|
|
Post by jno on Aug 12, 2020 7:33:14 GMT
Suggested by plasticpenguin.
Forget about mainstream cops with shooters, who is your favourite fictional sleuth?
Pick three!
|
|
|
|
Post by harryshand on Aug 12, 2020 10:24:52 GMT
Is Spenser supposed to be Spender y.i?
I've also voted for Cormoran Strike if not Big Jimmy.
|
|
|
|
Post by mybodyguard on Aug 12, 2020 16:01:27 GMT
Morse and then two "others" not on the list: Lewis and Dalziel. Since I can only vote for other once, I'll go with Spenser, Morse, and other.
|
|
BMW
One Of Your Own
Knocking out see through yashmaks to liberated Muslim ladies
Posts: 206
|
Post by BMW on Aug 12, 2020 16:49:17 GMT
Inspector Clouseau anyone?
ABSOLUTE GENIUS from Peter Sellers.
End of debate in my opinion.
|
|
|
|
Post by winchesterclub on Aug 12, 2020 17:14:29 GMT
Is Spenser supposed to be Spender y.i? I've also voted for Cormoran Strike if not Big Jimmy.
Is Strike ever coming back ? Hot off the press........ CONFIRMED: The brand new series will premiere on BBC One on Sunday 30th August 2020 and continuing on Monday 31st August – perfect Bank Holiday viewing. In a treat for fans, this is the longest series of Strike to date, weighing in at four episodes in total, so we expect the series to conclude the following week. |
|
|
|
Post by Arch Stanton on Aug 12, 2020 17:16:46 GMT
There’s only one detective on that list worth spit as far as I’m concerned. Mike Hammer. The rest, with the exception of Phillip Marlowe wouldn’t last two minutes in his world. Jessica Fletcher, Morse, Frost... Don’t make me laugh. Hammer is like the guardian angel of New York City, like Batman‘s Dark Knight persona is to Gotham. Just as brooding, just as psychotic. A lone, rage filled vigilante with a private detective’s licence. He doesn’t age really throughout the books. He just gets meaner and more violent as his screws begin to rattle loose. There’s two women in his life, Velda his secretary, and Betsy his Colt .45 who he met in WWII and dated throughout two years of intense jungle warfare.  He’s an unstoppable loose cannon that ignores the rules and often ascends to the role of judge, jury and executioner. Patriotic and loyal to the hilt, Hammer probably suffers from PTSD, and from the very first chapter of the very first novel, “I, The Jury” in 1947, it is established that Hammer will do whatever it takes to avenge those he cares about. The books are packed with pulp sex and violence. He is a cynical misanthropist and hard drinking womaniser, who despises communism and in fact I think it’s book number 4 - “One Lonely Night” (1951), where he finds out the femme fatale he’s been sleeping with is really a murdering commie sympathiser, and he flips his lid, drags her to a deserted warehouse, hangs her up by her hands and carves the commie out of her very soul with his belt. It’s classic stuff. Really nasty and lurid. By book number 7-ish he has no friends, Pat Chambers (police chief), sick of Hammer’s uncooperative loose cannonry gives up on him, Velda disappears, and as a result Mike becomes a drunk, living in the gutter. Until one day when he accidentally hears Velda is still alive and was abducted, and then all hell breaks loose when he finds out Pat hid this from him to protect Velda. There goes the neighbourhood. I remember reading that Spillane only wrote Hammer when he was skint as a way to make money. He had a huge following, though FAR TOO politically incorrect to be heralded as a literary hero nowadays, irrespective of the fact that you simply would not have had characters like say Dirty Harry or even Batman if it weren’t for Hammer.. He has been lost to posterity - albeit since Spillane died, Max Allan Collins picked up the mantle and has continued to write Mike Hammer novels, the latest of which came out this year. I think there’s about 25 books in the series. I’ve read or got the Spillane ones and own about half the Max Allan Collins ones. They don’t make heroes/detectives like Mike Hammer anymore, mores the pity. |
|
|
|
Post by felixdeburgh on Aug 12, 2020 18:24:45 GMT
Is Spenser supposed to be Spender y.i? I've also voted for Cormoran Strike if not Big Jimmy.
