| F606 |
Thank you. Erm, when I was starting to think about this interview, I came across what I thought was rather a nice quote from the Canadian author Margaret Atwood.
And she said "wanting to meet an author because you like his work is rather like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté."
[audience laugh]
I'm not entirely sure what that means but it's certainly a great pleasure for me to talk to Ian Rankin this evening, cause probably like many of you I've been a fan of his books for many years now.
I think most of us associate with, you with the Rebus stories and especially with the city of Edinburgh but I think you've actually lived in France for quite a long time, yeah? |
| M954 |
Erm I di- I lived in France for erm er six years er between nineteen [inhale] nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety-six.
Erm, and so for a long time the majority of the Rebus novels were actually written in France.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
everything from book three through to "The Hanging Garden" was actually written in France.
Erm, so that was like books three to nine. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Plus all the Jack Harvey novels.
And the three novels I wrote under a pseudonym.
So I was sittin there in a little farmhouse, very run-down ehm farmhouse in the Périgord, ehm
erm partly tryin to do the place up, and get it livable,
erm and partly tryin to write novels set in Edinburgh, |
| F606 |
[laugh] |
| M954 |
Erm it was a, I mean it was kinna strange but at the same time it was actually quite wonderful. Because, I mean, several reasons: number one, I had no competition.
//I mean writers// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
especially in their early years, but certainly in in every stage of their career, are notoriously paranoid about other writers being more successful than them.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
there was no other Scottish crime writer more successful than me in the Dordogne. |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] [laugh]
//Right.// |
| M954 |
//I was number//
number one in a field of one. |
| F606 |
Yeah. [audience laugh] |
| M954 |
So that was quite nice. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
And also I had to erm invent Edinburgh
//or reinvent Edinburgh,// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
I kind of had to fictionalise Edinburgh to a certain extent, reimagine it, because I couldn't just walk out of my front door and check a fact or a detail. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm and that was quite useful. In fact, the the problem I had was when I moved back to Edinburgh I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to write about Edinburgh.
It would become journalism or reportage;
//it would cease// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
to be fiction
//when I// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
when I actually lived here. |
| F606 |
Yeah.
Did you create it as being a somewhat worse place than it was, or is that really how you see Edinburgh as being a very sinister kind of place? |
| M954 |
Erm, well I mean, th- I suppose, you know, it's a cliché, but I see it as being a Jekyll and Hyde city.
//I see it as being// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
a city of haves and have-nots, and I think it's very obvious to those of us who live in Edinburgh that there's this kind of wonderful centre which is, of which this building is part, which is this fantastic Georgian erm imprint erm of of what a city should be and of rationalism and order,
erm but the city itself is surrounded by these pockets of deprivation,
//which, I mean// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
especially in the nineteen seventies and eighties when I was living in Edinburgh as a student, erm
you know, I mean I I was livin in the rougher parts of town erm for much of my time,
and would read in the papers about Edinburgh havin the worst HIV problem in Western Europe,
//or havin// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
erm housin estates that were so run-down that the first work that Oxfam did on British soil was in Edinburgh.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Was it?// |
| M954 |
and at the same time th- I was goin to the National Library every day, to do research on Muriel Spark, and
//thinkin// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
there's this, th- there are these Edinburghs, there's not just this one city, there are
//various cities;// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
there's these kinna concentric rings.
Erm and through Muriel Spark I got interested in Jekyll and Hyde,
through, you know, Miss Jean Brodie
//bein a descendant of// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
Deacon Brodie, who was the, erm, well one of the erm ideas behind Jekyll and Hyde.
Erm and so I thought, I'm gonna write a crime novel, and the fi- "Knots and Crosses" was specifically consciously a-a-a- an updating slash rip-off of the themes of Jekyll and Hyde. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm, but nobody got it.
Be- because the main character was a cop, it was a crime novel.
Erm and the only reviewer who who actually got an inkling that there was a Jekyll and Hyde motif was a reviewer in the New York Times. |
| F606 |
Mm |
| M954 |
Erm so I thanked her for that.
She was the only person who got it. |
| F606 |
Right.
But nowadays your work is very widely translated.
