He's back: Inspector Montalbano

Nice that our BBC here in starting a new 12-episodes of Italian series INSPECTOR MONTALBANO - we already had a dozen earlier in the year (TV label). A sure sign that autumn has arrived - so its a date with commissario Salvo every Saturday evening from now until Christmas! These imported crime series are quite popular here - particularly the Scandanavian ones - I tired a WALLANDER (English version with Kenneth Branagh) - it was the most miserable two hours of my life which I will never get back - television to slit your wrists to. MONTALBANO by contrast is set in Sicily, so lots of scenery, food and wine, sunshine and nicely worked out stories that take their time to unravel. There's always a few red herrings but we get there in the end, these are from a popular series of detective novels which may be worth investigating. Each episode is up to two hours, and in Italian with sub-titles, which is all part of the charm. Luca Zingaretti as Salvo is easy on the eye too and his motley crew are all nicely depicted. What's not to love ... there are dvds as well for those not within the BBC range!