see you next week

I've had a stomach bug all day, which is worrying, a we're off to the coast for Spring Harvest tomorrow, having arranged cat-sitting cover for Magus.

One good thing is that I've had time to watch the cop-show special on ITV3 today. I watch less and less TV because of BBC's contemptuous treatment of its licence-payers, but on those occasions when I do watch TV, it tends to be more and more ITV3. Following a "top of the cops" top 50 were epsodes of Miss Marple, Poirot and a rare treat - the first episode of Juliet Bravo from 1980, where Inspector Jean Darblay takes over an all-male police station, in the austere beauty of the Lancashire Hills.

Best, though, was a classic 2005 Taggart episode, The ties that bind. The discovery of a librarian's corpse flushes out secrets of a bourgeois circle involving "alternative" sexual practices (see title) that preys on homeless kids. DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton) goes the extra mile to try to reach out to one of the kids and finds he has made powerful enemies. It was really good seeing sites around the River Clyde, where I used to love walking. The series pulls no punches, but the one thing I was disappointed about was the absence of Maggie Bell's gritty rendition of the song's theme song (now an instrumental), No Mean City.

Anyway, I have to set my mind on higher things now as I prepare to go blow away some spiritual cobwebs, digestive system permitting. Hope you all have a good week.