JK Rowling by any other name
You have to get over the stupid title.
CB Strike (Prime, Tuesdays) isn’t about cigarettes, it’s nothing like Strike
Back and doesn’t star Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s based on three books written by Harry
Potter author JK Rowling about a war veteran who becomes a private investigator.
The gumshoe is Cormoran Strike. Suddenly, the title makes sense. But it’s like a joke that has to be explained. Let’s move on because the series is good.
Strike is grim and slovenly. He wears and sleeps in the sort of overcoat that Columbo discarded.
Into his life breezes the luminous Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger), sent by an agency to work for a week. She explores his emails, tidies his office and dazzles the bailiff.
That allows Strike to discover whether model Lula Landry committed suicide or was murdered.
Strike has as much personality as a fungal growth on your big toe, but Robin exposes whatever charm he has and, by the end of the first episode, accompanies him on his investigation. It’s becoming clear that Lula didn’t take her own life, but someone among her friends and intimidating relatives is hiding a secret.
So far, Strike doesn’t have a leg to stand on. That’s easy to explain as one of them was dismembered during the war.
He suspects dirty play and is determined to seek the truth. Enough people stand in his way, including Tansy Bestigui, Uncle Tony Landry and DI Eric Wardle.
JK Rowling creates wonderful names and, writing as Robert Galbraith, she’s inspired a fascinating series. So far we don’t know why Lula was killed and what secrets her menacing family is hiding. Cormoran Strike will uncover them.
With his fee he might just be able to afford another overcoat and buy a razor. His beard resembles designer stubble before the combine harvester arrives.
I’m warming towards Lord Palmerston. It’s a late afternoon sunshine sort of warmth. In
Victoria (TV One, Sundays) he’s reached a truce with Her Majesty and supports her move back to Buckingham Palace.
So far, I think he’s worth a bridge, but not a city named after him. However, Prince Albert is becoming a prize buffoon.
I was gratified when Janet Mcintyre on Sunday (Sunday, TV One) championed the case of the Godfrey family from Manawatu¯ . Tragically, Anna Godfrey took her life after being brainwashed by soul healers from without and within.
While Janet confronted Ed Strachar in his Arizona home, the Kiwi healer had an assumed name and her identity was protected. Janet, your job isn’t over yet.
Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road
Adventure (Prime, Sundays) sounds like an adaptation of Enid Blyton. Joanna’s a graduate of the Famous Five School of Golly Gosh. And she’s brilliant at it. Isn’t it refreshing when someone shows enthusiasm for what she does?
Joanna is travelling on a network of paths stretching from Venice to the Far East, created about 700 years ago when Marco Polo left Italy on his gap year to meet Kublai Khan.
What a gap and what a year. It lasted about 17 years and, when Marco returned, he brought with him treasures from the east.
It started a brisk trade in silk, cotton, glass, paper, gun powder and spices. He was a tarragon of virtue. It also brought the bubonic plague, which killed off about a third of the population.
Nothing is too good, smart or expensive for Joanna and she set off in a gondola, SUV and train. Tuk tuk and rickshaws will follow if she gets lost. Joanna moves from Italy to Albania to Turkey. Her sights and experiences are impressive, even ‘‘absolutely fabulous’’. If only she’d come to New Zealand. Imagine the tourists she’d bring.
She should watch the enjoyable Demolition NZ (Prime, Wednesdays) to see if we have any historic ruins left. This week, demolition crews pulled down a 1905 building in High St, Christchurch, leaving the facade.
They also monstered a Presbyterian Church in Invercargill.
However, I don’t think the bulldozectomy would be enough to attract her.
We have enough condemned churches in Palmerston North, but have you noticed any of them falling down recently?