If you look up the BOSLIT website, you find there are t- ninety-eight translations of your books in circulation.
And I think you said that was twenty-seven languages.
Would you li- can you give us some idea of the spread of languages? |
| M954 |
Ehm, well one of the first was Welsh.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Really? [laugh]// |
| M954 |
"Knots and Crosses" was translated into Welsh. But I remember gettin, and I can't find it, but I did get a letter from the the, whoever was publishin it in Welsh,
I know it exists cause it's in the National Library in Edinburgh,
although I've never seen a copy.
Ehm, they said, "We're having problems havin all these Scottish names; we're gonna change them to Welsh names." |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] [laugh] |
| M954 |
And so they had the streets of Edinburgh teeming with Bronwyns and Dais, |
| F606 |
[audience laugh]
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//erm which I thought was rather odd.//
Er, but it doesn't seem to be odd to people who translate books.
Do you know, in America they very blithely for years would change "pavement" to "sidewalk", |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
"boot" of the car to "trunk" of the car,
even if the the person sayin the word was Scots and would never use that.
ehm and just the last book that I wrote, "Fleshmarket Close"; they changed that in American to "Fleshmarket Alley", |
| F606 |
Uh-huh [audience laugh] |
| M954 |
ehm, a street that doesn't exist,
because they felt that no American would know what a close was.
Ehm so, I mean, the problems with translation aren't just in in other languages; they're actually in English as well.
//Ehm// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
but I I th- what always annoyed me - it did annoy me for many years - was that all the time I lived in France, I was never translated into French. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
and so I'd go to the local bar for a drink and they'd say "Oh, what have you been doing today? Writing a book?" "Oh, yes", "Translated it into French yet?", "No, not translated it." An
I I didn't think they believed that I was a real writer, you know, it was some dilettante pursuit. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
Ehm, and of course it's Sod's Law. As soon as I moved back to Edinburgh, I got a publishing deal in France.
Ehm so the books are now happily ehm translated.
And I did bring, I mean because we are in the French Institute
I brought a few examples along.
Ehm, because I think this is, you know,
what you don't realise is that writers when they become successful, and they are translated into twenty-seven languages and they do have American publishing deals, eh, suddenly there's a weight of expectation on you,
that means that you can't make it too difficult for the translator. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
So my, you know, a lot of my translators were horrified by the early books which were full of puns.
I mean the first book "Knots and Crosses", K-N-O-T-S.
Impossible erm, to literally translate that into another language. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
So that in erm in Fr- in French it became er "L'étrangleur d'Edimbourg",
I believe, which er, there is there is a strangler in it and he does live in Edinburgh, but
//that erm.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] Yeah.// |
| M954 |
And this continued in French so that "Strip Jack" erm a a novel that I wrote in France but about a a Scottish MP called Gregor Jack,
//who's being// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
stripped of his good name and his worldy possessions and everything else. And Strip Jack is also a card game, Strip Jack Naked.
So there are all these resonances in the title which translated in French as er "Piège pour un élu".
erm "Trap for an elected representative".
//Erm, which// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]//
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//a- again, does exactly what it says on the tin.// |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] |
| M954 |
It does exactly what it says on the tin,
but you don't get these
//resonances.// |
| F606 |
//No.// |
| M954 |
Er, and and ehm, sometimes you know that's i- it's not always true, I mean, "Dead Souls" into French was was, you know, became "La mort dans l'âme" which
basically is ehm "death in the soul".
so "dead souls", "death in the soul".
Ehm so sometimes you lose resonances and sometimes you don't.
//What you do lose// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
in translation often is the eh, is the kind of flavoursome elements of a language.
//The the texture,// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
the jokes, the puns, the slang.
Ehm all the things that that make a book, eh that g- that give a book life,
as far a- in the
//t- and certainly in terms of// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
the ehm dialogue.
Ehm and in "Black and Blue" was the first book of mine where I really consciously did try and put in a lot of slang, even if I had to make it up.
//So I invented// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
the term "biscuit tin" to mean a police interview room. |
| F606 |
Oh right. |
| M954 |
Ehm which in French became erm it became er "salle d'interrogation",
//which er isn't, er doesn't quite have the same resonance.// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
An a an I u- a "woolly suit" er a police constable, someone in uniform was a "woolly suit". |
| F606 |
Did you invent that?
