The corpse who stayed out in the cold
If Mark Billingham needed a second career - an eventuality that seems highly unlikely given his sales - he could do worse than have a crack at the stage.
Billingham was the star turn last night in Foul Play, the Festival's unique spin on the Radio 4 panel game, in which he and Stella Duffy played a cast of characters in a Cold War spy murder farce while Stuart MacBride and Laura Lippman tried to solve the crime. Simon Brett expertly compared.
Foul Play was a first class way to end the day, a lot of fun enjoyed enormously by a large late night audience. Billingham played his parts - an east German industrialist and an upper class British spy - with joyous glee, revelling in the attention. Stella Duffy was great too, as the Czech translator and the drunken Moneypenny-style secretary (worryingly convincing) with a house full of cats and some inappropriate line in pussy jokes (Laura Lippman didn't know where to look).
That's Harrogate done for me for this year, although I will write about the New Blood later in the week when I get a chance. But I'll definitely be back. The camaraderie was great, and it all felt very welcoming.