Can't you read?

Apparently 40% of UK adults haven't read a book in the last year. And I can believe it. I travel on buses and trains a fair bit and can see that having your head stuck in a book has been overtaken by doom scrolling. It's sad, but what are you gonna do? I've always had the reading bug. It's never left me. I still remember making the leap from junior fiction to adult fiction. I'd been getting my fix down at the local lending library on stuff like The Hardy Boys mystery stories before dipping my toe into Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl and the Fontana Ghost Stories. It wasn't long after that I was topping up my library intake with anything (and I mean anything) I could get hold of from secondhand bookshops, relatives' bookshelves, flea markets etc.

I can remember devouring the Callan novels (c.1974) by James Mitchell. It had been a TV series (and a film, I think) in the late 60s/early 70s but I was always tucked up in bed when it came on; it opened up another world - a world of espionage, exotic locations (well, East Germany), spies & professional hit-men. I was hooked. 

It's only recently I've got around to watching the DVDs and, I've got to say, it's held up remarkably well. Edward Woodward is nothing short of brilliant and his stooge, Lonely, (played by Russell Hunter) is like something out of Samuel Beckett.

Here's the intro/theme music. I remember it, of course, but it must have been through watching  late night Channel 4 reruns many years later.

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Edward Woodward (1930-2009)

Russell Hunter (1925-2004)