//Wow. [laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//I invented that, and erm and in French that became "agent".//
//Ehm,// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
so you can see that you're you're sort of you know you're
//frustrated.// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
But at least most of my French translators get in touch and we can discuss these things. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
Erm i- ninety percent of my translators never get in touch; we never have a conversation, they never ask questions.
And so, and you really are at the mercy of your translator.
Ehm Japanese, I've no idea if the Japanese translator even bothers to try and get puns and local cultural references
//into the books,// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
or do they just strip those out and go straight for the plot. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
It's a it's a I mean I don't think it's easy bein a translator.
I know they they work for poor wages, and they're up against deadlines and they translate lots of books. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Ehm so I know it's not easy, and I know that because I meet a lot of them.
Ehm but it's, I mean it's a dark art.
//And when they get it right,// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
I know when they get it right cause when they get it right I win awards in those countries. |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] Mmhm |
| M954 |
And that's when you know you get it right.
And so far I've not won any awards in Japan. |
| F606 |
[laugh] [audience laugh]
So have you had any fan mail or anything from more remote countries? |
| M954 |
I d- I mean I get yeah I get a lot of ehm emails especially now with the with the with the godsend internet to the website from all over the world.
Ehm and sometimes it's people sayin "Oh this translator's good, that translation wasn't so good; they did do this, they didn't do that"
which is always interestin for the next time round. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Ehm but ye- you get all kinds of bizarre things. People will say "What is a bunnet?"
//And you'll have to// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] Yeah.// |
| M954 |
explain to them it's an, it's a it's a cap,
it's a Scots word for a cap.
Cause a lot of people will try, desperately, to read the books in English.
//Because they// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
want that richness of language that you don't always get with a translation. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm and that means that they'll they sometimes do, you know, Swan Vestas, "What's Swan Vestas? Is it anything to do with swans?"
//No it's a kind of match for lightin cigarettes.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] [laugh] Yeah.// |
| M954 |
So there are various, I've I've actually toned that down a lot in recent books.
//I think there's// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
not as many puns. There's certainly not as many obscure cultural references. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Ma favourite one though is er erm is a book of mine. Well G- Germany is is is difficult.
Erm not, Germans are lovely people and I have a great time on a tour there,
but for example there's a book of mine called "The Hanging Garden" which won a big erm crime prize in France,
and it's about a World War Two
//atrocity that happened in// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
a town near where I was living.
Erm it's the only book of mine never translated into German.
Erm and you might think well yeah, we know why that is.
But they did translate ehm a book called "A Question of Blood" which was about a shooting in a high school, a posh private school outside Edinburgh.
And at the beginning of the book Rebus is in erm hospital. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And he decides he's got to get out of hospital and he gets out of bed and he says to the guy in the bed next to him "You keep diggin; I'm gonna dribble the dirt out of my trousers".
Ehm because to him hospital is a kind of prison camp. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And I went over to Germany to tour with this book and and my erm I I do a I tour Germany with this wonderful actor called Udo Wachtveitl,
who's in a German cop show called "Tatort", which is like "Taggart".
It's been around for ever; he was a young man when he started, and he's now kinna
//grey an an an and er and// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
elderly lookin.
Ehm an and he reads the bits out in German, I read them out in English; we have a great time.
But he said er "Wh- this reference in Germany I don't understand 'Dribbling the dirt out of my trouser leg.' What does that mean?"
"I don't get the re- " and I "Oh, right."
//"You probably don't, you probably don't get too many POW films over here at Christmas, do you, Udo?"// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] [laugh]// |
| M954 |
And so I had to explain to him. So the translator had kept the reference in, |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
ehm but they hadn't questioned it and no-one in Germany knew what it meant because they don't get "The Wooden Horse" or "The Great Escape" every Christmas. |
| F606 |
Mmhm [laugh] Yeah. [audience laugh]
Yes, so you would say that your writing has actually been influenced by the fact that you're being translated? |
| M954 |
I think, I mean, I I, you know,
//I mean you shouldn't// |
| F606 |
//[cough]// |
| M954 |
be influenced by anything, but ehm to some extent it has.
