I love surprises! Like most people I love receiving (and giving) gifts and I like not knowing what is in the funny-shaped box or the strange-looking parcel, or the odd package… I sent off for a CD by the very talented Max Abrams and received it and a hand-written note! I sent off for a CD by the magnificent Mr Jonas Carping and received pictures, a fridge magnet and other nice little gifties… One year my husband bought me a guitar for Christmas… So kind, so generous, and so exciting!
Next week there is a new series of ‘The Great British Bake-Off’; I have resolutely avoided reading any articles about it, or any previews because I want it to be a surprise. When the contestants first appear on TV I want it to be the first time I’ve seen them. It was the same with Celebrity Masterchef, I didn’t want to know who the celebrities were in advance, and I switched off the TV at the end of the programme when there was a little ‘…and next time…’ slot.
I don’t peep at the end of a book to see what happens, I like the author to surprise me, and I hope when I am writing that I surprise my readers too, but surprise them in a way which is realistic even if it is unexpected.
If I have read a book before, or seen a film, or a TV series, then even if I have forgotten some of the episodes, I will in general know the outcome. I have been re-watching Forbrydelsen,The Killing, the masterful Danish crime series. In series 1, I knew who killed the girl (in fact when I originally watched it, I guessed who did) but knowing that didn’t spoil watching it again because it is such a fantastic series, exceptional in every way, as I have mentioned before.
I am now watching series 2, and again I know what happens, who did it, although I’m a little hazy on the how and why… but I know what the dramatic ending will be, who the murderer is. There is a sub-plot running, about government corruption; a new Minister for Justice has been appointed, a fat, bumbling young man, who was probably appointed so he could fail and be compliant… but of course,within the shambling and eccentric new Minister there is an incisive mind, a fierce intelligence and an intuitive sense which leads him towards the truth. The trouble is… the trouble is… I know what happens to him at the end… and it is shocking! The first time I saw it I couldn’t believe what happened, I shouted at the TV, wanting it all to change and be what I had hoped… but of course that was the end… and an amazing, and totally unexpected ending too… sad, but the right conclusion…
Now re-watching it, that ending – the solution to the murder and what happens to the Minister of Justice, are there in my mind… which instead of spoiling my enjoyment, makes the whole thing more poignant… tears may fall when I watch the last scene with the minister, Thomas Buch, played by the incredible Danish actor, Nicolas Bro… Hankies at the ready!
Lois Elsden 