Brit-Mystery Showdown Round One:
In the tradition of our just completed Battle of the Britcoms we know present Round One in our Brit-Mystery Showdown! Each fortnight we'll pit the greatest sleuths in telly history against one another until a King or Queen of televised detection has been named. Our combatants for this first round are...
Between the Lines:
As you may have guessed I'm including coppers as well as the rather more unofficial consulting detective (a la Sherlock Holmes or Poirot) in our showdown and this first round spotlights two of the finest examples of the genre. Let's start with Neil Pearson has the cop who keeps all the other cops honest in Between the Lines. BtL is more than just Neil Pearson's Tony Clark brooding about all day drinking, shagging and busting heads but it's Pearson who gives the show it's trademark intensity and gritty soul. That said the supporting cast of Siabhan Redmond, Lynda Steadman and Tom Georgson, amongst others is first rate.
The other police based drama this round is the seventies classic The Sweeney featuring Don Henderson and John Thaw as streetwise lawmen with fast cars, thick accents and shooters! Inspired by the gritty police dramas from America The Sweeney took the cliched genre a step further managing to create real depth of character and story where tired stereotypes would have been accepted just as readily by the viewing public.
Campion:
All Creatures Great and Small, A Very Peculiar Practice., Doctor Who. Peter Davison has made a habit of portraying memorable characters in classic productions. As Margery Allingham's popular detective Campion, which, for some odd reason a friend of mine insists on always mistaking for Maigret though Campion isn't the least bit French! Davison employs his trademark boyish good looks and often under-rated acting skills to cre ate yet another classic British Sleuth.Full marks also to Brian Glover as Campion's sidekick Lugg.
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates:
It's unusual enough for an actor to find themselves so strongly associated with one character that their fans seem to forget that the actor is playing a role and that the character is a fiction, but to do it twice is a rare accomplishment indeed.
To comedy fans Patricia Routledge will forever be known as Hyacinth Bucket in the classic Keeping Up Appearances" while to mystery fans she is know inextricably linked to the OAP detective Hetty W.
Poirot:
Alberty Finney looked the part but played it just a bit too eccentric, Peter Ustinov, lovely man, charming actor, but about as far from the character as one can get without leaving the film entirely. No, the only actor who's been able to truly bring to life
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