Over the years, he also tried to get the other members of the cell who knew of his history killed or imprisoned by informing on them.

Between these two he’s been in big-budget Hollywood fare that are clearly beneath him (Dragonheart, The Island Of Dr. If you take any of the two aspects of the film – comedic or political – and separate it from the other, maybe it really isn't all that good. When the bodies begin to pile up, Starkey is forced to go on the run with the help of Parker, the US journalist he has been guiding around, and Lee, an extraordinarily capable NHS nurse who pays the bills as a nun strip-o-gram. This political background is clarified through the character of visiting Boston Globe journalist Charles Parker (Richard Gant).Still and all, I agree with Rachel Griffith, who was willing to be in the movie--without even knowing what role they were offering her--on the strength of having read the book during a trans-Atlantic flight. Within the prescribed twenty-four hours, the other woman will be dead and Starkey will be the number one suspect. The intricate Irish politics are gracefully rendered, and Bateman's wry take on the gritty Belfast landscape adds an appealingly light touch.

Caffrey’s direction extracts the most of this material, though a reprise of significant images from the film at the end (presumably designed as an aid to slower members of the audience) is a mistake. Absolutely loved the Mystery Man series, and was planning on delving into all the other books by Colin Bateman, but maybe I’ll save these for the kindle instead.

Starkey and Parker are taken to a council block Keegan controls, where Keegan threatens to kill Parker unless Starkey hands over the tape. A Joy From Start to finish… Witty, fast-paced and throbbing with menace, divorcing Jack reads like the thirty-nine steps rewritten for the 90's by Roddy Doyle. His performance in Divorcing Jack isn't quite as remarkable as the one he gave five years before in Naked but it's fantastic by its own right, and just like in Naked Thewlis creates an anti-hero that is egoistic, weak, detestable, and entirely believable; if you're looking for a noble hero to sacrifice himself for the greater good because that's the right thing to do, look elsewhere. Thewlis plays Dan Starkey, a newspaper columnist who doesn’t take his work too seriously, who drinks too much and whose wife is beginning to object to his behavior. Starkey's solution is simple: find the wife, fix his marriage, bring in the bad boys, clear his name and save Ireland.

They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. The way it is written is quite lighthearted and often very very funny, but the story is far from amusing, and I found it difficult to square the one with the other. I’d heard good things about Colin Bateman, and decided to start with his first, a 1998 thriller set during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Griffiths appears in a brief but spectacular role as a nurse temporarily dressed up as a sexy nun; she comes to the rescue when Starkey — who takes a great deal of punishment during the course of the film — needs urgent medical attention.A good read, not that funny for a dark comedy, but a fresh take on the Troubles without avoiding the issues. Please Note: This book has been transferred to Between the Covers from another database and might not be described to our usual standards. A autor je podobně nelítostný jako IRA, takže jsem fakt občas zíral a říkal si „tohle má být komediální knížka, plná hlášek… tohle přece nemůže udělat?

I was upstairs with a girl I shouldn't have been upstairs with when my wife whispered in my ear, 'You have twenty-four hours to move out'. In 1990 he received a Journalist’s Fellowship to Oxford University for his reports from Uganda, and he has received a Northern Ireland Press Award for his weekly satirical column. The sarcasm and fallibility of a hero doing all the wrong things for all the drunk reasons plays beautifully against the fast paced nature of this thriller.

As he hunts for the tape, Starkey is pursued by several parties, including an IRA contingent with a reputation for mayhem and violence. Starkey, however, is not impressed with Brinn's promises, believing he has heard it from politicians before. The narrator couldn't really do the american accent assigned to one of the characters but other than that did an ok job.