WEBVTT - A Life and Crimes summer reading guide 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 I can remember being in America what thirty years ago, 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.320 and being in LA and the only thing on the 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.800 news every night, on every channel was the Menendez trial. 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:14.120 It was riveting them to see it in the fletch. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.200 And now, of course we're thinking they might have been 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:18.000 sinned against. 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.000 The central character of the first season, who was also 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:24.279 the central character of the second one, surrounded himself with 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.960 so many odd balls and weirdos and people with stories 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:29.840 to tell, and they tell those stories. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.360 I'm Andrew Rule. This is Life and Crimes, and we're 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.040 coming into that season, which in newspapers and the media 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:39.800 generally we call it the silly season, and that just 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:43.519 means it's summertime and a lot of us will go 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.640 away from the big bad city to some sleepy beach 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.240 or whatever, and there we will waste time, get sunburnt, 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.920 drink beer and other fluids, and read books and watch 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:00.440 screens because that's how we pass time. And for that reason, 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.440 we're going to mention some of our favorite things. It's 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.880 not a comprehensive list, but producer John Burton and myself 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.040 have picked up a few clues this year about what 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.920 we like to read and to watch, and we thought 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.679 we would pass on our tips for what they're worth. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.880 First of all, of course, John, we will do some 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.720 naked self interest. I should actually call a book naked 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.000 self interest. That would be very good. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:27.440 It's a good title. It's a good title. 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.440 But as I should not have mentioned that, someone else 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.640 will now pinch it. Naked self interest dictates that I 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.640 plug two books published this year under my byline, and 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.560 the first is most excellent book called Life and Crimes, 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.679 the same name as the podcast published by McMillan, my 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.800 very good friends at McMillan, who I'm very fond of. 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.280 And it's a collection of true crime stories funnily enough 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:53.560 and a. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.240 Lot of sort of stories without giving too much away 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:57.200 could a reader. 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.920 Many of them have been touched on in the podcasts, 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.680 but some may not have. Just for those who like 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:10.079 to read a well curated, well edited collection of true stories, 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.080 it hits the mark. However, of course, time passes, and 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.520 what happened this year was the Easy Street result, where 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:23.760 police have brought back from Rome a Greek Australian dual 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:28.360 citizen Perry Kurumblus to face charges of murder over the 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:33.320 nineteen seventy seven Easy Street case and Funnily enough, John, 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.959 I've been able to get out a book of short 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.720 true stories, the longest one of which is about Easy Street, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.959 and it has now become Chapter one. And that book, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.400 which has just hit the shelves in the last fortnight, 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.240 is called Rule on Crime. On the cover of this 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.239 new edition of Rule on Crime, it has the subtitle 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:00.000 Murder on Easy Stay. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:01.640 So that's just so. 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.640 Our listeners will know that the one they need is 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.160 the one that says murder on Easy Street because it 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.720 has the latest and brightest developments in that story. So 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.680 two books, two books, which I have to say are 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.080 very similar, and I would advise people out there that 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.880 if they buy one, do not buy the. 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.639 Other, or they could buy the other for a friend 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:23.200 or relative. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:25.440 They could buy the other one for a friend or relative, 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.240 and I wish they would, but please buy two by 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.680 all means, but don't expect that you'll find vastly different 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.160 stories between the two. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.840 So if you are listening to this before Christmas, and 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.720 hopefully we will have this episode out before Christmas, great 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:45.000 books to give to friends, families, loved ones, acquaintances, work, colleagues. 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.200 True Now, in the interest of hands across the water, 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:53.080 we must also mention my former colleague and great friend 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.440 John Sylvester, who has a new book out which is 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.960 called Dark City, which follows up his very successful book 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.920 Naked City, published by our friends at McMillan. Dark Cities 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.480 just out and is an excellent collection of stuff, very 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.560 handsome book. And John will be very happy to hear 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.160 that we've mentioned his book because he mentions ours on 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.840 three our w Oh, that's very kind of him, sly 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:19.560 of the underworld. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:20.680 He's that sort of blow. 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.120 So Naked City. You don't know where that name comes from. