TV detectives

[amateur51]

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.

Great list anton - Allam would certainly 'do' but I want to create something outstanding for him

There are some on here who'll misconstrue that, I just know it

[Serial_Apologist]

Can't remember who did Chief Inspector Lockheart of the Yard in the late 50s TV (Edgar Lustgarten?) series "No Hiding Place" - satirised in Private Eye as Knacker of the Yard. That was my gateway to adult evening viewing - loved all those pipe-smoking trilbies, and the stiff Britishness which makes people smile today, but was in fact just as smileworthy back then.

[amateur51]

Can't remember who did Chief Inspector Lockheart of the Yard in the late 50s TV (Edgar Lustgarten?) series "No Hiding Place" - satirised in Private Eye as Knacker of the Yard. That was my gateway to adult evening viewing - loved all those pipe-smoking trilbies, and the stiff Britishness which makes people smile today, but was in fact just as smileworthy back then.

That was Raymond Francis

I picked up and repeated the line "You tell those blackballing bastards that" from an episiode & my father gave me a good talking to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_rXXSp5N-c

Great music - pity about the scripts. You could tell that Eric Lander would never get promotion until .... he grew a decent moustache!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Baltimore:Life on the Street

one of the great series jlw .... impeccable ensemble and very gripping ... sprog no 1 and i were gripped every monday evening then gridiron ... we used to think that life did not get much better ... on tv any way ...

[Northender]

I think the Gerdes story is another one. The LP I bought was this one:

http://www.musicstack.com/item/26146887

... for the princely sum of 50p!

And, for the life of me, I can't remember the soloist's name! (Elisabeth something???)

EDIT: Hanae Nakajima! (And Rato Tschupp does/did exist:

http://www.operacollectors.com/servl...S+-+Conductors

It's all coming back to me now ... Otto Gerdes conducted the Dvorak New World Symphony on the old Heliodor label.
Amazing how this Forum works - we seem to have moved prestissimo from TV detectives to what we might call 'oddball' recordings.

[John Wright]

I remember Stacey Keach as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in the mid-1980s, and almost convinced myself I remember the previous series (late '50's) which starred Darren McGavin, likely aired in UK when I was a kid in the '60s. I think Hammer always shot the baddies at the end.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

and whoever was more the part than Bogart as Marlowe?

[Pabmusic]

...Chief Inspector Lockheart of the Yard in the late 50s TV...series "No Hiding Place" - satirised in Private Eye as Knacker of the Yard.

Mmm...possibly. But I've always assumed that Inp. Knacker was based on the real-life Slipper of the Yard (Jack Slipper) of Great Train Robbery fame - they were contemporaries. (Slipper of the Yard obviously was based on Lockhart of the Yard.)

[Pabmusic]

Ultimately I found Morse to be unbelievably two-dimensional - he didn't seem to learn anything at all about himself - whereas Jack Frost (David Jason) developed as a character.

I don't disagree. Though I like Morse very much, I think the series went on about 10 episodes longer than it should have done. When such a thing happens, there's a tendency for later episodes to become all-purpose ones, which might fit any detective.* The idiosyncrasies of the detective often seem to have been just grafted on. That started to happen a little with Jack Frost, but not so much - perhaps because the episodes often contained more comedy than the Morse ones.

A good series that I'd include in the 'detective' category was Travelling Man, with Leigh Lawson as the framed police officer trying to clear his name.

One detective I'd love to see attempted is Gervase Fen (Edmund Crispin/Bruce Montgomery). Nothing's ever been done, except that Hitchcock used the merry-go-round from The Moving Toyshop in Strangers on a Train. They're witty, intelligent and full of literature and music. And they're often set in Oxford, with colleges and dons. Oh...

* Now here's an idea for a series (and a copyright nightmare): classic detectives investigate each other's classic cases. Imagine those dreaming spires with Frost! Dartmoor and The Hound with Columbo! Dreadful deeds in St Mary Mead, or Midsomer Village, with Mma Ramotswe! The Wallander cases with the sotted, depressive Morse (on second thoughts...).

