Happy Fourth of July to all U.S. readers!

A very Happy 4th July to all American and US-based readers of this blog. And,(despite his views on Nicolas Sarkozy's trade policies), a special 'best wishes' to our regular US-based commenter Roland Hulme, who is to become a father. Many congratulations, Roland.

America's special day gives us a great excuse to celebrate that country's greatest detective: the one and only Ellery Queen. As regular readers will know, I'm a big Ellery Queen fan: the books are among the best mysteries ever written and as for the 1975 tv series.....well, words fail me.

You can hear the great theme music of EQ above (composed by Elmer Bernstein) and if you click here, you can watch a whole nine minutes of a classic EQ episode on You Tube. It was great that the BBC finally brought Ellery Queen back in 2006, but disappointing that the programmes were scheduled on BBC2 on Sunday mornings in the summer, when relatively few people would be watching. So if any BBC programme supremo does happen to wander pass this blog- please, please consider putting on the show on at peak time during the long winter evenings. You'll have a huge hit on your hands if you do.

UPDATE: Roland Hulme has become a father- his son being born on the 4th July!
Many congratulations to you and yours Roland, and I hope your son will eventually carry on the family blogging tradition. Being named after one of Britain'sbest bloggers might help!