I mean I know that my erm Danish translator; erm, very nice guy who goes to a huge amount of trouble, he comes to Edinburgh, I take him round the places in the books,
//he asks// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
lots of questions.
Erm, you know, he was sayin "Oh my God, Ian, I can't, I've been trying to work out a card game for Strip Jack Naked", a card game that's Danish, that will have the same resonances as stripping someone naked and
and he really goes be- you know beyond what you
//should, you need to do.// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
Erm and because I saw how much agony I was puttin him through I think I did start to tone down
//the erm amount of stuff in the books// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] Yeah.// |
| M954 |
that actually needed, erm, work.
Ehm, but, you know, I hopefully I can still put i- I mean I would never have called "Fleshmarket Close" "Fleshmarket Alley",
//just because the Americans wanted it to be that.// |
| F606 |
//Uh-huh//
Yeah.
Right.
I do also wonder a bit how they cope with the character of Rebus. |
| M954 |
[cough] |
| F606 |
Ehm, you know, whether he is a particularly Scottish Jekyll and Hyde kind of character, in that he seems to do everything all wrong and then he's got this strong moral purpose and he ends up doing everything right.
Or it all comes
//right.// |
| M954 |
//Yeah, oh I I//
In some ways I think he actually he's more like the erm the character of the American private eye. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
He almost operates as a private eye. He's a a law unto himself and he operates at one remove from the main investigation. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm cause he doesn't like authority and he doesn't like being part of a team.
So he's almost like a private eye. It's eh, and I was influenced in the early days by a lot of American cop no- I mean I much prefer the American cop novels to ehm British cosy
//as well call them// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
Agatha Christie style, ehm spinsters and titled gentlemen, solving crimes in leafy ehm villages.
//Ehm// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
with sort of, you know, sort of vicars and
//bodies in the library and er cucumber sandwiches.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
I I couldn't make much of that. I mean I wanted to write sort of quite gritty urban novels,
//and so the// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
American model appealed to me.
Ehm, I'm amazed at how often I get emails or when I'm touring abroad someone comes up to me in a book shop to get a book signed and says "I'm a cop.
And we've got someone just like Rebus. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
There's one just like him in our squad."
And the number of Scottish cops from all over ehm the regions of Scotland, who've said, you know, "You must have based him on this guy I know".
//[?]I say[/?]// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
"No, I didn't base him on anybody. He's he was meant to be an- the antithesis of me,
//in a lot of ways."// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
Ehm he was never meant to be a real cop or or based on a real cop.
But everybody seems to know someone who's like him. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And a- one of the biggest er compliments I got was when the chief constable, as was, of Edinburgh police reviewed one of the books in a ehm in a Sunday newspaper and said "I wish I had one like Rebus on the force. Just one."
//Er, "There's room for one."// |
| F606 |
//Yeah. [laugh] [audience laugh]//
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//Erm, "one rule-breaker".// |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Ehm that of course is problematic, cause it means that if Rebus is the rule-breaker there's no room for anybody else in the books to be the rule-breaker.
//Siobhan// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
has to be on the side of the angels. |
| F606 |
But she's learning, isn't she? |
| M954 |
Well she's learning lots of his bad er
//bad ways, yeah.// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
And there's this ridiculous thing that happened recently, where, you know, there's only a couple more books in the series, and then Rebus, cause the books exist in real time,
//Rebus hits sixty and// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
you've got to retire at sixty if you're in the CID
in Scotland.
Ehm Helen Eadie, an MSP from Fife, who's a fan of the books, asked a question in the Scottish Parliament, |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] |
| M954 |
sayin "Can we change the rules,"
//ehm// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]//
Uh-huh [audience laugh]
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//"so that CID officers in Edinburgh can stick around till they're sixty-five?"// |
| F606 |
[audience laugh]
//That's a g- very good idea.// |
| M954 |
//Er//
well it's bizarre; I mean it's a fictional character for god's sake.
