Television Detectives

Who could resist writing about their favorite tv detectives. What a chance to remember characters in stories that I have enjoyed. I still hate it that the local PBS runs Mystery on Thursday nights, the only night that I have a meeting, every week. When I first began to think about this, I made a list which I stopped at 30. That isn't really accurate since sometimes the characters were played by two or three actors or actresses and one was always way better than another. Sometimes a series had two characters that were both excellent and could almost be counted as two. One series was made in England and the United States with two different actors. How do you cut it down to ten? Whittle, Whittle, Whittle.

Sherlock Homes has to be included because he was the first, but Basil Rathbone, gave way to Jeremy Brett, who was supposed to be better. The only Holmes that I ever enjoyed was played by Frank Langella, in 1981. We taped "Sherlock Holmes, The Strange Case of Alice Faulkner" and watched it several times. Unfortunately we taped something over it. While many may say that Sherlock Holmes was not a tv series, I think that it was because it was shown so often on PBS. He must be in the top ten, even though I never particularly liked him. I think it was because Doctor Watson was so often portrayed as a kind of buffoon.

My favorite fictional detective of all times and all genres is Lord Peter Wimsey. I cannot decide between the Ian Carmichael portrayal, or the Edward Petherbridge. I think in this case, I like them both. The Ian Carmichael, Wimsey's wereshown in sets of four or five from 1972 to 1975. I was in love. I couldn't imagine any one else ever playing Wimsey, a character created by Dorothy Sayers between 1920 and 1940. That is until Edward Petherbridge appeared in adaptations of other books that ran from March to May of 1987. Wimsey had heart, insight and just a few flaws. By the time the second series was produced on tv, I had read all the books and re-read them. Both books and DVDs are available. The stories are set between the World Wars. They are well written and beautifully filmed. It shows the British aristocrat at his best.

My second favorite detective has always been Inspector Morse. His faithful sidekick Lewis is now being shown on Public Television. I tried to eliminate detectives like Jayne Tennyson or Gene Hunt/Sam Tyler, because "Prime Suspect" and "Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes" are police procedurals, but Morse has always ranked right beside Wimsey in my favorites. I know it is another PBS series. They really do the best job on most detective shows. It is also adapted from books. Colin Dexter - the author of the Morse books, writes real corkers. Of course I have read them more than once. I am an inveterate skipper to the end to see who did it. Then I decide if I want to read the whole thing. With these books, and therefore these shows, I have to do the whole thing. The solution to the mystery is not straightforward. If you are looking for an absorbing puzzle, than watch Inspector Morris. They are available on DVD and in Bookstores.

After those two, it becomes harder to rank the detectives I like in any order. We enjoyed Charlie Crews in "Life." He was quirkey, loyal and always looking to solve his own puzzle as well as the police case that he was working on. We liked David Creegan in "Touching Evil", but preferred the character as it was played by Jeffrey Donovan rather than the British version played by Robson Greene. By some odd quirk of fate, the two shows aired simultaneously in 2004, one on PBS and one on a major network. We watched PBS for the plot, but watched the same episode shortly afterwards, because we thought that Donovan did a better job. Bruce Willis brought the show to the United States. If the other version had not shown at the same time, I think that it could still be around. Then we would miss out on "Burn Notice" which would be a shame.

I loved "Remington Steele" even though Laura Holt was the real detective. The stories were clever. It has to be on an all time great list. I watched it with my mother, who thought it was super. I always enjoyed the first episode when they found all the passports with the names of Humphry Bogart's characters. Stephanie Zimbalist's character showed how a strong woman could manage to handle a man's job and Pierce Brosnan showed how a man can be clever instead of a bumbling fool. The sexual tension was always there just below the surface.

We enjoyed "Foyle's War" another PBS offering. We like the period- World War II, the clothing, the way people in Britain adapted to different situations and the interplay between his driver and the other characters. We liked the calm way that Foyle got people to admit things that they were trying to hide.

On U.S.A. network we have loved Adrian Monk ever since he first appeared. We will miss his quirks and are happy that they tied up the loose ends at the end of the series. His quirks made him lovable. He was "a gift and a curse" to those around him. We liked the other characters that played off of him. We loved the episode where he listed his phobias in order as he jumped up on a table because there had to be a snake loose in the house.
But perhaps the show is as much of a police procedural as is Brenda Jean's "Closer" on TNT. We enjoy her southern charm and her "Thank-yew's" along with Provenza's antics. We still think that Lenny Brisco was the best police detective ever on "Law and Order", but again that is a police procedural. We don't watch the spin offs any more than we watch the CSI shows. Crime Scene Investigators are not detectives. Those people should be giving the crime scene evidence to detectives like Lenny who solve the crimes. If this were about police procedural shows than Dragnet would have to be included as one of the first.

I have to add one more British detective - Miss Marple. I prefer Joan Hickson to Geraldine McEwan in the role. Agatha Christie who wrote the books, was a contemporary of Dorothy Sayers, who wrote the Wimseys. Miss Marple has been played by everyone from Margaret Rutherford, to Angela Lansbury. Always a staple in fiction and film, she is the noticing maiden aunt, who slips past everyone's radar. The original books were well done, so the stories are good. It is interesting to see the differing adaptations.

I was supposed to write about ten and I have one choice left. I think the orchid loving fat man and his assistant Archie has to be it. I don't know if you like Archie better or "ero Wolfe" himself. I think that Timothy Hutton was a great Archie and very much like him in his new show "Leverage." Nero Wolfe certainly had enough quirks. The period was gorgeous and the ensemble of actors and actresses that slid into and out of different roles in different episodes, was really good. I only wish there were more.

I know there are more detectives that have slipped my mind. It is apparent from reading the list I have created, that most of the detectives that I like best come first from books. The adaptations are well done. Most are on PBS, although I am not one of those snobs that says, "I only watch Public Television and the Discovery station". I know I didn't include "Murder in Suburbia" or "Midsummer Murders" both of which I enjoyed.

Oh my goodness. I have forgotten David Janssen in "Harry Orwell" but that was 1973 to 1976. I have also left out James Garner in "Rockford" but they made the last one of those in 1999 and that was a movie. I didn't remember "Peter Gunn" or "Richard Diamond", but I think I heard that it was Mary Tyler Moore's legs that were shown in the intro, although her face was never shown. I guess I can be forgiven for not remembering detective shows from the '50s. There have been lots of good ones and I am always ready to watch another. Maybe I have given you some ideas of shows to go look for.