At 51, Mark Billingham is the instructor on the series SAS: Who Dares Wins. A great conversation. This time I resisted that temptation, although he does make a cameo appearance right at the end. Cheese and Marmite? It’s an audio clip, but it’s worth listening to because I interview the late, great Jonathan Demme as well as the man himself, the wonderful Peter Falk. So damn busy I missed this post yesterday. I’m always asking myself who was doing the writing and who was making the sandwiches. What began as a bit of fun after book events has now got a little out of hand and culminated in the band being booked to play Glastonbury in June 2019.

You know how much that hurts me, Martyn? This is an excerpt from a documentary I made about the greatest TV cop show of all time. Oh Christ, shoot me.

One of the very best of the newer talents The Sunday Times. Country is perfect music for crime fiction, I think. It was a story that had been rattling around in my head for a while and the time felt right to get on with it. Recorded at the Edinburgh Book Festival, I fess up about those parts of an author’s life that, for very good reasons, are rarely talked about.

The only book with the same title as a Queen song should be Brighton Rock. So what’s next for Mark Billingham and Ton Thorne?

. To view more videos of Mark, check out his YouTube channel. Now, you wrote some children’s books a couple of years ago. I thought it would be interesting. We must be the only writers around who need to text one another prior to an event or a festival appearance; not to discuss running order or format but simply to check what shirts we are wearing. He’s a great character and a great series character. Well, thanks for saying that. Or MORE than one too many. If you had a gun to my head and I HAD to do something outside the genre? Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’d drop almost anything if we could write Pie Man and Sausage Boy. Writing that one book two many. You remember when you and I were at a Richmond Fontaine gig a few years ago? In fact, I reckon there’s a spin off series in it. Can you remember that radio interview we did together in Leicester? So along with the country (Cash, Williams, Nelson etc) I gave him a taste for techno and speed garage – music which I personally cannot abide. I think the fact that Thorne loves this stuff says a lot about him. I’ve already mentioned the new Thorne novel which is called The Dying Hours and is out on May 23rd. Where do you get your shirts from? Really? It could take over the Lovejoy slot on BBC1 on a Sunday evening. The murder suspect's brother Mark Billingham MBE is one of the stars of Channel 4's SAS Who Dares Wins and was once a private body guard for Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise. I thought it would be interesting. He’ll be dealing with the ramifications of that in The Dying Hours which is coming in May. Isn't it the dregs of a beer barrel or something?

He joined the series after leaving a job as bodyguard for Brangelina's kids - and loved the family. A massively talented comedian You’re on. It was always going to be a standalone. Should you feel inclined to watch, here are a few examples of the more showy-off side of what is laughably called my ‘career’, but has really been a concerted and largely successful effort to avoid a proper job…. Every time, always. Well, obviously I get them from the same place you do because on several occasions we have turned up at book events wearing identical shirts. The reader knows as much, book on book, as I do. You have to deal with it over and over, with the urge to edit it all out just hanging there. Stand-up comedy and crime fiction may not be as different as they seem. Liberace’s collaboration with Bob Dylan; Kraftwerk’s Christmas album; Morrissey in panto. You and I have done enough together, so I know that you’re much the same. So I’m hoping he can stay unpredictable at the very least. You remember when you and I were at a. My apologies. Truly, one of the most generous, witty, and daft, um, talented writers in the crime-writing brood. Ex-actor and stand up comic Mark Billingham is, quite simply, one of the best crime writers going. How long do you see him going on for? He relishes the bigoted reaction it provokes, as do I. I know I’m not alone in this. I think as I write more I become less interested in the crash bang wallop of crime fiction and am starting to focus more on what John Harvey calls the ‘looking out of the window’ moments. I’m starting to realize I think that every writer needs to get outside that zone every now and again. Talking about my 2016 standalone novel, Die Of Shame. Never. This is amazing. Like food? You probably have the second best sartorial excellence in the crime fiction world (after me, of course). This is from the George Stroumboulopoulos show on Canadian TV. So many of us love and appreciate you!

I did the same thing with the previous standalone (In The Dark) as I think it’s a nice way of giving the fans of the series a hint about what might be coming next. 6 thoughts on “ Mark Billingham ” Alexandra Sokoloff February 26, 2013 at 12:29 pm. Just the association with Coldplay has made me a little bit sick in my mouth. NYTimes bestselling author, law prof, occasional legal analyst, dog pal, proud wife of a veteran. Great Lost Albums was a comedy book I wrote with Martyn Waites, Stav Sherez and David Quantick, in which we examined some of the greatest, lostest recordings ever made, that we made up.

If you haven’t read the internationally bestselling, multi-award winning Tom Thorne series then it’s high time you did. Or do your performing itches get scratched by doing book events? He’s also (for the sake of full disclosure) one of my best friends. You two are always good for some laughs.

