Ben Thomas

Pam Ayres?

It beggars belief that Jonathan Ross still has his ITV show, I’ve never met anyone who watches it.

The Cabinet of Dr. Toinette In our house we have a study.  It’s where I tend to work when I work from home, so there’s a desk.  There are many book cases on which there are many, many books.  And in one corner …

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A Torino part 4 – Cacciatori di Tartufi It was our last day in Turin and it felt like we’ve barely been here at all.  We didn’t have to check out of our lodgings until 11am.  I suspect our host, Nico, wanted a lie-in.  Not…

summers2theb.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/a...

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A Torino part 3 – Mercante di Limoni Out into Turin proper to do some proper holiday shit today.  I don’t really approve of doing stuff when I’m on holiday as a rule, but it was our first time in Turin, Caroline wanted to explore…

summers2theb.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/a...

Yup, Su Pollard’s won it again I fear.

A Torino part 3 – Lait e Formagg I didn’t really want to carry on being on holiday after the work call.  That’s not strictly true.  Carrying being on holiday would’ve been great, but all my remaining mental energies were…

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A Torino part 2 – La Spada di Damocle “Change Programme”.  Who knows what a “Change Programme” is? I change programme when I turn the telly on and accidentally tune into Not Going Out with Lee Mack.  This is a different thing…

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A Torino part 1 – Spaghetti all’Assassina Our lodgings on Via Saluzzo were perfectly adequate, ignoring the six flights of stairs you had to climb to get there.  Were the fixtures and fittings a little tired?  Yes, but aren’t we …

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Rail to Torino part 3 – The Big Train Bit I didn’t explain why we were travelling to London, did I?  That’s careless.  We were travelling to London as we were going away for a few days.  Abroad, no less.  On the contine…

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Rail to Turino part 2 – The Gentleman Earlier, before the budget hotel in Kings Cross, I met an interesting gentleman outside of Swindon station.  I am often a magnet for oddities.  I’d hesitate to describe him as one of Swin…

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Rail to Turino part 1 – Do Not Shatter my Sinuses On a Monday night Caroline and I found myself, not for the first time in our lives, in a Premier Inn.  We’ve all been there.  This was a London one, specifically near London St Pancreas S…

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That’s very strange, how do you even do Miranda without Miranda Hart? You’ll be telling me there was a US version of Sorry with Rodney Dangerfield next.

He looks like he should be keeping bees in 1950’s Wales.

Not long until Santa Woke will be visiting to turn the wee’uns against us.

Is Ed Hime still writing for television? If so, how and why?

Fuck, is SNL still going? You’ll be telling me Jonathan Ross still has a chat show next.

I literally know less about Doctor Who now then when I first started listening to it.

Sometimes in life you have to make time to watch squirrel videos on YouTube with your cat.

Troughton would’ve had sex with the patient first.

During the subsequent autopsy, obviously.

I’ll be honest, he’s not the elderly American I would have picked to die in his sleep last night.

The Thursday Murder Club: how not to adapt a book Netflix’s film misses the joy of Richard Osman’s novel – and now no one will make another version

"Really, I don’t mean to go on, but then I doubt the film-makers meant to muff the ending in a way that torpedoes later books either. This should have been a six-part BBC One series with budget to match. But I’m sure the money was very nice." This week's column is on how not to adapt a book.

Every time I saw a piece of his artwork I couldn’t help but marvel and think: “Christ, how long did that take him?”

Dumb Witness
Cards on the Table
A Caribbean Mystery
Nemesis
Hallowe’en Party

I wish that had been Peter’s actual costume.

Finished reading the new Slough House book today. I don’t know how Mick Herron keeps getting better and better at writing but he does.

The books are deceptively well written, neatly every chapter ends in a small cliffhanger that isn’t resolved until the chapter after next, meaning they’re very difficult to put down.

More like a claw hammer wrapped in cheap ham.