The Honourable Woman

I have watched more TV over the past two weeks than I probably have since the beginning of the year. Heady days of World Cup football, Wimbledon tennis and F1 Grand Prix racing have kept me entertained amidst a calendar containing no 'soap' episodes, much to my wife's chagrin.

Beside my love for sport I do enjoy a good drama series. The Scandinavians are particularly good at producing these; The Killing and The Bridge are two typical examples. Occasionally we British come up with the goods and my interest was aroused in a new BBC2 drama entitled 'The Honourable Woman' - the first of eight episodes aired on Thursday. Written by Hugo Blick (that alone is usually a good recommendation) and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as businesswoman Nessa Stein, this first episode had me gripped from the start.

Maggie Gyllenhaal

This could turn out to be the 'spook' drama to eclipse all predecessors. Scene stealing Stephen Rae (did you see him in 'The Crying Game' - brilliant) portrays sceptical MI6 agent Hugh Hayden-Doyle, a terrific performance that put me in mind of George Smiley. I will watch this first episode again today (series set to record on the Virgin box) with my wife who has yet to see it.

The momentum, richness and complexity of this drama are maintained throughout. If the remaining seven episodes are equal to this, The Honourable Woman will win every award going (yes, it's that good) and when it ends in the final days of summer its fans will be legion and messianic in its cause. Nothing on telly is going to be this good for some time to come.

The Shed - Phases 2 and 3

After the enjoyment of a holiday in Copenhagen I have now returned, with vigour, to the garden shed project. Having dismantled, broken up and dispatched the existing wreck, my builder friend has laid a solid concrete base over the slabs that I originally laid some 25 years ago.

Today I purchased seven 20 kilo bags of 10-20mm Aberdeen pebbles. This took two trips to the local garden centre, a great deal of heaving and loading into my city car and an equal amount of heaving and unloading when I arrived home. I have now packed the entire circumference of the concrete base with these pebbles to a width of around 16 inches (40 cms) and a depth of some 2 inches (5 cms). The result is very satisfying and looks fantastic.

Opening each bag resulted in a whiff of salt, this shingle was obviously harvested from a beach somewhere (Aberdeen I suppose!) and the pebbles were wet and covered in a considerable amount of sand. Anyway, the net result is exactly what I wanted to achieve.

I now have to complete an amount of pruning of the lilac tree that sits close by to ensure that there is no incumbrance for the tradesmen who will deliver and erect the shed on the 27th June.

The mundanity of this post does not escape me, but little else has happened over the last few days, save of course the FIFA 2014 World Cup occurring in Brazil.

Frankly, I find the preparations for my new shed rather more interesting......