La Tulipe Noire

was the name of a book by Alexandre Dumas. Who is better known for his novels 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and 'The Three Musketeers'.

You could be mistaken for thinking that The Black Tulip was a gardening book, however, apart from the subject of trying to grow a tulip which lacks any colour, is about the closest the book gets to anything botanical or horticultural.

Based in the adopted home of the tulip, Holland, the story starts in 1672 with the lynching of the Dutch Prime Minister. The basis of beginning your murder story with a dead body lives on today. Last night I watched the first two episodes of a Danish / Swedish production called 'The Bridge' which started with a dead body.

To be precise, it was the top half of one Swedish victim and the bottom half of a Danish victim, deposited exactly on the border of the two countries as it crosses the Oresund Bridge.

Rather harder hitting than Midsummer Murders or Inspector Morse, but perhaps more on a par with the recent French tv production of 'Engrenages' which was named 'Spiral' in the UK.

In the eight episodes of The Bridge still to be shown, I cannot guarantee they won't have any gardening advice, but at first glance, it seems unlikely.