//Ehm and the Justice Minister,// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
ehm, Cathy Jamieson I think it must have been,
ehm said "well, a- there's actually a scheme where officers who are on, you know, who should be retired, can come back and, and," ehm, what was it, "pass their expertise on to younger officers".
And I said "Well, yeah, but the problem with that is that Rebus has no expertise that the bosses at
//er Fettes HQ// |
| F606 |
//Yeah. [audience laugh]//
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//would want him to pass on to the younger officers."//
So we've still got this impasse where I can't decide what to do with Rebus when he hits sixty. |
| F606 |
Yeah. I was quite surprised to read, I think the f- first one was a- two novels ago, where he appeared to be of Polish origin.
//And that// |
| M954 |
//Mm// |
| F606 |
was news to me.
//And I, yeah.// |
| M954 |
//It was the last novel; it was "Fleshmarket Close"// |
| F606 |
I wondered if maybe you were trying to prepare his old age in a
//foreign country, no?// |
| M954 |
//No, I mean that's//
one of these bizarre things where er real life er interrupts your your your fictional reverie,
because th- Rebus if you look it up in Chambers Dictionary, is a picture puzzle. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And in the first novel he's being sent picture puzzles, so, being a postgraduate student of English literature and interested in semiotics and deconstruction, I called him Rebus.
//I mean it was my joke.// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
There's Inspector Morse, which is a code; now we've got Rebus, which is a puzzle.
Ehm and then when I moved back to Edinburgh from France, er almost the first guy I met in a pub was called Joe Rebus. |
| F606 |
Mmhm? |
| M954 |
And he's in the Edinburgh phone book.
And erm and and he lives in Rankin Drive,
//in Edinburgh,// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]//
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//which is bizarre enough in itself,//
but he told me it's a Polish name. He said it's
//it's erm// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
er he himself c- has, you know, Polish grandfather.
And, you know, i- then when I I was starting to think about asylum seekers for "Fleshmarket Close" I thought, well, Rebus himself comes from immigrant stock,
//so that// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
gave the case a resonance that it might not otherwise have had.
//So I was quite pleased// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
to find out that he was Polish.
But I found it out completely by accident. |
| F606 |
Yeah, right. [laugh] [audience laugh] |
| M954 |
And it's "Rebus", if you want to be Polish. |
| F606 |
Oh right.
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//And there should be a little//
dash above the "u".
Or the "s".
//I forget.// |
| F606 |
//Right.// |
| M954 |
Someone from Poland emailed me to tell me how to do it. |
| F606 |
[laugh] [audience laugh]
Yeah, cause I think a lot of people thought it was "Rebus" at first,
//as if it was Latin.// |
| M954 |
//"Rebus" or "Rebus".//
Aye, I me- well, I mean, you know, I don't know how you pr-, I mean, "Rebus" would be the Latin,
//Ehm// |
| F606 |
//Uh-huh// |
| M954 |
R- "Rebus" makes it sound more Scots, and "Rebus" if you want to go for the Polish.
Aye, I don't know. |
| F606 |
Yeah. [laugh]
I mean that leads on to translating in to different mediums.
You know, there's been a TV series, and I gather there's going to be another one.
Ehm, do you have any input into that, or is is that just something that
//happens?// |
| M954 |
//Ehm//
No I get n-, I, well I didn't want input, to be honest with you. I I erm, my god, I mean the saga of Rebus on TV goes back to the very first book.
When the v- when the very, when "Knots and Crosses" was published, I got an offer from erm Leslie Grantham, who at that time was playing Dirty Den in Eastenders.
//The actor.// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
And he and a a producer were gonna set up their own company, and and er he was gonna play Rebus which would have meant, I think, movin "Knots and Crosses" down to London,
and they would just have used the plot, and that would have been the end of Rebus the the fictional detective, I think.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
But that didn't happen; that fell through, because my agent disappeared.
Erm, mysteriously.
//erm halfway through negoc-, it's true, she did.// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
Halfway through negociations, and that all fell apart, thank goodness.
Ehm and then the BBC got hold of the option for a while, and took me down to London and said,
you know, "What does Rebus look like?" and I said "Well, I've no idea, I never
//describe him physically in the books."// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
I said "I know he's been in the SAS at one time, he's been trained for the parachute regiment, he's been pretty tough at one time, he's slightly gone to seed, but, you know."
