to life in general, to work and to relationships.

According to Internet research The Pyramid covers the whole career of Wallander in five short stories so that this dramatization only covers the first and the last. In an incident when as a young policeman he misses the opportunity to fire and stop a killer with the consequence that a young woman he admired is murdered. Although the circumstances were such the incident did not affect his subsequent career, he remained tortured by his failure to act and the loss of life involved.

Although 26 years has passed he is confident he has encountered the same villain when following up on what appears to have become a drug war and to pursue the suspect despite being ordered to concentrate on the local villain and leave the suspect to the separate police force involved. At the end of the episode when he is vindicated he resigns because he knows the investigation had become personal.

He has commenced a relationship with the friend of his God daughter who dies from an overdose, using heroin which has not been reduced to a level which removes the risk. The friend is a former addict who is working for the rehabilitation of others and she has is a degree of reality and directness coupled with passion which meets his every need and where for the first time he wants to enjoy life without always feeling guilty and allowing work to take precedence. I am looking forward to the book. He is able to put the past behind and move forward.

There was more striking chords when on return on Wednesday evening I caught up with the second part of the new series opener of New Tricks which coincidentally is set in Gibraltar just as issues about sovereignty begin to boil over fuelled by the attitude for the present Spanish Government and the Tory party led by Cameron. It was no coincidence, I suspect, just as the recent series TV on presented Gibraltar as a little Britain when the reality is the majority are mostly Spanish and speak the local dialect Spanish. I cannot now remember what aspect of the cold case led them to Gibraltar. The main story appeared to be death for young boy to a man who had been a seaman for many years but now worked on the docks where his daughter had some kind of administrative role. The man and the daughter refused to talk about the case and the local senior police officer assigned to manage the visit of the team also advises against giving this case attention, the only inherited cold case which the police officer had been unable to solve. The case is eventually worked put through drawing the boy made at first appearing to be soldiers temporarily resident returning from the Falklands war. However when it is realised the drawings of other children playing at being soldiers the team finds out that the present head of the continuing British military presence on the Rock was a boy at the time and that his father had returned from service in the Falklands. He had used his father’s weapon souvenir from the war as part of the game and not appreciated that it was loaded killing his friend. When confronted he is seen running through the Botanical gardens and taking the cable car to the top of the rock and then considering taking his life but he surrenders full of guilt and grief.

This is he first of three stories in the double episode about cover up with the second the one which brings the team to Gibraltar. This involves the head of an on line gambling company based in Gibraltar, one of his lieutenants who is killed with the police boasting they have one of the best detection rates in the world and murders are rare. The head of the unit is taken out for a meal on the yacht by the owner of the firm who is shown to have a ruthless side and who committed murder as well as attempting to blackmail the father of dead boy.

I record these two stories although from my perspective they are incidental to the main story of interest which concerns Bryan, former Inspector, played brilliantly by Alum Armstrong as a recovering alcoholic whose wife Ester, also played brilliantly by Susan Jameson, shows great understanding and loving support, especially towards his moods and obsessions. He has great capacity to sift through detail and see patterns and connections which others do not, an ability which has always been an asset to me as well as something fo a curse.

He attends the leaving party of Inspector who two decades before was left in charge of young prisoner( black) who died from lack of medical attention when Alan was responsible for had left because of drinking. He had never recovered from the incident believing there had been negligence and had pursued the officer without success as the man had progressed through to retirement. He strikes the man at he leaving party leading to suspension and a disciplinary haring and consequently is not allowed to participate on the trip to Gibraltar. But he goes to Gib despite the sanctions because he cannot function without the work and this leads to him and Jerry ( Denis Waterman) having an adventure which involves being shut in a container, reminding of Mad Dogs, and arriving at a farm in the middle of nowhere in Spain but also in seeing and overhearing an exchange which leads to solving the main story.

On return Bryan’s disciplinary hearing is stopped by the complainant who withdraws saying he felt sorry for Bryan and this angers Bryan unable to explain the issues involved and leads to a confrontation where the retiring Inspector admits that he regarded the prisoner as he did most those taken into custody with indifference regarding them as scum Bryan secretly records this admission which he gives to the boy’s mother saying sorry. The significant aspect is that eh recognises that the man was and remains worthless and that he is able to move forward. The episode also bring into relief the broken relationship with his own son which is to be the main subject of the next programme. Alun has indicated his attention not to participate in the planned 11^th series as has present Team Leader Amanda Redman who is being replaced by Tamzin Outhwaite. The main interest of the double episode has been Bryan coming to terms with his past and being able to move on without the work and reverting back to alcohol.

