Database select a set value

[eluser]excitedcroc[/eluser]
Hi, couldnt find anything with the search about this so thought I'd ask...

Im trying to do a select like below to return all the fields of a table + a certain value (a_value) in this case.

Code:

$this->db->distinct();
$this->db->select( "p.*, 'a_value' as value" );
$this->db->from( "table p" );

Now this works in mysql but I think CI is escaping the quotes or something. I've tried \' but it still won't work!

Any ideas whats going wrong here ?

Many thanks..