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.640 Certainly get the book, don't look it up for any 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:26.239 other purpose. 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.760 No, that's right, I'm true. Now we're doing around the 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.680 grounds on books and films. This is not comprehensive. They're 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.520 just a few things that come to mind. There's one 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.320 that came out this year. We interviewed the author The 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.479 Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, and that is by an 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:47.359 excellent Sydney journalist called Neil Mercer. We are critics of 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.320 Sydney things often down here in Melbourne. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:52.040 Quite rightly, we'll work quite rightly. 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:57.000 But I've always had a high opinion of Sydney journalists. 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.280 I think that several of them are very very good 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.760 and we have respect and Neil Mercer is right up 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.760 there always has been ranging around the grounds. Again, we 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.080 have the Definity of Easy Street book by our great 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.520 friend Helen Thomas. It is called Murder on Easy Street 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.160 and Helen has done an updated version of that book 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.040 and she's been in Melbourne this very week that we're 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:27.760 recording to see Perry Krumblas the suspect in court. And 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.719 the time will come next year when she will do 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.640 a third edition of that book with the latest material 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.800 in it. It's a very good project that she's undertaken. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.799 I work with Helen at the age more than forty 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.080 years ago and for a respectable bishop's daughter. She's done 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:45.919 a lot of very tough stories. 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.640 And she was on the show a couple of times 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.840 this year, most recently talking about developments, although not the 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.960 Perry Crumblas development, but other development developments in the Easy 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.040 Street case. She was also so on a couple of 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:05.040 years ago. Will put the names of the shows that 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.599 she has been on in the description of this episode 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.599 so you can go back and listen to her talk 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:12.400 about the Easy streetcase. 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.280 That's good and also if you have a little flutter 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.760 on the horses save you five dollars each way or whatever. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.920 Helen bought a horse in New Zealand, a young horse 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.200 a couple of years ago, for about two and a 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.039 half thousand dollars, which is not much, and she and 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.120 others brought this horse back to Australia and he races 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.920 under the name of Stylish Secret, and he has turned 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:36.839 into quite. 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:38.680 A successful little race horse. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.039 He's only a little feller, but he's out in the 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.280 paddic at the minute. He's one more than one hundred 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.280 thousand dollars in steake. He's going to come back in 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.040 and we are barracking for Stylish Secret to win races 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.800 in the autumn, and our listeners should keep an eye 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.400 open for him because he's a very heartwarming story. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:58.760 An early tip, early tip. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.760 Also, Neil has also been on the show talking the 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.640 Kingpin and the Crooked Cop. Will put a link in 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.520 the description to that show as well, because he was 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:10.559 very good on the show. 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:12.920 Terrific bog. Now. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.560 One of the others up there, of course, is Kate mcclemont. 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.800 She's going very well at the minute. She's really sticking 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:20.880 the boots into a low called Alan Jones. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:22.560 Oh so there you go. 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.119 I've been in the news as well. 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.960 Yes, Kate is a. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.960 Very tough unit. I wouldn't want to cross Kate. She'd 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:29.880 fix you right up. 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:30.440 She's good. 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.880 Now, some people we can't get on. 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:34.120 The show, although we can try. 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.239 We have had Don Winslow, the great American true crime 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.520 and also fiction author. Wonderful author. If you're wondering what 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:47.760 to read over summer, I suspected almost anything by Don Winslow. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:48.800 It fits the bill. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.880 Another great American author ex journo. I tend to like 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.960 them true crime writers who go from newspapers into writing fiction. 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.160 One of the best of the is a guy called 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.480 Carl Hyason who comes out of Florida, Miami, and he 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:11.040 writes a particularly funny brand of fictional crime. And he's 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:12.600 good news. Carl Hyason. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.080 Now, yeah, he's always talking about Tallahassee and the goings 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.200 on in Tallahassee. Did he not do the book that 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.400 was then turned into a film starring strip Teas starring 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:23.080 Demi Moore. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.120 I think that is precisely the sort of title he uses. 