Is Strike ever coming back ? Hot off the press........ CONFIRMED: The brand new series will premiere on BBC One on Sunday 30th August 2020 and continuing on Monday 31st August – perfect Bank Holiday viewing. In a treat for fans, this is the longest series of Strike to date, weighing in at four episodes in total, so we expect the series to conclude the following week. Yes! Was only talking about when the next one was due a couple of days ago  |
|
|
|
Post by plasticpenguin on Aug 12, 2020 22:54:23 GMT
Inspector Clouseau anyone? ABSOLUTE GENIUS from Peter Sellers. End of debate in my opinion. Great call. So so funny. |
|
|
|
Post by plasticpenguin on Aug 12, 2020 22:59:17 GMT
I voted for Christopher Foyle. he's so enigmatic and almost emotionless.
Also went with Sherlock Holmes. He's been played by so many actors... and well.
My third choice was "other". Don't think you can dismiss Clouseau.
Also thought about Officer Crabtree from Allo Allo. So ludicrously un-PC, it's worth mentioning just because the character was an idiot.
|
|
|
|
Post by jno on Aug 13, 2020 3:35:28 GMT
Is Spenser supposed to be Spender y.i? Spenser (with an s) was a character created by author Robert B. Parker. There was an 80s TV show adaptation which wasn't well publicised at the time, shown all over the place late at night on the BBC - we of course have a thread on the forum too) here: minder.proboards.com/thread/2148/spenser-hire-1985-1988-confidential |
|
|
|
Post by mybodyguard on Aug 13, 2020 3:40:05 GMT
There’s only one detective on that list worth spit as far as I’m concerned. Mike Hammer. The rest, with the exception of Phillip Marlowe wouldn’t last two minutes in his world. Jessica Fletcher, Morse, Frost... Don’t make me laugh. Hammer is like the guardian angel of New York City, like Batman‘s Dark Knight persona is to Gotham. Just as brooding, just as psychotic. A lone, rage filled vigilante with a private detective’s licence. He doesn’t age really throughout the books. He just gets meaner and more violent as his screws begin to rattle loose. There’s two women in his life, Velda his secretary, and Betsy his Colt .45 who he met in WWII and dated throughout two years of intense jungle warfare. He’s an unstoppable loose cannon that ignores the rules and often ascends to the role of judge, jury and executioner. Patriotic and loyal to the hilt, Hammer probably suffers from PTSD, and from the very first chapter of the very first novel, “I, The Jury” in 1947, it is established that Hammer will do whatever it takes to avenge those he cares about. The books are packed with pulp sex and violence. He is a cynical misanthropist and hard drinking womaniser, who despises communism and in fact I think it’s book number 4 - “One Lonely Night” (1951), where he finds out the femme fatale he’s been sleeping with is really a murdering commie sympathiser, and he flips his lid, drags her to a deserted warehouse, hangs her up by her hands and carves the commie out of her very soul with his belt. It’s classic stuff. Really nasty and lurid. By book number 7-ish he has no friends, Pat Chambers (police chief), sick of Hammer’s uncooperative loose cannonry gives up on him, Velda disappears, and as a result Mike becomes a drunk, living in the gutter. Until one day when he accidentally hears Velda is still alive and was abducted, and then all hell breaks loose when he finds out Pat hid this from him to protect Velda. There goes the neighbourhood. I remember reading that Spillane only wrote Hammer when he was skint as a way to make money. He had a huge following, though FAR TOO politically incorrect to be heralded as a literary hero nowadays, irrespective of the fact that you simply would not have had characters like say Dirty Harry or even Batman if it weren’t for Hammer.. He has been lost to posterity - albeit since Spillane died, Max Allan Collins picked up the mantle and has continued to write Mike Hammer novels, the latest of which came out this year. I think there’s about 25 books in the series. I’ve read or got the Spillane ones and own about half the Max Allan Collins ones. They don’t make heroes/detectives like Mike Hammer anymore, mores the pity. I recently caught a few of the late 90s TV episodes with Stacy Keach and thought they were good. Shannon Whirry made a nice Velda! Haven't seen Keach's 80s TV version in a while. |
|
|
|
Post by Arch Stanton on Aug 13, 2020 6:24:55 GMT
