The No1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – a review

Well not really a review. I started sorting through my paperwork while watching Celebrity Wife Swap with Sinitta and Bruce-something-or-other from Corrie, and then I was gonna go on sorting while watching The No1… but got too sucked into it so had to stop sorting and just keep watching.

I’ve read some of the books by Alexander McCall Smith (some of you may remember my resulting – admittedly short – Botswana craze) and was curious as to how the film would reflect them.

They say you’re usually disappointed by film versions of books you’ve read but I have to say in general I was really quite impressed with this. It captured the Botswana McCall Smith portrays very well, and I absolutely loved Jill Scott! (who plays the lead – I didn’t even know she acted!) Of course I don’t know the real Botswana apart from some online research.

What annoyed me a bit was how the film had to add some sinister “dark things go on in Africa” plot. I guess otherwise it may not have worked as well as a film but still… the books put across such a nice view of life in Botswana, why spoil it? Oh and also Grace Makutsi (the secretary) is a lot cooler / less clichéd in the books!

But all in all it was very enjoyable and largely true to the spirit of the books. It does make me wanna go to Botswana again, hehe. But instead I’ll go back to sorting through paperwork… (oh yeah and Anthony Minghella, the director, died like 5 days ago? I remember possibly reading about that but not caring cuz I’d never really paid much attention to him before… but was weird to watch a film he’d directed so very shortly after his death)