Before coming to the main experience of my last two days in Croydon the opportunity is taken to mention the excellent third episode of the new series of Who do you think you are? with Minnie Driver, now a 43 year single parent with a four year old boy and living in California. This proved an excellent episode as Minnie discovers about her father and his parents and other family members. She is the product of a relationship between her mother who we meet, a former couture model and designer and Ronnie Driver, born in Swansea but whose family originated from Yorkshire.

She discovers that at he age fo 18 her father participated in the first major bombing raid of World War II in which half the flying crews of 120 men did not return. He received the second Distinguished Flying Cross of the War for first putting out a fire with his gloved hands which could have engulfed the plane and during a time when the gun turret in which he sat had all its perspective destroyed leaving his feet dangling in the open air. His plane had to be ditched into the sea and he had been responsible for getting out the life dingy and getting the surviving wounded crew to safety all but his closest friend who died and was left on the plane. Minnie meets the last survivor of the raid, a ground mechanic and who knew her father.

She did not understand why her father never referred to to the award and in fact is said to have thrown the medal into the Thames because he felt he did not deserve it. With the help of military historians she learns that because the raid was something of a disaster his bravery had been put in the spotlight and was give national as well as local press attention including of him showing his medal to his mother, the first time Minnie had seen a photo of her grandmother She learns that the father had two periods in psychiatric units before returning to the airforce, gaining promotion and marrying the daughter of the then Managing Director(?) of Cable and Wireless. The wedding photo uniform makes no reference to the DFC.

She is also able to learn something of her grandfather and in fact although her father’s parents had married after they both became widowed/widower they were not when he was born. She learns that his father’s job had taken him around the country hence the birth in Wales. She is able to uncover a same generation cousin loving in Stockton or was it Darlington although he is twice her age and from her in addition to gaining a photo of the grandfather she learns that he had a half brother who was a repertory theatre actor who married musical actress and that they had a daughter who also performed on the stage. Respecting the woman’s wish not be filmed there is a telephone conversation although it is evident there was also subsequent direct contact.

Minnie has had a successful film and TV career nominated for an Oscar for her role in Good Will Hunting She is noted for having a high profile relationship with its other star Matt Damon afterwards. She subsequently disclosed that her child’s father is a writer from the TV Show The Riches in which she starred in its 20 episodes with Eddie Issard.

Corleone in fact and faction, as Montabano investigates the The Terracota Dog

One of the great joys of the past couple pf years has been the showing of the Montalbano series of dramatizations of the books of Andrea Camilleri which I am now reading in sequence having mistakenly commenced with the first of the TV series but third in sequence, The Snack Thief, then going back to the first - The Shape in the Water and now having completed he reading of the second The Terracotta Dog, having also commenced to read the fourth The Voice of the Violin.

I enjoyed the reading story of the Terracota Dog which I remembered from the TV show because it is the work which introduces us two key characters, his rival and deputy Mimi Augello and his front of desk man, unintentional comedian because of the mixing up of Italian and Sicilian in a way which reminds of the fake policeman, British spy in ‘Alo ‘Alo getting his English into French pronunciation badly wrong. The book also reinforces Salvo’s adoration of food, especially of sea food and of pasta dishes with unexpected ingredients tot he sauces.

First the main story or at least what arises because of the main the story. A Mafia underboss who has been on the run for over two decades contacts the Detective Inspector through his childhood friend Gege who runs prostitutes and small times drugs on an isolated stretch of beach on the outside of the town of fictitious town of Vigáta. It is important to view Sicily as a separate country in terms of being a 10000 square mile island with a population of 5 million and where the Mafia still controls some areas which in turn as a depressing effect on the economy and tourism and which is covered in the separate dramatization of Corleone, based on the life of Salvatore Riina who for a period controlled the Mafia throughout Sicily which I shall also cover later in this writing.

In the Terracotta Dog the former Mafia underboss decides to spend the rest of his life in prison rather than be terminated by the present generation of gangsters who are not men of honour. However in order to achieve his objective he needs to be captured and this involves an elaborate scheme in which the Inspector excludes his deputy and anyone prone to seek the limelight via the media. This annoys his deputy who seriously considers putting in a bid for a transfer.

Salvo admits that he likes not only to control situations but often take time to think out what is happening and he does this best on his own as well as breaking rules by cutting corners and over stepping the mark, at times by wide margins. In this instance man is captured and placed in the hands of the special anti Mafia squad. However Salvo to his horror is required to speak at a press conference, something he usually avoids and in this situation made more difficult because he has to mislead over what really happened.