There’s only one detective on that list worth spit as far as I’m concerned. Mike Hammer. The rest, with the exception of Phillip Marlowe wouldn’t last two minutes in his world. Jessica Fletcher, Morse, Frost... Don’t make me laugh. Hammer is like the guardian angel of New York City, like Batman‘s Dark Knight persona is to Gotham. Just as brooding, just as psychotic. A lone, rage filled vigilante with a private detective’s licence. He doesn’t age really throughout the books. He just gets meaner and more violent as his screws begin to rattle loose. There’s two women in his life, Velda his secretary, and Betsy his Colt .45 who he met in WWII and dated throughout two years of intense jungle warfare. He’s an unstoppable loose cannon that ignores the rules and often ascends to the role of judge, jury and executioner. Patriotic and loyal to the hilt, Hammer probably suffers from PTSD, and from the very first chapter of the very first novel, “I, The Jury” in 1947, it is established that Hammer will do whatever it takes to avenge those he cares about. The books are packed with pulp sex and violence. He is a cynical misanthropist and hard drinking womaniser, who despises communism and in fact I think it’s book number 4 - “One Lonely Night” (1951), where he finds out the femme fatale he’s been sleeping with is really a murdering commie sympathiser, and he flips his lid, drags her to a deserted warehouse, hangs her up by her hands and carves the commie out of her very soul with his belt. It’s classic stuff. Really nasty and lurid. By book number 7-ish he has no friends, Pat Chambers (police chief), sick of Hammer’s uncooperative loose cannonry gives up on him, Velda disappears, and as a result Mike becomes a drunk, living in the gutter. Until one day when he accidentally hears Velda is still alive and was abducted, and then all hell breaks loose when he finds out Pat hid this from him to protect Velda. There goes the neighbourhood. I remember reading that Spillane only wrote Hammer when he was skint as a way to make money. He had a huge following, though FAR TOO politically incorrect to be heralded as a literary hero nowadays, irrespective of the fact that you simply would not have had characters like say Dirty Harry or even Batman if it weren’t for Hammer.. He has been lost to posterity - albeit since Spillane died, Max Allan Collins picked up the mantle and has continued to write Mike Hammer novels, the latest of which came out this year. I think there’s about 25 books in the series. I’ve read or got the Spillane ones and own about half the Max Allan Collins ones. They don’t make heroes/detectives like Mike Hammer anymore, mores the pity. I recently caught a few of the late 90s TV episodes with Stacy Keach and thought they were good. Shannon Whirry made a nice Velda! Haven't seen Keach's 80s TV version in a while. Yeah from memory the TV adaptations weren’t too good. They were fun enough but not a patch on the books. I like Keach, he’s one of my favourite actors but it’s not “Mike Hammer”. |
|
|
|
Post by jjmolloy on Aug 13, 2020 13:15:26 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by jno on Aug 16, 2020 4:08:39 GMT
Reading this I think I definitely need to watch some Mike Hammer. Dare I mention the 'E' word, but I believe Stacy Keach as Mike Hammer was on TV in the 80s either before or replacing 'The Equalizer' during the week.
I remember finding Mike Hammer a bit difficult to get into as a kid and perhaps trying it again as an adult would be worth it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Arch Stanton on Aug 16, 2020 9:26:26 GMT
Reading this I think I definitely need to watch some Mike Hammer. Dare I mention the 'E' word, but I believe Stacy Keach as Mike Hammer was on TV in the 80s either before or replacing 'The Equalizer' during the week. I remember finding Mike Hammer a bit difficult to get into as a kid and perhaps trying it again as an adult would be worth it. I recall the Hammer TV version but haven’t seen it in donkey’s years. They could have replaced The Equalizer with Love Boat and it would have been an improvement. Dick Spanner and the Tennents Pilsner adverts I remember. |
|
|
|
Post by ltd on Aug 17, 2020 7:32:22 GMT
Went for Phillip Marlowe, but really I think I'd have to say Dudley Smith from James Ellroy's LA Quartet novels. He's a psychopathic genius LAPD detective for whom the ends justifies the means, and if he can make a few quid into the bargain that's all to the good. James Cromwell plays him in LA Confidential and while I think he does a good job of conveying the character's intellectual side he doesn't have the brute physicality of someone for whom killing in the line of duty is a normal part of the job and/or exepedient measure to further his takeover of the 1950s LA crime rackets. Would have been great to see someone like Albert Finney or Brian Dennehy in the role. The film also throttles back on his near rabid levels of racism towards blacks and hispanics.