They said "We're thinkin of Robbie Coltrane."
//And I said, well you know like, I said, the er the// |
| F606 |
//Oh [laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
flashbacks to his army trainin are gonna be just excellent.
//and they said yeah.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]//
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//Er// |
| F606 |
[audience laugh]
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//Over that wall, Corporal Coltrane!// |
| F606 |
Yeah. [audience laugh]
//[cough] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//Through that wall, Corporal Coltrane! And er//
so that all fell through.
And then John Hannah's production company erm picked it up, and er and I knew damn fine that that meant that John Hannah, young, cuddly, good-looking John Hannah would be playing Rebus. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
So we had a meeting and and and that was about as much input as I had was to take him out for a few drinks and get him in character, as it were.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
it was meant to be dinner; it ended up being a ten-hour drinking festival round the streets of Edinburgh.
Ehm, but, you know, he did it for for three, four, I think four erm films he did it for.
And then he decided he was too busy elsewhere, in Hollywood and elsewhere,
and ITV persuaded erm Ken Stott, the fans' favourite, judging by the emails I get,
erm Ken Stott to come back to Edinburgh and do it.
And he did. He filmed two during the summer. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm and I didn't see the scripts, I never saw the John Hannah scripts, I never watched the John Hannah version and I won't watch the erm Ken Stott version.
Cause I don't want actors' voices, not so much the faces but more the voices, gettin inside my head, |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
and interfering with the voices that I've got there already.
Erm but I've seen lots of stills of it and and I th- it looks great, I mean it's really nicely shot, erm,
and in fac- ITV have done something that I don't think they've done before.
On the strength of havin seen the two rough cuts
of the "The Falls" and "Fleshmarket Close" they immediately erm green-lighted, or whatever you say, erm four more. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
So that's them up to six.
But the bad news is that once they've done eight, in total, including the John Hannahs, once they've done eight, they can make up their own storylines. |
| F606 |
[tut] Really? |
| M954 |
That was that was part of the deal,
//erm// |
| F606 |
//Uh-huh// |
| M954 |
which happened with Morse as well, |
| F606 |
Mm |
| M954 |
when they ran out of Morse novels they started makin up their own,
which was great news for Colin Dexter, the Morse author, cause he just started pinchin their ideas,
and turning them into novels. |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] [laugh] |
| M954 |
and who knows if that'll happen.
But I've I've been told that the first erm the first one I think's gonna be January the second. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm and it'll be "The Falls".
And if I make it past the cutting room floor, I do have a scene.
I do have a little cameo.
I am the anonymous, erm, anonymous bystander who rescues a woman from being mugged. |
| F606 |
[tut] Gosh. [audience laugh] |
| M954 |
Which was quite interesting in itself.
I took my son along to the last day of shooting in Edinburgh.
And they said "Oh, we've got a wee cameo you could do. You sort of walk down the street. A woman's being mugged and and you rescue, you stop her from", "Oh right"
and he said "Right, we'll set the scene for you. The red-haired guy, the guy who's been sending Rebus the anonymous notes, erm, is about to mug Rebus's girlfriend Miranda".
And er you come and st- and I said "Oh right, wait a minute, which book is this?"
He said "Oh, it's 'The Falls'", I went
"Girlfriend called Miranda?" "Oh, it- she's not in the book, not in the book." |
| F606 |
[audience laugh]
//Yeah I was-// |
| M954 |
//"And the red-haired guy with"//
"No, he's not in the book either." |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] [laugh] |
| M954 |
So how much of the book makes it onto screen, who knows? |
| F606 |
Yeah.
And do you find this a bit disconcerting, or do you just wash your
//hands of it?// |
| M954 |
//It's just a//
it's just another interpretation, isn't it? I mean
//it's just another version// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M954 |
of the the books.
Erm I mean the best an author can hope for is that people go and buy the books once they've seen the TV series. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
You know, people who might not have read a Rebus novel will be intrigued or interested, or will see Ken Stott on the cover of the paperback.