Unfortunately what happened is that the Mafia contemporaries do not buy the capture story and because of their inside connections with politicians and the Justice system they are able to badly wound the prisoner when in transit is arranged between prisons. The man requests Montalbano visits and with the dying breadth reveals the location of a cave used by the contemporary gangsters to keep their stock of weapons.

　

The cave was originally created to hide material from the German’s during World War 2 and has an ingenious entrance involving a large rock reminding of the Secret of the Santa Vittoria. Inside the cave there is flooring, walls and roofing to protect from the damp. There is something not right about the cave which the Inspector spots and again works out and finds an inner cave where there are two bodies, later confirmed as young people of both sexes, arms entwined and shot. There is no remains pf clothing suggesting they were killed elsewhere but a life size dog made from terracotta, a dish with coins which help dates the burial and a jug. The greater part of the books is concerned in unravelling the mystery of who the young people are, why they died and came to be entombed in this manner.

He is able to follow what today we would call a cold case because he has a near death experience when those who assassinated the former underboss attempts to kill him and successfully kill his childhood friend Gege. He visits the mother and sister of the dead man to express his sorrow at the loss of his friend and who also provided him with good intelligence over many years.

While recuperating and resisting efforts of his superiors to promote him Montalbano slowly unravels the mystery. First with the help of the wife of man consulted he learns who the girl was said at the time to have run off with a soldier to the USA but this is proved to be a fiction. The girl’s boyfriend was a Muslim who worked from a ship based in the local docks repairing other ships. Montalbano also finds that two historical stories, one Muslim and one Christian were fused to create the scene found in the second cave and where the key aspect is a reawakening.

It also begins to look as if the truth will never be established until he has one of his brainwaves and with the help of the Swedish wife mentioned in The Shape in the Water he used some promised bonus money to hire a plane to make a statement about the young lovers at an event attended by a lot of people and the media and which then gets reported throughout Italy. This he hopes will bring the individual he suspects of having carried out the murder back to Sicily, in part because money allocated to compulsory purchase his land because of a new motorway tunnel lies in a bank waiting to be claimed or until it is established there is no one entitled.

The story the man tells is not what Montalbano expects. The young girl had met the boyfriend in secret because her father was not just possessive but coveted and eventually raped her. I cannot remember if it was girl or the boyfriend who had shot and wounded the father but it was one of the henchmen who carried out the murder of the couple while they were making love. I also cannot remember who the relative had also killed and led him to become an exile for the subsequent years living under a different life with a family. Montalbano in a fashion we are to learn he uses regularly decides to let sleeping dogs lie!!!!

As is the case with most of the books there are two main stories and sometimes there are unrelated. In this instance Mimi, his deputy investigates an unusual theft at a local supermarket because a vehicle with all the stolen goods is then found. Interrogation of the Supermarket manager also raises suspicions especially when a passing witness is also murdered to look like an accident but has taken the precaution of writing down his concerns and passing these in mailed letter to the Inspector. It is subsequently shown that the owner of the company supply the supermarket, a front for the Mafia was responsible for the attack on Montalbano and the killing of his friend but all in vain because the Mafia associates had also arranged for the termination of the colleague attracting too much interest by the authorities in their activities. Why the supermarket was robbed as part of the delivery of the weapons is also explained but do we remember or care?

A feature of the book is the attention given by the author to the food of Sicily and the attention given by the Inspector to his food which he likes to enjoy in silence even when he has company. Consideration of the present day meals cooked in Sicily suggests that Montalbano while appearing to be fixed on fish and pasta combinations chooses food from the all aspect of Sicilian culinary life with along the Catania coast with its Greek influence emphasis on fish ( sea bream and bass, tuna, cuttlefish and swordfish), olives and fresh vegetables such as egg plants, peppers and tomatoes while Arabia provides the use of lemons and other citrus fruits. A more detailed re-examination of The Terracotta Dog especially the notes at the back explains that calia e simenza is a mix of roasted chic peas and pumpkin seeds sometimes with peanuts added, an Arabic influenced dish; the Pasta ‘nastciata is a casserole of elbow(?) macaroni, penne, ziti, tomato sauce and mince beef with Parmesan cheese and béchamel blended. Mensa is a calf’s spleen, sliced into thin strips land cooked in fat while fresh anchovies all agretto means cooked in a sauce made with lemon juice. Pasta al forno in a casserole which can be made with meat, eggs, tomato or cream sauces; and pasta con sarde is broad spaghetti like rings with a sauce of fresh sardines and the tops of wild fennel, pine nuts, raisins, garlic and saffron while the second dish on the menu purpi ala carrettera is octopus served in a sauce of olive oil lemon and a great deal of hot pepper. There is also reference to tabesea pizza (?) and to mostacciola( small sweet cakes of chocolate, almonds and candid fruits) where I can read my handwriting while others notes remain indecipherable written in bed the early of the night or dawn! Not sure I would like to try some of the dishes. More a salami with French bread and olives man, me.

