PSA – The Crow Road on BBC4 tonight

Read the book and watched it when it was first on. I hope it is as good as I remember.

I always thought it was the beginning of his decline, loved all the previous novels but always thought The Crow Road was a bit meh. Still good, but not brilliant. I gave up after Whit.

Always want someone to do a film version of Espedair Street, would really lend itself to it.

Wasn’t there rumours that someone was going to do a Culture film/series treatment?

Consider Phelbus?

Wow, remember watching this first time round. Thanks for posting 👍🏽
RM.

Wasn’t there rumours that someone was going to do a Culture film/series treatment?

AmazonTV have/had the rights I believe but his estate pulled the plug. I don’t think anyone will get the Culture books filmed in a way that gives them the depth and nuance they deserve.
Espedair Street and several other ‘non-M’ books would make great TV though. I’d love a good, gritty, 90s-fest of an adaptation of Complicity.
Stonemouth was on a few years ago but didn’t really spark much (a bit like the book).
Transition (which was ‘M’ in the US but non-M here) could be a fun sci-fi one for someone to do too.

Complicity with Jonny Lee Miller, Brian Cox, Bill Patterson and others

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0188518/

They made a movie of Complicity in 2000. It seems to have sunk without trace.

I always found the climax of The Crow Road a little disappointing. I might re-watch it tonight. There’s nothing else on.

I always thought it was the beginning of his decline

I thought his last two were very good, especially The Quarry. Although maybe it’s because it was published after his death that I found it so good.

is bbc4 available on broacast tv now? or can I just catch up on iPlayer?

Dunno. I get it through SKY.

Decline? The book opens with “It was the day my grandmother exploded.” And picks up from there. Pacemakers and cremations, apparently it is a thing.

BBC4 is available on freeview in standard and HD

I read and watched the Crow Road a few months ago and found it very enjoyable but agree the end is a little flat. My 15 year old daughter enjoyed updating her friends on Aunty Janice’s antics each week

Oh excellent. My favourite of his books. I think I must’ve watched this previously but can’t recall. Good shout thanks

BBC4 is available on freeview in standard and HD

Thanks, I will try a retune on my box as I’m seem to recall it vanished a whlie ago when bbc3 came back online

edit – it was there but not in my favourites list. thanks for that!

I heard Phoebe Waller-Bridge is doing a TV adaptation of the Culture series.

Working title: Consider Phleabag.

I love The Crow Road, I read it twice back to back. Didn’t see the series when it was first on but think I managed to find a dodgy copy of it, but I could equally be thinking of a different one.

Might give it a watch and find out. Cheers.

Pacemakers and cremations, apparently it is a thing.

I shared a lift to Bike 1998 (or somewhere around then) at the NEC with the bloke who was in charge of the county crematoria. We spent a pretty fascinating 300 mile round trip listening to him tell us about exploding pacemakers, digging up rotting corpses and similar. The fact I remember this conversation almost 25 years later but can’t remember the name of the bloke, his actual job title or why he was with us*, says everything.

* as in, he was a friend of a friend. But, which friend?

IIRC the film of Complicity wasn’t very good…Its a long time ago and I may be wrong.
Espedair st could indeed be brilliant – that’s my favourite of the books.

I met Iain Banks at a book signing in Glasgow (probably about 25 years ago now!) and I asked him if he thought they could ever make a film one of the Culture books.  He said he thought Consider Phlebas was the only one.  There was meant to be a compendium of his workings and sketches for his Culture books coming out wasn’t there?  Quite keen to see that happen.

I loved the Crow Road series when it was first shown.

I watched it again a while back. Its still really good but feels very dated, and there’s been a lot since it was on that means it stands out slightly less style-wise.

Great though.

Crow Road is perhaps my favourite Iain Banks book. Followed closely by Espedair Street which I re-read recently & thought was nearly as good as when I first read it.

Saw the series a while back. It works. A very young Dr Who in there. Enjoyable, but I keep going back to the book.

Thanks for the PSA – maybe I’ve missed it. Will it be on iPlayer…?

There’s something not right about that version… Why don’t the cast age? I mean, yes they age a bit but even then, not always in the same direction. I mean, David Robb FFS. Paul Young has looked exactly as old as he does now since he was 5. Peter Capaldi’s sort of eroded, I suppose but he’s 65 and pretty much all of that’s happened in the last 2 years. Bill Paterson has 2 ages, “with moustache” and “without moustache”

But most of all, Joe McFadden. You can’t tell me that’s normal. There’s 20 years between Crow Road and Holby, he must have spent it in a fridge

Have it on DVD, think I got it from Fopp years ago.

Absolutely loved Complicity but never seen the film. I reckon Canal Dreams could actually work quite well if rather unbelievable (I’ve only read it once actually, I may be over dramatising it).

Whit was good, Song of Stone is the prog album we don’t talk about, The Business was decent enough and then it seems like a couple of rehashes – Steep Approach = Crow Road, Dead Air = The Business (IIRC) then Stonemouth which was a return to form. I really wanted to like The Quarry but again, another rehash (Wasp Factory cum Whit) and just felt rushed.

The Hydrogen Sonata, on the other hand, had a new ITG and as such can never be faulted. Because why would you? 😛

The book opens with “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”

Booking my own father’s cremation, ‘Does he have a pacemaker’ was the first question asked and Mr Bank’s line was my immediate, highly inappropriate, thought.

A gp who I trained with made the same mistake once. She said it “blew the doors off Wakefield crem”

I watched the first half of what was shown last night. Turns out I hadn’t seen it when it first came out after all, or if I did I don’t remember any of it.

If someone could do it well,Espedair Street would be fantastic.

Oh yeah there was a TV series of Stonemouth wasn’t there? Forgot about that one.

Undoubtedly my favourite book, read it after the tv series was first aired. I must’ve been about 12. I’ve reread it, along with loads of other Iain Banks books, at least twenty times in the intervening years. Always find something new, and find my attitude towards some of the characters changes every time.
Tried rewatching the series a few years ago and thought it felt dated but still good. I got it from Fopp! for a fiver as well. Going to have to rewatch it again now.

Complicity was an excellent book and a terrible film. We don’t talk about the film.

Complicity arguably his best book. We all have laptops or mobiles many times more powerful than the ultra expensive laptop in Complicity.