But I imagine that the cops who deal with it day-to-day DO have a dark humour... A bit like medics... if anyone knows any med students, doctors or nurses... gruesome humour that's when it's not being totally 'gross out'


Anyone read any of the Icelandic Sagas ? Are they dark and brooding ?

Random... Noggin the Nog and NogBAD the BAD


Isn't it the Croquettes one mentioned above ?

My guess for the Oh Catarella moment is 20 minutes

Although I complained a bit about this programme last time, I actually enjoyed that episode. I think I had just been surprised at how different it is to other European crime dramas that I watch. The tone is generally pretty laidback and humorous - Italian men discussing women etc! I quite like Montalbano as a character too.

Just caught up with "Croquettes" on iPlayer, and I really enjoyed it. I certainly preferred it to the first one. It was a pretty decent plot, and the atmosphere, humour, characters (and sex!) are all really enjoyable.

It was ok although I prefer my crime darker and don't understand the idiotic police officer who rarely leaves the station.

Another problem I have is with the female characters. Why do so many appear unclothed but the male characters remained fully clothed?!

It's like being stuck in the past but it is an Italian programme I suppose.

A new series of the programme starts at 9pm on Saturday 11 February

Hopefully than means we'll be able to play a weekly Oh Catarello competition

I'll go for 8mins in the Oh Catarello comp(if he is in it?).

Don't forget this Saturdays episode is repeated next Wednesday(15th) if you can't watch/rec the premiere.

is this worth a Watch ? after watching the killings & Recording borgen

Sat, Feb 11 · 21:00-22:45 · BBC4
Inspector Montalbano
The Snack Thief

Description
1 New series. The curmudgeonly Sicilian detective investigates the killing of a local businessman.
The victim's widow alleges his Tunisian lover, who has mysteriously disappeared, was responsible,
and Montalbano begins to believe the case is linked to another suspicious death that occurred that day.
As the inspector searches for the suspect, he manages to find her five-year-old son,
and asks his partner Livia to look after him - little suspecting how attached she will grow to the boy.
Italian detective drama, based on the novels by Andrea Camilleri, starring Luca Zingaretti.

Goes reading this thread

calendar ticked!! though i have a feeling i already read the book... the snack thief is the poor boy who, when his mum disappears, resorts to stealing the snacks/food of schoolchildren in a nearby school...

No, it’s absolutely dreadful. BBC4 have made a serious mistake by buying 10 eps of this and planting them in the Killing/Borgen slot. Montalbano is nowhere near the quality of either of those programmes but BBC4’s attitude seems to be “it’s foreign, so that makes it the same”.

Absolutely. I love Italy, speak a bit of Italian, enjoy TV crime drama, and like sub-titled films. If anyone is going to like Montalbano it should be me. Unfortunately I found the two episodes shown previously to be way below my quality threshold. I will give these new episodes a chance, but I am not optimistic.

I'll give them a go on the repeat episode

I didn't think much of it at first as I had been so used to the Scandi dark stuff. However I've got to quite like this series now, and Montalbano himself.

Spiral, Wallander and the Killing 1/2 were OK, wasn't too fond of Borgen "the political soap"

Didn't rate this first time round. Far too much dialogue and I thought the acting wasn't that good.

Subtitled foreign films have a definite appeal for some and the BBC are buying them cheaply I guess and will continue to do so if people will watch them.

But so many good subtitled foreign language films are available, that would satisfy that market..

This hasn't been shown for years.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OKQdp6iGUk

The BBC4 website has details of the first two episodes, The Snack Thief and The Voice Of The Violin. It also has details of the two episodes shown previously. I'm hoping this is a mistake and they will put details of the other "new" episodes up later on

I feel most sorry for Acorn Media, releasing the first 4 films and clearly hoping for a some kind of boost from The Killing and Borgen. They’dve been far better adding “Carry On” to the title as that’s the only way I see this farcical nonsense catching the public’s imagination. Anyone planning on buying the DVD release, just hold off for 5 minutes after it’s released and you’ll easily be able to pick it up for peanuts.

I’m baffled as to why the Beeb didn’t snap up the remaining unseen Lassgard Wallanders (which we’ve been promised for ages now), Sebastian Bergman or even Beck (both of which I keep reading about as other great policiers) to plug the gap left by Borgen. Shoving Montalbano in that slot is like playing The Birdie Song at a requiem mass. Why waste money on this when I daresay they could have had something of serious quality in it’s place for the much the same dosh? Do they think that pretty girls and sun-drenched vistas are what the BBC4 audience now crave as winter really bites??

Didn't the BBC say that the other Wallanders aren't contemporary enough or something? And I thought we were getting Sebastian Bergman at some point - I'm sure some were discussing it on here - unless it was just a rumour.

BIB - The ratings tell a slightly different story. IIRC, the repeat showings of the first two films got over 500K, so it seems there is an audience out there for IM, but it may not be exactly the same audience as enjoyed the "darker" (in all senses of the word!) Scandinavian dramas.

K

A fairly lengthy gap between screenings IIRC and if it’d been popular surely the Beeb would’ve bought more years back when it was first aired? Wallander benefitted in this way from just two eps being aired while Inspector Slaphead was left on the shelf until now. Over 10 eps I’m almost certain familiarity will breed contempt.

There was a time when I nearly bought all the DVDs from Australia, sight unseen. One of the rare occasions I made the right decision and passed!

If this toss starts getting the kind of press TK and Borgen did I’ll eat a whole selection of hats.

I concede that you'll be unlkely to be on a "beanie" diet any time soon! The only "quirk" the Commisario seems to have is his diet (or lack of) and there aren't many jumpers in evidence! But there are the "Oh Catarello" moments to enjoy/endure (delete as applicable).

K

BBC4 announced that they had the rights to The Bridge and Sebastian Bergman at the same time

http://www.televisual.com/news-detai...a_nid-833.html

Well we'll see won't we? We get the message by now - you think it's a crap show.

i seem to remember trying this show last year, couldnt follow as the dialogue was very fast and verbose. also iirc the italian dialogue was very shouty which was even more off-putting. i'll stick to the lilting scandinavian shows, tak

Thanks - yes I did think that it was a definite that we were going to get Bergman.