Corleone was the name of the Mafia family in the most celebrated of films set mainly in the USA and but also one part in Sicily- The Godfather. Corleone is a real town of 12000 people in the province of Palermo and known as the birthplace of several Mafia bosses from the fictional head of the family in the Godfather to seven real life monsters, so called men of honour who grew up at the same time and with some family members subsequently carrying on the criminality which terrorised and engulfed the whole community for generations. The most notorious is still alive and in prison Salvatore Riina. He joined the local Mafia at the age of 19. Killed a man in an argument and served six years in prison.

He began to take power from the local leader with the help of other local young men but in the 1950 their power was a very local and they were referred as the peasant mafia by the major gangs based on Palermo. Riina and his associates spent several years hunting down and killing all the associates of the former local leadership with the consequence of going into hiding when warrants for their arrest were issued. In 1969 Riina and one of the others were caught but fixed the jury and witnesses and indicted once more he went into open hiding for the next two decades.

According to the Italian made TV series he acquired a large guarded property growing tomatoes and citrus fruit. Riina became the local boss while others were captured and sent to prison. Despite having a good life, married with a family his ambition for power and wealth remained so he entered the exceptionally lucrative heroin trade which became central to the Mafia economy in the 1970’s as it did in the USA, assisted I believe by the CIA following the Vietnam war for its operations in the middle east and central America and by key figures in Italian society in a similar involvement as hedge funds have been in the late 1990 and after the millennium in terms of the impact on society and the involvement of those in politics and the justice system as well as capitalist enterprise. Politicians and judges who got in the way were murdered often openly.

In 1981 Riina’s people launched a take over war on his rivals, especially those based in Palermo and in which at least a thousand deaths occurred, more than the total of British soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. He became the most powerful and wealthy Mafia head in Sicily until the intervention of Judge Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borseillini.

Born a couple of months after me in 1939 Falcone together with Paolo Borseillini, a magistrate and who grew up together in the same neighbourhood, attending the same schools as boys who became the Mafioso leaders they set out to fight, one a traditional conservative catholic and the other supporting communist values although both were never activity in party politics or joined a particular party. Both men were murdered on the orders of Riina after Falcone had brought back from South America the former boss of one of the deposed rivals who provide key testimony in the famous Maxi trials.

Until the trial in which 475 men were indicted the existence of the Mafia was denied at all levels within Italian society and in fact as in America they ran Crime Incorporated operating front legitimate businesses for laundering money, funding political parties, and buying into the agencies of justice. With Province wide management and coordinating committees as well as national.

At first 360 individuals were convicted and sentenced to a total of 2665 years in prison although a proportion was in absentia. However by 1989, that is three years later the process of appeal led to only sixty technically remaining in prison I say technically because by a combination of bribery and terror life remained comfortable for the majority.

Falcone was murdered in May 1992 and Borseillini in July of the same year, the action taken because the original charges were upheld by the appeal judge in January 1992. There remains strong suspicion that the Italian secret service, who used the Mafia for political as well as personal purposes were involved with the killings. Recently indicted for under age sex former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was said to have bargained with the Mafia, in a political electoral agreement involving an end to the car bombings of anti Mafia investigators and a “moderation“ of the crackdown on their activities..

Riina, as portrayed in the film was betrayed by an associate who he had told would never be made a boss who then fled knowing Riina’s propensity to get rid of potential rivals and provided the evidence of the man’s residence with the wife first identified leaving the property and then Riina himself on January 19^th 1993. The immediate outcome was another reign of terror with bombings of art galleries and churches and the deaths of a two month old child and a nine year old girl. He was subsequently indicted, convicted and sentenced for over one hundred counts of murder and the authorities have taken steps to try and prevent him continuing to control Sicilian crime confiscating over $100 million they have so far been able to identity of his illicit fortune.

Only in in 2006 was the man believed to have taken over from Riina captured after being 43 years on the run. Riina’s two sons followed him convicted of murders in the case of the eldest and for extortion and money laundering in the instance of the younger and both are presently in prison.