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.120 He has excellent titles and strip teas. I think he's 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.040 one of them. He's a very funny guy. And his books, 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.720 although they're sort of comic and comedic and tongue in cheek, 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:41.200 are good in it. As a really top end crime 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.679 reporter in his day on the big paper down in Miami, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.000 Miami Herald, I think he knows what he's talking about. 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.840 So his characters are very well. 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.760 Grounded in real people in some ways, and he understands 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.880 the process of storytelling and how to make it sort 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:02.360 of sound realistic, although clearly then true stories. Another one 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:06.199 like that in America is from Boston. Different kettle of 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.080 fish altogether, not the same Boston as Forloridda very different. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.280 Mone's sort of like far North Queensland and Mon's Melbourne. 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:15.360 That's different. 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.280 But the man in Boston has been dead for a 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.520 long time. But he was a great, great crime writer, 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:27.080 a guy called George V. For Victor V. Higgins, and 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:32.239 George V. Higgins was a crime lawyer, I think a prosecutor. 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:38.480 He was a lecturer in I think literature, and he 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:43.800 was also a very successful crime author. And he died 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.320 in his fifties. So this guy jammed a lot of 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:51.320 achievements into a fairly short working life. His greatest work 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.160 and one that has been a big influence on a 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.200 lot of writers and also led to films and things 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:02.920 like that. Is a book called The Friends of Eddie Coyle. 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.760 The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a wonderful book for 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:12.160 some people. It's just straight dialogue almost it's almost like 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.080 watching real life. He doesn't paint pictures. He just lets 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.680 these guys tell their stories in their dialogue with each other, 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.080 and after a while you realize where the story is heading. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.240 And it's extremely chilling. And if you like it, you 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.600 can then find some of his other books which are 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:30.960 pretty good. 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.679 So I'm listening to Friends of Eddie Coyle at your 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:35.960 recommendation right now. 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:37.880 How are you and how's it going? 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.560 Well, it's very interesting, because I should say listeners. If 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.440 you are on Spotify, it is available through that as 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.400 an audiobook, and so that's the version that I've been 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.920 listening to. Is I go about my day and it's 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:57.880 quite like another book, Trainspotting. It is you learn the 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:02.080 cadence and the speech patterns of some of the characters 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.480 in the book, and from that you can produce what's 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:06.600 going on. What's going on? 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.000 It is very it's as tough. 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.400 As Irving walshap something completely different. Now, not everyone's going 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.920 to love George V. Higgins. That's sort of dense and 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:19.719 it's tough, and that's very much of its time. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.079 True, But it also. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.200 Established a new type of literature in a way, anyway, 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:30.080 something different, completely very English, very sort of Midsummer Murders 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:35.240 in its way, but clever, smart, great publishing. All the 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:39.120 books by Richard Osmond. You know, there's Thursday Murder Club. 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.720 We chase killers or something and we investigate murders whatever. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.760 But he's got a whole series of these and they're 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.040 a little bit sort of cute, kitchen table type stuff, 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:56.360 very tongue in cheek, very clever, very English, and they 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.320 are enormously popular. These are one of the biggest wishing 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.680 phenomenons since Harry Potter. That's how big they are, and 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.760 that can't all be wrong. And I noticed that I 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.040 read one last week that my wife said I should read, 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.560 and I think she was right. It's very easy reading 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:16.440 and great summer reading. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:17.000 Now. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.679 He's also on a podcast called The Rest Is Entertainment 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.160 with a woman named Marina Hine, and she is a 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.360 columnist talking about media matters over in the UK. I 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.599 think Richmond Osmond is also sort of part of the 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.760 quiz Juicy does things like. 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.040 Pointless, very clever guy, very clever sort of in that 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.959 that Stephen Frye. You know these guys with brains about 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.880 as big as Tasmania, who can actually turn their hand 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.720 to almost anything. The TV producers, but they're also quiz masters. 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.640 They're also often they're poets and novelists and everything else. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.000 It's quite astonishing how good they are. And he's one 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:55.360 of them. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.400 And for our first podcast recommendation, if you are interested 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:03.400 in entertainment and also probably entertainment with an English or 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.920 a UK sort of bias, Rest Is Entertainment is a 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:08.880 very good show, as is the rest of their stable. 