Brighton gets the joke by James Morrison

Above: Brighton Rocks

Above: Any real policing is left to Inspector Steine's deputy, Sergeant Brunswick, played by John Ramm

Above: Lynne Truss on Brighton beach. By Kate Eastman

Sussex Life

Interview by James Morrison. Pictures by Kate Eastman

I’m ever so slightly nervous about ringing Lynne Truss. Before dialling her number I make sure to check the time on my computer monitor corresponds with that on my mobile. I am about to interview a self-proclaimed “stickler”; a writer whose latest bestseller, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life, rails against all that is thoughtless and ill-mannered about modern Britain. It won’t do to be late.

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So it comes as a pleasant surprise to find that Truss is not only friendly and informal, but entirely not at all the disciplinarian I had imagined. She seems genuinely delighted that anyone should be interested in her latest project: a new Radio 4 comedy series about a bungling, endearingly naïve police inspector pounding the beat in 1950s Brighton. Inspector Steine (pronounced “Steen”, in tribute to one of the city’s most famous landmarks), begins its six-week run on January 26 in the station’s Friday morning comedy slot. A spoof of the rose-tinted view of bright-buttoned Bobbies portrayed in vintage TV dramas like Dixon of Dock Green, it was inspired by a curiously worded disclaimer during the opening credits of the Boulting brothers’ 1947 big screen version of Brighton Rock. The rolling caption – dismissing the film’s depiction of “razor gangs” and “murder” as outdated – was apparently included at the request of the local constabulary, in an effort to dispel illusions that Brighton was a haven for organised crime (perish the thought)...

Click HERE to read the full article in the February 2007 FREE digital edition