The story of this Italian made 2007 mini series originally in six episodes is told through the experience of a contemporary of Riina’s who went to the same school but choose the path of the law and who works for Falcone and Borseillini and survives several attempts on his life, the placing of his wife and son in danger and leading to the breaking up of the marriage although is son joins the police much to the horror of both parents, but which in turn leads to the parents getting back together and seeing the capture and imprisonment of Riina.

In an IMDb note the director of the series explains that this character was made up “to represent all the ordinary men who fought the mafia over the years. Through him we meet the historic crime fighting Police chiefs, judges, politicians (Giuliano, Falcone, Borseillini etc.) and as their lives were all cut short by the Cosa nostra we felt we needed a figure who stayed alive and told their stories. The sad truth is that the real heroes were all killed before they could witness the arrest of the boss Riina.” This truth is not just sad but an indictment of the failure of the post war Italian political and judicial system. It is a grim and depressing reality behind the deaths of some very brave individuals and their families.

The ongoing reality of the contemporary Mafia in the USA was brought home to everyone through the brilliant TV fictional series, The Sopranos broadcast in six seasons and a total of 86 episodes and where the outstanding actor who played Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini died on the 19^th June of this year aged only 52. I watched the series when it was first run between 1999 and 2007. I viewed the series again shown back to back on Sky a couple of years back, except for the final season concluding episodes. As Sky have released the full series through On Demand it is my intention to finish the viewing and my writing up soon.

Games of Thrones season three - 1

The third season has ended of transforming the epic George R R Martin’s Fire and Ice, into the televised production of A Game of Thrones. This covers all of the first book of A Storm of Swords Steel and Snow and part coverage of A Storm of Swords Blood and Gold volumes three and four in the series. The television series has become mega in terms of world wide popularity including in countries such as Russia and China, winning awards including public vote BAFTA and is doing wonders for the economy in Northern Ireland where the 2014 season is being produced. I recently reported that a young woman who I had not met before engaged me in conversation while waiting for different trains at Newcastle station on the strength of my reading a George Martin volume of the series.

There is no doubt that in terms of television series A Game of Thrones ticks all my boxes and those of many others because of its spectacle, great acting and storylines. It is great escapism with moments of shock and disappointment because of the turn of events as characters who have engaged and who one wants to do well are murdered, the equivalent of Harry Potter or two of the main characters in Lord of the Rings meeting an unpleasant end at the conclusion of the first book of 4, 7, or how many more volumes Martin intends to write of his fantasy set in a middle ages Europe in terms of any historical, geographical and climatic clues. The books are also a splendid read full of vivid and detailed descriptions although creating an unease which the TV series does not. This is because in terms of all the killing, violence and forced marriages many of the key characters are adolescent children.

Because there is no evidence that Martin intends readers and viewers to read too much into his work, it remains divorced from the involvement of children in the current horrors say going in Syria when out of revenge a school age teenager is known to have beheaded an enemy, filmed and broadcast. With this note of caution for anyone turning to the books because of the TV series I will move on to explaining how I propose to summarise my experience of reading the 1182 pages plus the appendixes of the two volumes on which the third season is based and because I cannot remember all that happened only in the TV coverage I am not going to attempt to remember where the cut off points occurred in relation to the individual storylines rather than how the whole developed and in this first writing I will attempt some kind of overview as well as concentrating on my favourite of a number of favourite characters the gorgeous mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen the Queen Across the Water. She is the last survivor of the House of Targaryen already a widow at the age of fourteen years.

She now resides in a land which has the appearance of the Mediterranean middle east and is attempting to amass an army to cross the water to claim control of the seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a mythical land painstakingly created and which has three distinct areas. The south where the climate is warmer and the North which continue until a great wall of iced covered rocks upon which are fortresses manned by the Nightwatch who like the Kings Guard in the South and men of other Kingdoms are required to make an oath of allegiance to die defending and performing their role celibate so that nothing can deflect them from their duty.

For the first book called A Game of Thrones, and to some extent the second in the series, A Clash of Kings, the land north of the wall remains unknown although parties of the Nightwatch go to explore and check on the state of things.

I mention the climate, something which is of great concern in my every day life as days of warm sunshine have become something of a rarity and in this fantasy land the seasons last not within a year but for years and sometimes for generations and are also associated with times of darkness in events and spirit as well as of light and joy. The first books occur during summer but with the threat winter about to descended upon them all.

