Jules Jones

65) PD James -- A Taste for Death [audio book]

BBC Radio 4 full cast dramatisation of the novel, presented on 2 CDs. Two men are discovered with their throats cut in the vestry of St Matthews Church. One is a local tramp, the other a former government minister. The political implications make the murder investigation a job for Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team.

It's a good adaptation played by an excellent cast, and I enjoyed listening to it. But squeezing a long book down into 2 hours 20 minutes means that a lot of material has had to be cut, and I think the adaptation does suffer for it. It's still very enjoyable, but I think might feel a bit thin to someone who wasn't already familiar with the book.

http://www.librarything.com/work/14156

So, arrived at work today to find the on-street parking coned off all along the street. This turned out to be because the BBC were planning to use the street and surrounding area as an outdoor location for some new drama (I think) series, and the coned off parking was where they were going to put the vans carrying the umpty million tonnes of filming gear.

Half a dozen vans of various sizes arrived over the course of the morning, and kit was trolleyed off in various directions -- after being carefully swathed in plastic sheeting, because this is Manchester and there were showers. Thundery showers. There was, in fact, a glorious thunderstorm over lunchtime, complete with hailstones several millimetres across, which I am sure went down really well with the tech crew.

If you've ever watched Doctor Who Confidential, I can assure you that the quantity of tea consumed by tech crew on location is if anything underestimated. What Confidential doesn't show is the number of cigarettes also consumed. They'd also obviously found our local chippie.

Not a lot of actual acting seemed to be happening directly outside for most of the day, but by the time I wandered busward they'd set up camp in the local park, and acting in front of camera was in progress. There seemed to be a remarkable number of people involved given that only two of them were in front of the camera. There were a couple of little gazebo tents to keep the rain off things that needed to be kept dry, including some of the people. I was tempted to stop and watch, but it was getting late, and it's been a damp and somewhat cold day, so I headed off home. I think they were planning to pack up by 11 this evening, so I'm assuming that everything will be gone tomorrow. I await with interest the finished result, in which I shall doubtless fail to recognise the stuff I walk past every weekday.