Friday, 14 January 2011

Yen For Zen

I have really had fun watching Zen on Sunday nights recently.

sewell zen

Rufus Sewell is a superb choice to play this Venetian detective. I have enjoyed many of his earlier performances  -especially Seth Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm [ITV 1995] …

sewell starkadder CCF

…and last autumn as Tom Builder in Pillars Of The Earth [Channel 4]

sewell tom builder 

And I have loved listening to him reading the adventures of swashbuckling Dr Syn on BBC7 over the past five years.

We discovered Michael Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen stories many years ago, with this one

zen dead lagoon

Dead Lagoon was the first one we read [I think we picked it up in a charity shop on holiday]

Bob was immediately impressed by a detective who drank proper coffee!

Dibdin died three years ago in Seattle [which claims to be the world’s coffee capital!]

There are eleven Zen mysteries, and we have not read them all – and I confess that I have found some were better than others.

AA Gill reckons Rufus Sewell is “the British equivalent of George Clooney”

I do hope they make some more of these – I dream of visiting Rome one day, and at the moment this seems the nearest I’ll ever get!

2 comments:

  1. We watcvhed it last week, for the first time. Beautiful scenery, but quite a difficult plot. He makes a very laconic Detective!

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  2. Goodness, another one for the i-player search! Though if Barbara found the plot difficult I fear I may not be its match! Thanks for all the Willows work- it's bringing us much smile factor here!

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