David Peace

The novelist David Peace, who I've never read and until about two months ago had never heard of, is the man of the moment. His book about Brian Clough's 44 days at Leeds United has been turned into a film, The Damned United. The most interesting article I've seen so far is an interview with Michael Sheen in Time Out. What excites me most is to see what the director Tom Hooper has done with it - after John Adams, one of the finest pieces of work I've seen, TV or film, in recent years, The Knowledge expects great things.

Meanwhile his Red Riding books have been adapted by Channel 4 into a trilogy of films which are gaining lots of acclaim. I've just finished catching up with the first one, Nineteen Seventy Four. The acting was very fine, the writing intelligent and its muted colours created a certain atmosphere that captured a particular perception of the 1970s (although I could have done with a few less 'interesting' shots and moody lighting). What I thought mostly though was: 'but surely this is Chinatown?!'. Okay not quite - they're two very distinct works. But there are definite similarities; Andrew Garfield's journalist protagonist as against Jack Nicholson's Jake Gittes; Rebecca Hall's Paula compared to Faye Dunaway's Evelyn Mulray; the theme of the problems of individuals being linked to widespread corruption all seemed very familiar; and Sean Bean's businessman John Dawson could be John Huston's Noah Cross, even down to his penchant for young girls. Meanwhile 'Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown' becomes 'This is the North. We do we want here!'. Having said all this, it wasn't a patch on Chinatown (1974).