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.320 There's a podcast company called Goalhanger and they put out 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.520 The Rest Is Entertainment, The Rest is History, which is 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.000 two historians talking about historical matters, as you would expect 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.480 from that title. They also do a World War two 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.480 podcast called We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Oh 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.080 that's Gal, which is brilliant, and they also have one 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.280 called The Rest Is Classified, which they've just started up. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.680 Oh Lovely, which is espionage. 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:41.520 Yespiona, So it's a former I think CIA analyst talking 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.840 with a former reporter. I think still a reporter on 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:50.720 matters of clandestine goings on, and their first couple of 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.720 episodes have been pretty good. They've talked about one of 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:58.360 the Iran KuPS and the CIA and MI six parts 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.000 to play in at an all involved sort of half 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:05.040 drunk operatives from various parts of Lord going in and 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:05.760 doing things, and. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.320 It's frightening the world. Peace relies on who drank vodka? 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.680 Well, that's not that's it and it's a roaring talk. 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.640 Well, while on the English oldie and goldie just a 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.120 very fine writer. Who is Kate Atkinson. I won't bother 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:24.080 going through all the titles she's written, but everything she 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.360 writes is very readable. There is one collection of short 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.400 stories of hers which are beautifully written. They're a little 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.840 bit odd, bit strange, they're not sort of factual, they're 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.160 not like real life. They're a bit magical. But her 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:41.400 novels great Who Done It? They're really classy, stylish. She's 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:47.400 a beautiful writer. Another one who also qualifies as a 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.720 crackerjack sort of who Done It? Thriller writer, but also 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.320 quite a high level literary writer in his way is 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.800 Mick Heron. Now we've probably mentioned him in other years 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:03.760 but Mick Heron spelt with hg N is the guy 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.880 who created Slow Horses, which was a book that he wrote, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:11.120 along with several other books featuring a broken down British 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:18.440 spy called Jackson Lamb, who is a shambolic, smelly, grubby, grubby, greasy, 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.920 broken down left over from the Cold War. And this 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.280 guy runs all these broken down spies in London in 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.920 a broken down building in London, and it's very funny. 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.320 But also very tough and out of it. 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.520 Of course, out of these excellent books which I've been 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.200 reading over the years has come an excellent series streamer 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.920 series called Slow Horses, And as an indicator of the 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:49.600 quality of it, the lead part of the said Jackson 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.160 Lamb is played by the most excellent actor, Gary Oldman, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.960 and the theme song is written and performed by a 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.600 blow called Mick Jagger. Have you ever heard of him? 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.880 It is so good, so good, you'll never regret watching it. 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.360 He abused that sense of sort of broken down. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:10.840 Perfect but he thinks about boozers and losers in an 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:11.960 accent like that. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.960 And Gary Oldman in some of those scenes really looks 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:17.960 like he's sort of just gotten himself out of a 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:19.000 relationship Shop, And. 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.680 Now we've sort of moving into the TV series, aren't we. 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.280 Have you seen anything this year that you'd recommend John. 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.960 So there's a couple of documentaries on streaming services that 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.120 I absolutely can A couple of them, I suppose would 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.680 be good for people who, as I did, didn't really 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.320 get into the story when it happened, and they are 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.400 who killed John Beney Ramsey? What is a great story, 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.560 a very sort of chilling story but had a lot 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.480 of twist and turns. And they mentioned this in the documentary, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.440 but because there was so much footage of young John Benet, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.120 because for those of you who don't know the story 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.040 was a young girl that went missing in Boulder, Colorado 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:04.080 in I think the late nineties, and she was a contestant, 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:11.840 a frequent contestant on junior beauty pageant competitions. And this 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.600 documentary series, and it's only a few episodes, goes through 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.639 the disappearance and the finding of the body and all 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.280 goes into spoilers, but there's sort of many twists and 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.320 turns in that case, and it doesn't stand out as 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.439 a piece of sort of art, but as a good 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.960 primer as to what Happened. It's a quite good piece 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:35.800 of who did what happened? 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.160 One of the great great stories, no doubt. I've seen 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.360 quite a few good series this year and would recommend 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.480 them a couple of Irish. One of those is kin 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.240 kin as in Ki N and I would suggest that 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.840 it's the Irish equivalent of the Sopranos, which goes to 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:58.880 its top quality. It's fearsome casting, it's very tough plotting, 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:01.359 and really it's very tough ending. 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:03.000 It's great stuff. 