Blast has premier looking for answers - on TV

Police working on the Erawan shrine blast should watch the American crime series Blue Bloods for leads, says Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

"Police investigators, especially the national police chiefs should watch this series. They will get tips, ideas and insights for their case," Gen Prayut, known for his passion for music and film, told reporters.

The junta leader was referring to outgoing Pol Gen Somyot Poompunmuang and his successor Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda.

"Though our officers may not be as capable as those in the series, we are good in our own league," he said.

Blue Bloods, a police procedural drama cum soap opera, is filmed in New York and follows the exploits of the Irish-American Reagan family of police officers as their careers unfold in the New York City Police Department. It began broadcasting in 2010, and is still on the air.

In the series, Tom Selleck stars as Frank Reagan, chief of police in New York and patriarch of the Reagan clan. The soap opera's premise states he was a US Marine Corps officer and Vietnam veteran before he joined the NYPD.

A poetic Prayut, whose wife is an English lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, was also quick to come up with an English phrase - #StrongerTogether - as a hashtag on social media to boost Thais' morale after the blast.

As of Thursday morning, the hashtag had 134,500 posts on Instagram (not all of them serious), and strong trends on Facebook and Twitter.

"Though I became prime minister by a coup, my method to unite Thais is democratic. Don't call me pretentious for using the English term, it has to be an international phrase. It is our home, our country. We will become stronger together if we join hands and go forward together," he said.