Although it is a land of seven Kingdoms and great Houses of extended families with their castles, Knights called Ser, squires, servants and citizens much akin to what we understand as the middle ages in western Europe, two of the Houses joined forces and controlled the seven separate Kingdoms through one King, the King of the Iron Throne Robert Baratheon who was succeeded by the boy considered to be the legal heir until the information became generally available to those of the great Houses and as gossip among the hoy purloy that Joffrey, a boy of thirteen years when he became King, his sister Princess Mycella and young brother Prince Tommen were in fact the incestuous children of the twin brother of the Queen.

The Queen Cersie was of the great House of Lannister and it was she who organised the death of her husband to place her son on the throne and where she hoped to rule, for as a woman a Queen could not rule even if she and the support of the little or great council of state. She had effectively used her sex to control her twin brother Jamie and continuously plotted to outwit and side line the brains of the family, her brother Tyrion, the height challenge man we would say, but for the purposes of the writing books and TV, a dwarf, whose mother had died at his birth thus alienating from his father the most ruthless, coldly cunning of the House, the Lord Tywin and the man with the money, military power and connections to sustain the Kingship by his family members.

The twin brother, Jamie, is known as the Kingslayer because he was the person who killed the former King, King Aerys II of Targaryen, the father of Daenerys, while King Robert killed her eldest brother with her sister also murdered along with another son. Daenerys escaped with her brother who is also now dead. The Targaryens once ruled the Kingdoms with the help of Dragons, now believed extinct throughout Westeros, except for their skulls kept at the HQ of the Kingdoms at the palace castle at Kings Landing and an ancient belief that one day someone would come who would bring back the dragons out of stone. It also should be mentioned that that the Targaryens are reported to have accepted incest as a way of life and indeed the Daenerys and her elder brother are said to have played in the way of Caligula and his sister.

Joffrey who can be described as a ruthless spoilt child prone to tantrums with disastrous consequences, is challenged by three men who proclaimed themselves Kings. The first two are the brothers of the King or more accurately I should say were as the King in the Highgarden, Renly Baratheon, the younger of the brothers has been murdered at the behest of the older brother Stannis. My memory of Renly is of an essentially good and honourable man while his brother is under the influence of the Red Priestess ( she has red eyes) Lady Melisandra of Asshai of a religion with a God of Fire and with supernatural powers with shape shifting, who conjured a shadow through a conception by the King, which killed the brother while in the presence of the mother of the King of the North and also by a trusted female warrior. More of the warrior lady later.

King Stannis Baratheon has a calculating wife, Selsie of the House of Florent and they have children including a daughter who is disfigured and kept away from company. Stannis has a seafaring former pirate made up as his right hand man called Ser Davos Seaworth commonly referred to as the Onion Knight who tries to Counsel the King against precipitous action but is repeatedly out manoeuvred by the Red Priestess at every turn who claims that Stannis is the man who according to prophecy will arouse the now stone dragons back into life.

The role of the right hand man is called The Hand and is the first Minister chief adviser, organiser and fixer to the King. The right hand man for murdered King Robert had been the brother in law of the father of the King of North. When the Hand of King Robert was murdered, he visited the Lord of Winterfell in the North, Eddard Stark, whose wife Catelyn of the House of Tully was the sister in law of the former Hand.

King Robert commands Eddard who had fought with him to gain control of the seven Kingdoms to become his Hand and Eddard goes South with his two daughters, both children, Princess Sansa a maid then of twelve years who had become betrothed to Joffrey and with young sister Ayra, a tomboy then aged ten years.

After Sansa was betrothed and Ayra, escaped but in the crowd witness the beheading of Eddard at the command of King Joffrey Robb Stark when only a boy of fifteen years is encouraged by his mother and with the support of other nobles in the North to declare themselves independent of Joffrey and with Robb as the crowned King of the North. Robb has a younger brother Brandon, who becomes a cripple when thrown from climbing the outside wall of the castle and unintentionally over hearing Queen Cersie with her twin brother. In certain conditions Bran has the power to see the future. He has a young brother Rickon then only four and the children also have an elder half brother Jon, called Snow the name given to illegitimate children. John Snow is brought up as a member of the Household and to the discomfort of Catelyn and little is known about the boy’s mother with whom Eddard had a relationship before his marriage.

Jon Snow goes to the Wall as a Knightwatch guard at the suggestion of his father’s brother who has now disappeared on a exploration and checking visit north of the Wall where here are reports of disturbing movements and events and where there is lives Wildings or free people as well as in the past dark almost invincible creatures of the undead.