Avoid the second LA Quartet novels where he turns into a camp as toast, nazi regalia loving stage Irishman caricature.
|
|
|
|
Post by billyfarmer on Sept 1, 2020 19:14:35 GMT
I voted for Sherlock Holmes, I can think of two Detectives, who I really like, who don't appear on the list - Chief Inspector Jim Taggart (Mark McManus) and Chief Inspector Reg Wexford (George Baker).
|
|
|
|
Post by barrythebook on Sept 1, 2020 20:20:05 GMT
Columbo for me, great programme.
As the viewer we know in virtually every episode who committed the murder from the outset and i think Columbo himself knows from very early on as well but he spends the entire episode gathering information and making his case before actually charging the murderer.
He's such a humble and apologetic figure but always gets the result.
|
|
|
|
Post by plasticpenguin on Sept 2, 2020 14:18:38 GMT
Didn't realise there was a best of detectives on ITV when I first suggested this. Still think most people missed a trick by ignoring Foyle's War. IMHO it's a great series, and authentic as one can achieve with budgets available to produce a series that lasted over a decade. Always gripping, and with Milner as his sidekick and Sam Stewart as his strange driver - great combination.
|
|
Twin2
Honourable Brethren
Posts: 383
|
Post by Twin2 on Sept 7, 2020 6:20:19 GMT
It was surprisingly hard to choose just 3 but I went for Chisholm (impossible not to!) Columbo and A.N. Other (Lewis).
|
|
logie
One Of Your Own
Posts: 249 
|
Post by logie on Sept 24, 2020 7:53:05 GMT
Gareth Keenan (Investigates)
|
|
|
|
Post by Terry on Oct 16, 2020 15:46:04 GMT
From the above list I could only choose Spenser and Morse.....and sorry, not Charlie Chisholm. He is of course great in his own rights, but in my book a sleuth he`s not.
My other favourite sleuths are Kevin Whately as Inspector Lewis, who really did great to leave Morses huge shadow, Stephen Tompkinson as DCI Banks and Tom Burke as Cormoran Strike (which is a series that I only initially watched because of Martin Shaw and after a quite slow start really grew on me)
|
|
|
|
Post by felixdeburgh on Oct 16, 2020 20:39:46 GMT
Gareth Keenan (Investigates) ‘Invetigates’, surely?  |
|
|
|
Post by I used to think I was a parrot on Nov 9, 2020 22:09:33 GMT
I voted for Columbo, Nero Wolfe and Dr Mark Sloan.
Harry Fox just missed out.
|
|
|
|
Post by simon316 on Oct 18, 2023 17:51:51 GMT
I voted for Jack Frost, Poirot (Albert Finney for me is THE Poirot and Jessica Fletcher - I bingewatched most of Murder She Wrote at the start of the year - such easy watching...
|
|
|
|
Post by billymedhurst on Oct 19, 2023 3:03:48 GMT
What, no Frank Marker  |
|
|
|
Post by coyote on Oct 20, 2023 21:21:59 GMT
Or Jim Bergerac  |
|
|
|
Post by AlanH on Oct 20, 2023 22:33:59 GMT
From those listed, Randall and Hopkirk and Chisholm plus literary sleuth Sherlock Holmes who has enchanted me in very many guises, particularly that of Jeremy Brett. (And not so much Steven Moffat's modern day pastiche.)
From those not listed, Frank Marker, Carl Kolchak and Mr Rose.
|
|
|
|
Post by coyote on Oct 21, 2023 10:52:22 GMT
Did Charlie Chisholm ever actually solve a crime??
|
|
|
|
Post by jjmolloy on Oct 21, 2023 14:38:01 GMT
Not on the list, but Jim Rockford was great, apart from that too many to choose just one. Thomas Magnum (80s) Jeremy Brett's Holmes is peerless, and the benchmark.
|
|