So are you telling me that if DC asked you to write Mr Terrific you’d say no? So without further ado, here’s the lad himself . Also, I’m now tucked in, and can testify that going to bed between the nice sheets, on the fluffy pillow, is what we deserve. Speaking of Rush of Blood, did you intentionally name it after a Coldplay song? Bar none. The books were as dark as any of my crime novels with body counts that were higher, if anything. Mark Billingham Crime Fiction Writer.

And I think it makes for some much more interesting events too. Martyn, thanks for bringing Mark on board.

I'm just trying to balance being a lawyer and a writer (writers win that contest as well). I’m thrilled to be a member of Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a twisted collective of musically-inclined crime writers – myself, Doug Johnstone, Luca Veste, Stuart Neville, Chris Brookmyre and Val McDermid – who enjoy murdering songs for fun. Do you miss stand up comedy at all? You’re in for a treat. Marmite. .

Well, you know how much I love comics, Martyn…. Can’t say too much, other than it’s basically a twisted kind of road trip which Thorne has to take alongside an old adversary. Or, maybe not. ... Stuart, our amazing lead guitarist was sporting a T-shirt that read: BEST MID-LIFE CRISIS EVER! It was just stupid, so I dropped it immediately and in the second book it just mysteriously…disappears. Here I am putting people off their Corn Flakes on BBC Breakfast. I miss the buzz of performing rather more than I miss the company of comedians. The processs is exactly the same. Great interview! Of course you are. Would you consider writing outside of it? To be serious – for a change – I just thought it was a perfect title and had to mentally distance myself from any unpleasant musical associations. Oh, indeed.

Back then I thought that I could not possibly give Thorne the same taste in music as I had.

Are you perchance referring to the ludicrous mistake I made in the first Thorne novel, Sleepyhead? He relishes the bigoted reaction it provokes, as do I. I know I’m not alone in this. (and how to overcome it). Then we’d have to develop our plans for the Pie Man and Sausage Boy graphic novel series. Thorne is trying to deal with a major change in circumstances as far as the job goes, at the same time as trying to catch a killer who seems able to make people take their own lives. It was just stupid, so I dropped it immediately and in the second book it just mysteriously…disappears. A massively talented comedian The Manchester Evening News.

Yeah, it’s probably worth doing just for that. In the case of the Will Peterson novels, I was making the sandwiches. How’s your new book coming by the way? Crime and cake. There have been previous occasions when a book that began as a standalone ended up with Thorne barging into the story. ... T-shirt and a blue hat. I’ll make the sandwiches….

It would be like me hinting that you had named a book after a Queen album? You’re right of course, I tend to get my performing jollies at book events. I thought I'd have to wait until Bouchercon to see the two of you go at it like this – always the most fun panel of the con. Putting music you hate into books though, bad move, just like dressing them in clothes you couldn't abide. Eventually. Now. So readers of Rush Of Blood will know what’s happened to Thorne since they last saw him in Good As Dead. Despite my best efforts you still remain resolutely uneducated where comics are concerned. I got to live out this fantasy when I collaborated with the wonderful country duo My Darling Clementine. Queen?

Are you perchance referring to the ludicrous mistake I made in the first Thorne novel, Sleepyhead? Right now it’s a toss up between a grisly death, and a happy retirement in domestic bliss with Phil Hendricks – running a nice antique shop in the Cotswolds. I was wrong. I think it's high time I jumped into the Thorne books. Read Mark’s essay on the subject – So This Serial Killer Walks Into A Bar…. When the day does come to say goodbye, I’m still largely undecided as to Thorne’s fate. As far as I know there are no connections with Coldplay. I’m really looking forward to the next Tania Carver novel, “I Want To Break Free”. Camp Nanowrimo, anyone? One of the things that helps I think is that I genuinely have no plan for Thorne, no dossier about him. Absolutely. Lovely. Apologies to Elvis Costello…. Your email address will not be published. I don’t need very much encouragement to start performing…. Once again, no Coldplay records were bought or listened to during the making of this novel. I see him going on as long as I’m still finding it interesting to write about him. It was a great gig, though. Rush of Blood. Here is a clip of us performing in October on a TV show for Sky Arts – playing as a five-piece due to the fact that Val was working in New Zealand at the time.

So many books, so little time. That kind of accusation is totally unjustified. I’ll always write crime novels, but I certainly don’t want to write the same crime novel again and again. As an actor and stand-up comedian I ran around in silly costumes or told cheap jokes for money, and I firmly believe that writing a book is a performance, albeit of a very different sort. I wrote three YA novels and for those three years I was writing two books a year and I don’t think I can do that again. Thorne and Hendricks: Antiques Detectives.