Early in the first volume Eddard finds a dire wolf, a large, intelligent and loyal form of wolf, creature now extinct for 10000 years mainly in the Americas. One of the creatures was killed at the demand of Joffrey, that belonging to Sansa while that belonging to Arya was sent away to save him ad his present fate is unknown while a third, that belonging to Robb is to feature strongly as that of Jon to lesser extent in the latest two volumes.

There are around 500 characters associated with the great and lesser Houses and their courts although fortunately the storylines do concentrate on the fortunes and misfortunes of specific characters and the first two volumes amounting to 1500 pages have been reported on in some length previously in terms of the first two TV series..

In terms of the quality of actors employed and the acting in general, the range of sets and locations, the numbers includes and use of the latest visual technology the Game of Thrones is without equal. However as already highlighted there is a fundamental and important difference between the books and the TV series which has to be reminded and this in the age of the principle characters Daenerys, Joffrey, Sansa, Ayra, Robb, Brandon, and the others to come is that they are children who become directly involved in the killing or being killed, as principal game players, married off and with the girls at constant threat of sexual assault. The TV series therefore has the characters looking and described as older thus conforming to the law and mores of the day.

I begin my first update with my favourite character The Queen across the Water.. It should be remember that this adorable young woman was effectively sold by her brother in marriage to the war lord of the nomadic Dothraki tribe of warrior huntsmen in exchange for using his forces to help regain his position as King of the seven Kingdoms of the land across the waters, Westeros. The two “pretenders” aided by a knight guardian adviser Ser Jorah, who secretly coverts the girl, have been beholden to the rulers of lands presented as Mediterranean North African always sunshine, with deserts and walled cities. The flaw in the deal between the brother, the adviser and the Dothraki war lord is that his men have a fear of the sea and therefore he and they are unenthusiastic about immediately setting off to invade Westeros. Presented first as a Genghis Khan type of figure her husband proved to be a kind and considerate man who dies despite her turning to dark arts in an attempt to save him after her brother is killed with her blessing because of his inadequacy and treachery. His death is the first to reveal that many of the characters we come fo admire and hope to do well is to be eliminated, thus making predicted outcomes a challenge..

Daenerys undergoes a transformation after being in the great flames of the funeral pyre of her husbands body and appears to become immortal and to grow in wisdom and military guile.

Throughout the epic todate there is reference to the age of Dragons where on the mainland only their skeletons remain, but on her wedding day she is presented with the last known three dragon eggs by her adviser and through the ordeal by fire they are hatched and begin to grow. And during this series are able to breathe their fire and destroy but it will be several years before they can be ridden and directed to create havoc in battles.

Having acquired three ships from her exploits in the in the second season she sets said for a kingdom of slave masters who have created a great army of warriors who have been turned into eunuchs and then trained as fighters. Pretending not to understand the language of the slave masters she puts up with his insults appearing to accept the strongly edited translations and much to the horror of Ser Jorah appearing to offer one of her dragons in exchange of all the able bodied trained warriors over ten thousand in number. What she does not disclose until the deal is agreed is that dragons select those they will serve and the dragon taken as part of the deal immediately turns on the Slave master leader and kills him with fire and as the deal has been agreed Daenerys now has control and command of the army. However she makes the point that in new deal world no one can be a slave and therefore they are given the option of going off as free men or serving as her army and to a man they chose her, the Mother of Dragons as she become known and all the other slaves and their families are freed and decide to join in the quest so that now she has the responsibility for an ever increase population in their tens of thousands.

This is the first of three cities and their people that Daenerys confronts with her growing forces during the two volumes of A Storm of Swords.

She has to use all her skills in outwitting men on reaching the second walled city and she enlists the attention of a young warrior who beheads his two confederates including the leader who tells her to submit or he will take her and then pass onto his men for their use and pleasure. By the time she reaches the third city she is having to overcome her emotions and desire for an adult relationship. She considers using both Ser Jorah and the young warrior with lustful eyes but contents with a female servant.

She is also saved from an individual personal attack by a knight who has sought her out and who once protected her father but was forced to accept duty with the man who has killed her father and other family members before she had escaped with her brother.

When Ser Jorah points out who the new arrival is her first reaction she is horrified but decides, subject to a test, to keep him at her side. He retaliates against Ser Jorah by revealing that throughout the exile of Daenerys and her brother the Court at kings Landing had been receiving reports of their whereabouts, some hundred reports if of more and that the source fo these was Ser Jorah Mormont formerly Lord of Bear Island exiled for slaving. This he admits saying he had been promised being able to return to Westeros one day, but as a consequence of these reports the attempted assassinations on her were made.