//And will buy it.// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
And that might lead them to the other books. |
| F606 |
Yeah. Mmhm
But you're fairly sure in your own mind there's only going to be two more. |
| M954 |
Well I'm fairly sure.
Fairly sure.
But you n- never say never, you know?
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Eh// |
| M954 |
as they say in James Bond.
Erm, never say never because, er, you know, Conan Doyle, was fairly sure when he finished the erm
//the Sherlock// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
Holmes books, that there would be no more Sherl-, I mean he murdered him for god's sake.
//He he// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] Yeah.// |
| M954 |
stuck him off the Reichenbach Falls.
And then brought him back and he brought him back not because the books he wrote afterwards weren't successful, but because his publishers waved a lot of money in his face. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
So never say never. |
| F606 |
Right. [laugh] [audience laugh]
Erm I mean I think it's it's a feature of modern detectives that they're fairly miserable and unsuccessful in all other areas of their private lives,
like Morse and Dalziel and, erm, I mean is there any reason for that?
Is this a reaction to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot or |
| M954 |
I think it just makes them more interesting.
//I think damaged// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
people are more interesting. I think complex people are more interesting.
Erm if you've got a complete goody-goody cop, erm I I just, you know, who does the day job, forgets about it when they go home to their family and their
//two point four kids,// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
and and has a a good social life, I just think that it's not as interesting.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
I you know I'd much rather read about damaged individuals, individuals who might just about to be go over the edge,
you know?
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
individuals who are always staring into the abyss.
Er the- the- they interest me more, and that's why I I like Rebus.
And eh, having set him up as a kind of loner cop, every time I've tried to introduce him to friends and potential partners, he's, it just hasn't worked. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
Er and that's not me, I mean I keep trying. It's him.
//He he rejects them all,// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
and and is quite happy to be a loner,
and er, erm I mean I think that's partly because he's obsessed with the with the job.
I mean the job has become his lover, his partner, his life.
Erm and I mean that cuts both ways.
I mean the reason that's happened is that he then, because he's fascinated, because he- he's erm an obsessive who gets totally involved in a case, makes him a very good cop,
but it means that he doesn't have to think about the vacuum or the the emptiness in his own life,
//cause he's too busy// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
involving himself in other people's lives, for a short space of time.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
and I think that makes him a good cop, but it makes him a bad social human being.
Erm then again maybe, you know, maybe he was always meant to be that; maybe he was always meant to be that kind of erm terrier type cop who just gnaws aways at a case like a bone,
//until he gets to the marrow,// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
and was never meant to have a happy social life and er
I mean I think he reflects authors in a l- in a lot of ways, I think authors are
//are loners,// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
do you know, we'd much rather be sittin in a room on our own with a a computer or a pad of pen and and some paper,
ehm than be gregarious figures who go to parties and and book launches and all the rest of it.
Erm, you know, we are loners, I mean we- we're happiest inside our own heads, |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
makin adventures, erm playing let's pretend games with our invisible friends.
The way everybody does as kids but writers just never grow out of it.
So I mean I think that's true, and also I think that erm that writers are like detectives as well,
you know, we're sort of worrying away at a question that we've got about the way the world is, and erm using our characters to try and come to some conclusions about it. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And eh, and I mean I I do think that the detective is a good counterpoint for the author, |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
to that extent,
and that's why I think crime fiction should be taken more seriously,
//erm// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
by the likes of the Booker Prize committees,
//erm, but that's a very different question.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]//
Yeah, right. [laugh]
Cause I noticed in your most recent book, the "Rebus's Scotland" that it's almost as if it was about both of you as people, you know? |
| M954 |
Well, "Rebus's Scotland" is a very odd book, because it started off just being a book of photographs
//by the people who// |
| F606 |
//Uh-huh// |
| M954 |
used to do the jackets,
until very recently did all the paperback jackets and the hardback jackets.
And they had hundreds of photographs,
and they said they were going to put together a a a picture book of Sc- the Scotland the tourist doesn't see.
//And I said// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
"well, I'll do some text to go with it," and then when we started bouncin it backwards and forwards it suddenly became
partly Rebus's biography, partly my autobiography and partly a book about modern Scotland; it's a very odd hybrid.
