DCI Banks, the Books, and the TV Series

There have been a number of questions recently regarding differences between the characters of the DCI Banks novels and the TV adaptations.

I have come to think of the Banks books and the TV series as parallel universes, rather like those in the TV series Fringe. (If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s well worth watching.) The characters are clearly meant to be different versions of the same person; they look different, have different personalities and meet different fates in different worlds.

I have no power in the TV universe, where I am a mere observer, but I like to think of myself as the custodian of the universe of the books. In that universe, I can assure you, all the characters you have come to know and (I hope) love continue to be hale and hearty and as human and flawed as ever – in When the Music’s Over, its 2017 successor Sleeping in the Ground and, I hope, in many more books to come.