In order to minimise the loss fo life and because the growing population of followers as well as army of the Unsullied need food and water, she decides that Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan Selmy, formerly of the Kings Guard to King Robert should attempt to enter the city through the sewers and open the gates to allow her forces to take the city with the minimum of bloodshed. This is successful and with now responsibility off a third city to have responsibility she makes an important decision. First she effectively pardons Ser Barristan and decides to keep him with her but she cannot forgive Ser Jorah and banishes him from her side.

The decision she takes arising from finding that having given people their freedom many have wanted to become slaves again to the households of the wealthy where they will lead a better life than fending for themselves She decides to put on hold her ambition to take an army across the water to reclaim her father‘s crown and concentrate on managing her growing realm to ensure the people are well provided for. While the dragons Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal are growing, can fly freely and breathe fire it will be three years before they can ridden and until then their use is therefore restricted. It has occurred to me that the prophecy quoted by the Red Priestess applies to Daenerys and not to King Stannis and that perhaps she does know this!

Inspector Nardone

Staying up late one evening I came across yet another Italian cops and robbers series Inspector Nardone, six stories and 12 episodes over all became must see viewing. The story is set in Milan just after the end of the second World War and features the Inspector Nardone who has moved to the north from the South with a very traditional southern approach to policing, to woman and life generally, but he also is prepared to adapt to the demands placed by the development of a ruthless criminal gang and to undertake the job in hand regardless of the status, wealth and power of those involved. In this respect he can be described as a forerunner of Inspector Montalbano and the Inspector in Romanzo Criminate. He brings together the best talented young men and operates in a creative but also professional way.

Early on like the two other Inspectors he forms a relationship with an influential woman who provides sexual favours to those who can afford her “High Maintenance” lifestyle although in this stance his relationship remains professional and it is another member of the team he assembled who becomes infatuated and then obsessed, despite the fact that she marries a wealthy older man who gives her a night club to manage.

Nardone quickly establishes a relationship with the manger of a firm and finds her wish for individualism difficult to cope with but they marry and have a child together with the next hurdle when as the child grows up his wife takes a job in a car selling firm. As with the other two series mentioned this programme combines the tacking of individual crimes with the development of relationships within the team and their relationships with others.

One of the relationships is between Nardone and a journalist photographer with both continuing to assist each other of the subsequent decade. The relationship is not corrupt but there are breaches of ethical standards which should not be tolerated in this post Leveson era.

As with Romanzo Criminale the youngish Inspector has an elder assistant whose experiences becomes pivotal when he is gunned down into a coma by the young villain whose capture becomes the focus of the series. Because of the success in bringing down a leading citizen friend of the local police Chief, Nardone successful team is broken up through promotions to other parts of Italy. Each has a significant story to tell. One is obsessed with studying to become a lawyer and also the search for a Fascist who betrayed his family and the love for daughter of landlady.

The individual eventually tracks down the mother of the fascist who has left the country and when later the man returns the police officer relies that killing him makes him no different and resorts to using the law. The girl becomes pregnant by a boyfriend and the police officer decides to accept the young woman and child and hen is further disappointment when child’s father returns and girl goes off again. However she returns and they marry and he passes the exams to become a magistrate

Another a former fascist has become an excellent driver a is provided with vehicles which can out chase those acquired by the criminals. I am not sure if it he or the other young member of the team ( one of whom becomes the forensic specialist and is engaged to be married) who also becomes obsessed by the former prostitute. He does not go ahead with the marriage despite beginning to sleep with the young woman and I think it is he who eventually married the other woman and who abandons her high maintenance lifestyle for a meaningful relationship.

All three now established officers in their thirties return to Milan and reform as a group after their elder colleague appears at deaths door. The man is single having decided not to marry a young woman because of the demands of his work when younger. It emerges that although the woman married and had a child the girl is his and the woman, never stopped her original love something which the man she married understood and accepted. The woman has now died but the girl reappears and having found her true father is horrified when he decides that he must return to duty as part of the original successful team. She cannot cope with this and goes off and when he goes in search of her she cannot be found. It is then revealed that she has gone off to train as a police woman. Another story line which I believe was later taken up in the Swedish series of Wallander in relation to his daughter in TV version..

There are many twists and turns including a real; threat to the ife of Nardone before the team are able to capture the villain who has caused so much harm to the city. The series ends on this high note and I presume was not resurrected and as a consequence I for one felt satisfied with a sense of completeness and good feeling rounded off but which had otherwise been what I felt a very realistic portrayal of the times and what policing would have been like.