As the saying goes: you learn something new every day. The more days that go by, the more satisfying it is to find it’s true.
I don’t crow about it so much anymore, but I’m a huge fan a British mystery show called Cracker, always have been. When A&E would do their mystery shows on a weekly basis (Long before they went all crazy with reality shows. How the heck is that Arts? Or entertainment?), it would be the only one I’d be interested in seeing.
The show’s main character, Fitz, is played by Robbie Coltrane. Fitz is a hard drinking, chain smoking, compulsive gambler who cheats on his wife and is one greasy meal away from a heart attack. In short, he’s everything I’m not, but want to be (other than the adultery part). This show is why I know who Robbie Coltrane is, and Robbie Coltrane is the reason I knew that the Harry Potter movies would at least be worth watching (Did you know that Fitz’s love interest on the side, Penhaligon, plays Harry Potter’s mother in the movies?). Fitz isn’t a cop, he’s a psychologist with a knack for the criminal mind. He is often contracted by the police to help crack complicated cases involving a brutal crime, these contacts generally come along when Fitz is hitting bottom with his alcoholism, gambling, marriage or all three at once. He’s like a precursor to Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s Det. Bobby Goren, only without a badge, and perhaps a contemporary of Homicide: Life on the Street’s Frank Pembleton – again, without a badge. I suppose it’s the scenes of Fitz locked in an interrogation cell with a guilty as sin criminal that had me so interested in the scenes in Homicide when they get a suspect in “the box”.
Anyways, it was only on this last pass of watching the show (I’m starting from the very beginning and making my way through each episode in sequence) that I realized that Fitz’s full name is Edmund Fitzgerald. I mean, I knew the Fitzgerald part, but what were the odds on the Edmund?
Perhaps Cracker creator Jimmy McGovern is a big fan of Gordon Lightfoot? That’s a pretty sweet Canadian connection, eh?
[...] impressions of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, followed by Steve talking about why he likes Cracker so much – which leads into some other interesting bits. We review the DVD release of District [...]