[AmpH]

Don't think anyone has mentioned the man from Jersey .... Bergerac. I seem to remember I quite liked this at the time it was on, but having seen a few early episodes again quite recently .... oh dear ... it now looks dreadfully dated. Seem to remember also that I quite fancied the ' ice maiden ' jewel thief Phillippa Vale played by Liza Goddard at the time ... well not any more !! One of the amusing aspects of seeing re-runs of old series such as this is spotting younger but now familiar faces in earlier often very mundane roles. Amazing how many seem to have ended up in Soaps !

[antongould]

Very much agree Pabmusic about Gervase Finn being a good candidate for TV treatment - any idea who you would like to take the part!

[marthe]

Anton has alerted me to the TV detectives thread. This is rather timely as we've just revived early Morse and earlyish Adam Dalgliesh via rather ancient CDs recorded a while ago. I was always a fan of both but now find Dalgliesh a bit cringe worthy, mannered, and ought to be advised to lose the very bad hairpiece we saw in the episode we watched recently in which Mel Martin finally gives Roy the heave and goes off to NYC. Morse is another story. It's, of course, a trip down memory lane to watch shows that were made nearly 25 years ago. There have been so many changes in technology (the first thing I noticed) but also in the role of women in these shows. 25 years ago, women were either victims, criminals, or love interests. They were not forensic specialists or chief superintendents as they are now (at least in the Morse/Lewis series.) It's interesting to compare a show that was actually made in the 70s/80s with one that's been made recently but takes place back on the 70s or 60s...Life on Mars(is that the correct title?) comes to mind. Somehow, the cigarette smoke is laid on too thickly and the details of life back then are overdone. That being said, I do like George Gently. I'm still a fan of Morse. I do like the current Lewis and Hathaway. I did like Helen Mirren's Prime Suspect as well. David Suchet as Poirot always bothered my because he was a fake Belgian. Being half Belgian, I was always bothered by Agatha Christie's portrayal of Poirot. It seemed condescending.

[Ian]

I really enjoy pretty much all detective programmes. But out of the 'vintage' homegrown efforts I've got a soft spot for Lovejoy. I know he's not exactly a detective... but all six seasons still stand up surprisingly well.

[Northender]

I believe that the best TV detective series are often those that have a strong roster of what we may call recurring major supporting characters: perhaps the best example is 'Cracker', which benefited enormously from the regular presence, at various times, of Christopher Eccleston, Geraldine Somerville, Ricky Tomlinson, Barbara Flynn and - arguably the best of all - Lorcan Cranitch as Beck. Morse and Lewis at loggerheads was often a feature of the best episodes, and 'Life on Mars' depended critically on conflict between the principal characters.
Conversely, series in which the main character is not in conflict with his colleagues are dramatically less satisfying. Barnaby rarely got any aggro from a succession of junior colleagues, and appeared to have no superior. Frost's relationship with his colleagues is comedic as often as it is acrimonious.
I don't know why it took so long for Jane Tennyson to appear on this thread (I readily plead guilty on that count) - I think 'Prime Suspect' bears out the above comment. The contrast between her professional strengths and personal weaknesses place this character in the same league as Morse, Fitz and Holmes (as played by Jeremy Brett), all of whom have flawed personalities (cf. Barnaby, or - going back a bit- George Dixon).
I know John Suchet's 'Poirot' annoys some people. I just accept David Suchet's portrayal as a high-class parody (there's more than a touch of Charlie Chaplin about it), and spend my time trying to match my little grey cells against his.
Any 'Z Cars' fans out there?

[salymap]

Very much agree Pabmusic about Gervase Finn being a good candidate for TV treatment - any idea who you would like to take the part!

I have no idea who could play Fenn but I think I knew the original inspiration for Bruce Montgomery/Crispin.

Composer Geoffrey Bush, the friendliest of men, chatted about his friend Bruce and thought he was the original Fenn. He certainly had exactly the right mixture of knowledge and a slight 'dottiness'and when
he visited our publishing office he would sit on the corner of a desk and chat. I know other claims have been made for Fenn but I rest my case. The stories would be difficult to cast and to stage I should imagine, anyway.