On this day in 1983

Taggart was originally written as a three-part miniseries, which ran from 6 to 20 September 1983 on ITV. The Newcastle Evening Chronicle’s television listing on the night of its first broadcast described it as the “first episode of a three-part thriller. Starring Mark McManus. A young woman is strangled on a riverbank in Glasgow, and Det. Chief Inspector Taggart finds the case increasingly difficult to solve. Taut and well-acted little number from Scottish Television.”

Unexpected success

The series was fronted by Hamilton-born Mark McManus as Glasgow-based Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart. It was such a success that a full series was commissioned and broadcast two years later, and it remained on British screens until 2010, despite McManus’ death in 1994 during filming.

In total, 27 series of Taggart were made, comprising 110 episodes, making it one of the UK’s longest-running drama series across all genres.

 

...and on this day in 2007

Exit Music looked for a while like it might be the last book in Ian Rankin’s series about his creation, Inspector Rebus. It opens during the last week of Rebus’ career at the Lothian and Borders Police and covers the period up to his retirement.

Antonia Fraser, writing in The Spectator on 8 September, called Exit Music Rankin’s “surely most brilliant thriller”, in which Rebus’ suspension so close to his bowing out at 60 “left me gasping, wondering how the rest of this satisfyingly long book was going to be filled”.

Exit Music’s 2007 publication marked 20 years since the first book in the series, Knots and Crosses, had first hit the shelves. However, it turned out not to be the end of the saga, and was followed in 2012 by Standing in Another Man’s Grave, the 18th instalment in the series, in which Rebus has continued his association with the police by investigating cold cases.