The Oxford Bar of police officers drink there. In "Dirty Work: Ian Rankin and John Rebus Book-By-Book", Ray Dexter and Nadine Carr note that the Oxford Bar would be an improbable local for Rebus due to its geographical location. Other visitors to the bar have included actor Sean Connery and author Colin Dexter. Quintin Jardine's 2009 Bob Skinner novel, "Fatal Last Words", also mentions the Oxford Bar considerably, again due to the connection with the local police force drinking there. There are a few other nods to Rankin too. The Oxford Bar The Oxford Bar is a public house situated on Young Street,
Ian Rankin 2013, Rankin co-wrote the play "Dark Road" with Mark Thomson, the artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre. The play, which marked Rankin's play-writing debut, premiered at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in September 2013. Rankin is a regular contributor to the BBC Two arts programme "Newsnight Review". His 3-part documentary series on the subject of evil was broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2002. In 2005 he presented a 30-minute documentary on BBC Four called "Rankin on the Staircase", in which he investigated the relationship between real-life cases and crime fiction. It was loosely based on the Michael Peterson murder