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.400 Like I sort of a mafia, Irish mafia. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.119 Mafia totally, and it is an indicator of what I 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.560 believe to be a true story, and that is that 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:16.280 there is no Italian mafia in Belfast at least, and 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.760 this might point out why because the locals are a 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.280 little bit tasty. There is another Irish series I intend 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.800 to watch over Christmas and that he's Say Nothing. When 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.560 I say Irish, it's set largely in Ireland. 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:31.640 It's about the troubles. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:36.080 It's based on the most excellent nonfiction book of the 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.240 same title, Say Nothing, by a wonderful journalist and author 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.680 called Patrick raden Keif, and Patrick raden Keff's sort of 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.040 Boston Irish He's an American of Irish descent, but I 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:52.200 believe his mother was an Aussie. So he's the internation, 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.480 truly international act and his books are wonderful. His other 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.679 big one is Empire of Pain, which is about the 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:02.119 opioid crisis and the courses of it, and it also 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.720 has spawned a big streamer series not under that name. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.880 Note speaking of streaming, we've talked about who killed John 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.000 Bene Ramsey, but there's also one about the Menandez brothers, 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.959 called the Menandez Brothers very good, and they obviously in 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:18.600 the news again. Now. 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.560 Yes, I can remember being in America what thirty years 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.760 ago and being in LA and the only thing on 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.399 the news every night, on every channel was the Menendez trial. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:34.000 It was rivoting to see it in the flesh. And 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.360 now it's come up again and now of course we're 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.480 thinking they might have been sinned against, which makes sense 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:40.720 to me. 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.120 Yeah, absolutely, and this documentary goes into that. But it's 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.159 interesting because I was post OJ. It was one of 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.560 the big cases that was all in front of the cameras. 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.240 Yes, and it's up there with OJA, isn't it. It's 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:02.159 sort of the justice system on show with a camera 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:04.200 on every angle. It's astonishing. 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.560 Another one that takes a different tack. This one is 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.880 very much more of a in some ways a traditional 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.199 style of documentary, but also I think does things that 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.440 other documentaries don't do. And that's the second season of 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:20.040 the Jinx. 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.440 I remember the original one, and it's as good as 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:25.320 the first one. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.639 It's not as groundbreaking as the first one. The first 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.119 one again had a lot going for it, had a 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:33.600 lot going for it. And if you haven't seen it, 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.160 go see it because the ending of that is one 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:40.359 of the more chilling endings of a documentary that you'll see. 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.880 I think, Yeah, wonderful, wonderful place of work. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.800 This one has, I think something that a lot of 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.879 documentaries shy away from or just don't capture, and that 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:54.240 is character. Robert Durst, the central character of the first season, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:56.560 who was also the central character of the second one, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.399 surrounded himself with so many odd balls and weird and 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.920 people with stories to tell them. They tell those stories. 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.960 And the director, a guy called Andrew Jireki, has plied 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.560 his trades through his entire career, really bringing character as 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.119 a major part of his documentaries. He did one a 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.119 few years ago called capturing the Freedman's Yes, I remember that, 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.960 so about a spooky, very spooky about a father and 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.760 a son who were both sent down for fairly awful 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:34.680 crimes against children. But throughout the documentary this Andrew Jureki, 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:38.360 he just asks questions. He asks questions of people who 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:42.320 were the witnesses and the trials, people who were involved 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.880 in the trials, and again the characters came out, and 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.440 he had access, not unlike the Menendez or John Bna case, 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.719 to a whole bunch of videos so he could make 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.280 it incredibly rich. A lot of home video from the 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:56.159 capturing from the Freedman's. 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:00.320 Wonderful when they've got an opportunity to mine that material, 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.720 just thinking it's not crime but fascinating. The It and 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:09.640 Senner documentary about the racing Drover and Amy Weinehouse, Yes, 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.600 one called one's called Senna and one's called Amy, I think. 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.040 But wonderful life stories but broad to life because each 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:18.800 of them grew up at a time and were a 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.720 sufficient interest that people filmed them a lot, so that 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:23.840 every part of their life has been filmed. 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:24.320 YEP. 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.879 It's an incredible thing to have if you're a documentary maker, 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:29.000 which doesn't. 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.600