Back to Basics

One of the few professional stand-up comics I've met who wasn't bitter, twisted, malign, graceless, grumpy, chippy, egomaniacal and slightly to the left of Stalin is Mark Billingham. We bonded at the Dubai literary festival earlier this year, and I liked him so much that I very nearly bought one of his bestselling crime thrillers.

The reason I didn't in the end was that I decided a) if I liked it, it would make me jealous and hate him, b) if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye and c) I don't really do bestselling crime thrillers because when you've read one series about a detective with a rackety personal life investigating a serial killer with an unusually vile and pervy modus operandi you've pretty much read them all, haven't you?

So, imagine my surprise when I watched the first episode of Thorne: Sleepyhead (Sunday, Sky 1), starring Billingham's creation DCI Thorne…

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