...as I am real life busy, very much so, right now:

1.) Courtesy of the BBC iPlayer, I've watched An Englishman Abroad. Now kathyh had given me the radio versions of Alan Bennet's two plays, "An Englishman Abroad" and "A Question of Attribution", which are collectively known as "Single Spies" , some Christmases ago, so I was familiar with the tale. And oddly enough: despite the fact that the tv version of An Englishman Abroad actually stars Coral Browne, the actress who met Guy Burgess in Moscow, playing herself several decades later (which is - um, the only case of RPF written that got filmed with one of the two participants cast?), I liked the radio version better. Mostly due to two factors: Firstly, the tv version tries to open up visually and only succeeds in including some walks across Moscow between Bennet's sharp dialogue, which means pace is lost, not visuals gained; and secondly, this I have to explain further. Both versions end with Coral Browne, who had been asked by Burgess to shop in London for him, going through various shops - where they're only too happy and don't bat an eyelash at getting orders for Mr. Burgess, notorious spy - only to end up in one where they refuse to take orders for Guy Burgess. Our heroine then explodes into the second of her two blistering anti hypocrisy speeches in this play. (The first one was actually directed at Burgess himself, in Moscow.) Now, here's where radio and tv version part company: after C.B. ends with "thank God I'm Australian" (and not English), the shop employee replies that actually, he's not English, either. What is he? Hungarian. In the tv version, this carries no punch, C.B. just exits in triumph. In the radio version, however, her narrative voice suddenly remembers - this taking place in the late 50s - what happened in Hungary only a few years earlier: the crushing of the uprising by the Soviet army. This turning the thrust of her speech about the English hypocrisy of fawning about Burgess when everyone just thought he was a drunken upper class twit and snubbing him after it's revealed he actually had convictions and ideals upside down, and she exits quietly. Alan Bennet doesn't judge Burgess in either version - and both actors get across the charm as well as the underlying desparation - but the radio version has this reminder that what Burgess did and supported had been revealed to be a tyrannical system, not a socialist utopia, long before he was ever found out, and I think that's more complicated and better writing.

2.) I've read the novel J.K. Rowling published under a pseudonym, The Cuckoo's Call, which is a very enjoyable whodunit. Just a few observations: given that the Harry Potter novels were, the odd prologue side, strictly limited to Harry's pov, it hadn't surprised me that The Casual Vacancy was a multiple pov ensemble story. It must have felt very liberating after seven books of a single pov. The Cuckoo's Call chooses a different format yet again; just two character's pov, who are our two leads. Speaking of whom, they're a burly and partially disabled noir detective, Cameron Strike, and his new perky and extremely competent secretary, Robin (and yes, a Batman joke is made, by Strike himself, and it misfires to his embarassment) - that's a female Robin - respectively, a classic odd couple who aren't playing out a romance but form a friendship-against-the-odds. (She's newly engaged and he's just broken up with a long term girlfriend.) Their interaction is very enjoyable to read, and as for the mystery, it's done in classic fashion, with red herrings and clues and a showdown where our hero reveals all. The location is London, which means I can actually recognize the places described. Something I found interesting is that while The Casual Vacancy, with its small town setting, is among other things not just a satire but a biting attack on certain conservative attitudes re: welfare system, social justice and the underprivileged, and while not a whodunnit still opens and closes with death and its fallout on a community, The Cuckoo's Call, while also tracing the effect of a death on the various suspects and survivors, several of whom are very rich, is lacking of both that anger and the sharp satire. Which is all the more remarkable because the woman whose death our hero is investigating is a supermodel, which means a lot of the characters are employed in the fashion industry. But while there is some humor, there is neither satire or anger. (Not even when the press practice of celebrity phone hacking is mentioned, something Rowling had personal experience with and testified about last year in court.) And speaking of things which aren't there: given the main character's family background - his mother was a groupie, his father was an archetypical 60s superstar whom he's met twice in his life - I bet 9 out of 10 people would have made Daddy issues his central trauma. Not Rowling. You get the impression Strike is mostly annoyed when people ask him about his father (though it can be useful when investigating show biz people), but that if no one brings the guy up, he's not thinking about him at all. Instead, his main traumatic emotional preoccupation which he works through in the course of the novel, other than the case, of course, is the recent breakkup and his whole relationship with his ex. And lastly: Not only are Robin's temp skills awesome and made me think of Donna Noble, Supertemp, but it turns out Strike is a firm believer in keeping meticulous records as well. This makes him the first P.I. in a long time I've encountered in a book who values case records (not least because he doesn't want the murderer to get away at court because the evidence collecting has been mishandled).