TV detectives

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Martin Shaw is Inspector George gently [and his young sidekick is pretty good too]

Krister Henriksson is the only Wallander for me ...

[Northender]

And Taggart hasn't had Taggart in it for aaaages - wonderful series though imho

Mark McManus wasn't replaced. I agree about Krister Henriksson.

[Anna]

I really liked George Gently and Rebus, plus I think someone mentioned Cracker. I confess the only Sherlock I've seen is Benedict Cumberbatch but I have, for the first time in my life, started to read Conan Doyle. Morse, I'm afraid, after a couple of attempts, I never got into. I've seen one Lewis, which seemed very old fashioned and pedestrian. Midsomer Murders and Inspector Lynley are the sort of things you watch as daytime repeats when you're laid up on the sofa with a heavy cold .......

[salymap]

Indeed, negative ones

It has to be Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, pace Ammy's avatar who is hugely watchable in the role but for nostalgic comedy value (not to be under-valued!)

Yes Caliban, Joan Hickson every time. I'm very glad I videod them when they were on TV years ago. The others are quite wrong IMHO. Joan played the part straight, without that knowing coyness, but we were aware that she had seen, and dealt with, every kind of criminal without turning a [grey] hair.

[Richard Tarleton]

pace Ammy's avatar

Thanks Caliban, I've been puzzling over Am's avatar for years but didn't like to ask

I agree with you and Saly about Joan Hickson, and with you re Morse. I used to find Thaw compelling in The Sweeney.

[amateur51]

What about Hetty Wainthrop?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiV94u2gYvg

Hyacinth Bouquet x Miss Marple

Quirky, eccentric, very British, ultimately disappointing I felt

Great tune tho'

[Anna]

Never heard of Hetty Wainthrop. Jonathan Creek? Distant memory, was he detective or just a journalist?

[salymap]

Hetty Wainthrop was played by Patricia Routledge. She is always professional but I couldn't believe in her detective somehow.

I've forgotten Jonathan Creek but know I watched some ages ago, so weren't very memorable to me Anna.

[Serial_Apologist]

Hetty Wainthrop was played by Patricia Routledge. She is always professional but I couldn't believe in her detective somehow.

I've forgotten Jonathan Creek but know I watched some ages ago, so weren't very memorable to me Anna.

The Jonathan Creek stories were about crimes which could not possibly have been carried out - until Mr Creek comes on the scene and uses his knowledge of conjuring tricks to solve them.

I thought they were quite good fun at the time, but now I've become a grumpy old so-and-so, my views would probably change.

[antongould]

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple
Ken Stott as Rebus
Agree with Rumpole about Maigret - would Roger Allam "do"?
Carmichael as LPW
Marsden as Dagliesh
Brett as Sherlock and to upset a few
Branagh as Wallender.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What about Hetty Wainthrop?

Filmed (at least in part) in the towns in which I first saw the light of day (and spent the first 18 years of my life)! There's one episode where her husband, Robert (played by Derek Benfield) is employed as a supermarket trolley stacker - outside the very supermarket where I bought my first LP of the Emperor Concerto (the one Joseph Cooper controversially chose on BaL) and Previn's Gershwin Concerto and Rhapsody in Mauve (the cheap ink had run by the time I got home).

Eeeeyeck; I feel riit dooditherin!

[Northender]

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple
Ken Stott as Rebus
Agree with Rumpole about Maigret - would Roger Allam "do"?
Carmichael as LPW
Marsden as Dagliesh
Brett as Sherlock and to upset a few
Branagh as Wallender.

Now you come to mention it - he absolutely would!

[jayne lee wilson]

No-one else have any affection for the classic 90s American cop shows, like Baltimore:Life on the Street and NYPD Blue?
(Later on C5 their derivatives hit the fan and were devalued by sheer numbers and CGI gimmickry)

Some great detectives there with rounded and complex characters - remember jesuit-educated Frank Pembleton in Baltimore, with Munch, Lewis and Kay, or Andy, Bobby (with his pigeons) and alcoholic Diane from NYPD? Time was, I wouldn't miss an episode of these things. I remember the NYPD episode of Bobby's death in hospital as one of the most devastating pieces of TV I ever saw, it haunted me for days.

I tended not to identify with the English Eccentrics, getting serial wannabee crushes on smooth operators - Moore as The Saint, or Moore and Curtis in The Persuaders (cool tune!) instead...

"And the Award for Best Theme Tune goes to: Department S!" (Jason King with his flicked back shirtcuffs...)

[Richard Tarleton]

One which people have probably completely forgotten, but I'd love to see "Shoestring" with a young Trevor Eve wheeled out again - perhaps on "Alibi"? Perhaps it's been on during the day and I've missed it....

[Anna]

One which people have probably completely forgotten, but I'd love to see "Shoestring" with a young Trevor Eve wheeled out again

Oh yes I remember that and then, Waking the Dead, Sorry Jayne, do not do American, cops or otherwise.