//It's not quite// |
| F606 |
//Mm// |
| M954 |
travel, it's not quite history, it's not quite autobiography. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
Erm it's a it's a strange book, but in some ways I think it's a it's a very wonderful book,
because it gave me an ex- a a a a chance to say that Rebus's Scotland isn't necessarily my Scotland. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M954 |
The thing about writing crime fiction is that you're not dealing with happy shiny people. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
You know, cops of necessity deal with victims of violence, families of victims, perpetrators,
//with the dregs// |
| F606 |
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
of society, with problems, with social problems, social exclusion, you name it.
Ehm, so Rebus can't see what a wonderful city Edinburgh is,
and what a great country Scotland can be. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And so it was the chance for me to put the record straight. I was gettin a bit bored gettin emails from people in Aberdeen sayin "Why do you not like Aberdeen?" |
| F606 |
[laugh] [audience laugh]
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
//You know?//
//I love Aberdeen; Aberdeen's a great city to visit.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
Erm, Rebus hates Aberdeen.
Ehm, "Why do you no like Glasgow?"
Well I like Glasgow, I love visitin Glasgow, but Rebus doesn't like Glasgow.
//So it was a chance to put the record straight// |
| F606 |
//[laugh]//
//Mmhm// |
| M954 |
//about all these things.// |
| F606 |
Yeah.
//And you als-// |
| M954 |
//And and stop people//
//thumpin me when I go into pubs in Glasgow.// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] [audience laugh]//
Yeah, [inaudible]
I mean you also y- appear yourself in a very nice novel, "44 Scotland Street" as a character, yeah. |
| M954 |
Yeah.
Well that's because I live on what's c- become known as "Writers' Block",
//which is er ehm Merchiston; there's me,// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh] [laugh]// |
| M954 |
and two doors away is Alexander McCall Smith, and at the top of the road is J K Rowling.
And there's a bunch of other writers as well. There's another crime writer called Lin Anderson who lives just round the corner.
And there's a children's author, and I'm gonna forget her name now, but she wrote a book called "Fleshmarket".
erm before I wrote "Fleshmarket Close", but her book was set in the nineteenth century so it wasn't a problem.
Erm, I want to say Nicole Sturgeon but I know it's not that.
Anyway, ehm,
//so, yeah,// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
so there's a bunch of writers round there, and and Alexander McCall Smith said "Oh," you know, "I want to put you in ehm '44 Scotland Street' ".
He said, "Here's the layout." He said, erm, "The local Conservative Association have mislaid this expensive painting," erm
It's gone into a junk shop. Now you know a bit about art, so you've go into the junk shop, seen it, and you've actually bought it.
They track you down to the house,
they come and they ask for the painting back.
I think it's supposed to be a Peploe. |
| F606 |
Mm |
| M954 |
Ehm and er and you give it back to them. |
| F606 |
Mmhm |
| M954 |
And I said "Well, Sandy, there's only two basic problems with that scenario."
Er, one is that if I'd found a Peploe in a junk shop, there's no way I'm givin it
//back to anybody.// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]//
//[cough]// |
| M954 |
//Eh, and number two, certainly not to the Conservative Association.//
//And er,// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] Yeah. [audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
so he was horrified at this and said "but for the structure, for the narrative, you need to do it."
So the Ian Rankin that appears in "44 Scotland Street" is a much nicer |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] [laugh] |
| M954 |
Ian Rankin than the one in real life.
But apparently I pop up in the new series as well, |
| F606 |
Oh |
| M954 |
where one of the one of the characters talks about, has to go to a police station and somebody explains to them why it's not as grim as it is in an Ian Rankin novel.
//Erm// |
| F606 |
//[audience laugh]// |
| M954 |
I I did a a thing with Sandy recently, and er Sandy McCall Smith recently and somebody asked, you know, "Are you not gettin fed up of Sandy McCall Smith writing about you?" and I said "No, revenge is a dish best served cold." |
| F606 |
[audience laugh] [laugh] Yeah.
Well I think on that note
//thank you very much. [laugh]// |
| M954 |
//[laugh]// |
| F606 |
We'll look forward to that. [clapping] |
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