I didn't watch it tonight because I saw it when it was shown a little while back, but if I remember rightly the blonde was Ingrid: a "friend"

Started to watch this tonight but got interrupted again at the beginning and lost track.

That's 3 eps I've got to catch up on now

Yep, we saw her for the first time in the last ep - I think she was the wife of a suspect.

It's up on iPlayer now.

Ah I didn't know when Ingrid was introduced, I'm still catching up. I've yet to see eps 3 & 4 and I thought I'd give this one a miss because I've already seen it.

The blonde was Ingrid.

For a look at the real Montalbano's house, go to Google maps and in the search box type 'la dimora del commissario'. If you click on the little image in the guest house entry, there are some good Panoramio photos to browse. The actual street view (link) is quite interesting, too.

(Don't think this works on mobiles or tablets.)

Ingrid featured in 'The Shape of Water' - I won't make any comments in case of spoilers.......

I still don't see last night's episode on i player

Hmmm - it's not available for download, I can watch it; but not in full screen, wierd.....

Anyone else having problems?

It's available to DL in the WMP option now.

No problem getting it on i Player myself. Just watched half of it. Caterello goes missing !

Gah, iplayer is so glitchy for me - I couldn't see the episode until I went to a particular page. I have it now

Has he ever been ''there'' in the first place?

I must read one of the books again - this week we have one of the characters coming in to report his parents as missing commenting that he can't understand Catarella and asking if he's foreign. Even Montalbano says he can't understand him, and he's constantly getting names wrong. I'm wondering if he's talking some kind of dialect?

I'm wondering this as well?

I'm not an expert but up until very recently, the regions of Italy spoke their own dialects, and "Italian" was the second language.

However, I love this show, and immediately start laughing when Catarella appears

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_language

I think I read somewhere that the producers of Montalbano decided that everyone should speak standard Italian, otherwise most viewers wouldn't understand it.

The old mafioso's (nick?)name in The Terracotta Dog appeared to be in some dialect: Tano U Greco.

I'm sure I read that the books were written in a mixture of strict Italian and Sicilian dialect - a pity the subtleties don't translate for us.

I think my favourite part had to be Mimi and Montalbano drinking whiskey - Salvo declines drinking until he realises that his second in command is planning on getting married, and starts to drink straight from the bottle - and the morning after scene as he struggles out of the blanket to answer the phone

Agreed, the other funny bit was while Ingrid? was massaging his shoulder, he says; "It hurts down there too."

She says; "Don't worry, I'll see to it."

He replies; "I meant my right foot foot."

Official ratings for e4: 664k.

The table so far:
e1 561k overnight, 640k official.
e2: (630k overnight estimate), 721k official
e3: (650k overnight estimate), 744k official
e4: (580k overnight estimate), 664k official

Shame!

K

Yes it has dropped but 664 is surely still quite good for a foreign subbed drama on BBC4. I think we might just have got used to amazing figures for things like TK.

True. While I'm here, it's worth noting that next weeks official figure (ie for 10th March) will probably be substantially down because it's one of the repeat episodes (I reckon we won't get a figure for it cos it will be outside the top10).

K

I thought the same, already people on here have said they didn't watch this one as they'd seen it before.

For watch it's worth, I enjoyed it when I first saw it a few years ago, and am still liking it now. I'd seen Saturday's before, except for the beginning, so watched it all again. I found myself chucking at some points; how IM and Mimi interact, like two old biddys, IM trying to break the door down, and the massage scene. And others, I thought it was entertaining.
No, it's not Wallander, but I don't think it's trying to be either.
Can't wait to go there on holiday.

I had seen it before too but also watched it again. I had forgotten much of it anyway.

Talking of Sicily, did anyone see that BBC 'Sicily Unpacked' series with Andrew Graham-Dixon and Giorgio Locatelli? It has been on before but it was also on BBC4 in the past few weeks (the hour before IM on a Sat night actually). I still missed the first episode but the other two were fab. Interesting combination of art and cuisine. Stunning scenery too - I really want to go there!

Ciao tutti ~ Hello Everyone!

Now that I've caught up on 5 episodes of Montalbano I thought I'd join a Montalbano forum. How nice to see some familiar names here

There are loooots of dialects of Italian and the differences between the North and South Italian are quite different. Some say Sicialian is a 'language' in itself as it differs so much to 'standard Italian'. When written down Sicilian and, for example, Milanese Italian dialects show that they are Italian dialects, not separate languages.

Essay over


According to a Wikipedia article Catarella's linguistic errors (his misunderstanding of others and their effort to understand him) is said to be down to "his abilities" and this is why the police were so surprised when he got the best grade in computing.

I don't think Catarella is speaking a Sicilan dialect - he, like most/all of the characters seem to speak 'standard Italian' with Sicialian pronunciations or grammar structures thrown in. From what I've read Sicialian has a higher Greek and Arabic influence and pronunciation is a little different. I'd be interested if an Italian-speaker could clarify this


The books were written in Italian with lots of Sicilian expressions!
-------------

I've also found out that 'Livia' is German and her voice is dubbed in the series. She seems to be speaking Italian, but perhaps she's dubbed to hide a German accent. Guesswork!