The Brit-Mystery Showdown Finalists
The results are in and our readers have chosen their favorite British Mysteries and Crime Dramas. You've assembled an impressive collection of sleuths and coppers but in the end there can be only one winner in the Brit-Mystery Showdown. Who will emerge as top gun is anyone's guess, suffice to say any of the ten finalists is well deserving of the honor.
Here they are, the Brit-Mystery Showdown Top Ten:
First Semi-Final (begins August 13)
The Avengers : Classic stylish action from John Steed and (most famously) Emma Peel. One of the most influential genre programs ever, despite it's rather cultish reputation. Followed by the New Avengers which re-invented the formula far, far, more successfully than the atrocious recent film version ever did (And for what it's worth I'll take Joanna Lumley over Uma Thurman any day) .
Lovejoy: Sexy antique dealing rouge Lovejoy (Ian McShane) continues to charm viewers with it's clever scripts and disarming performances. Currently being screened by BBC America.
Hamish Macbeth: Robert Carlyle has created some of films more memorable characters in his recent films Trainspotting, the Full Monty, Ravenous, and soon, the James Bond flick The World is Not Enough, but perhaps his greatest achievement lies on the small screen with his work on Hamish Macbeth. No number of re-viewings diminish his subtle. yet stunning, work as the lone copper in a sleepy Scottish town.
Inspector Morse: Arguably the greatest fiction detective of the last 20 years, John Thaw's Inspector Morse did the nearly impossable in not only equaling, but occasionally surpassing the novels on which the television series was based.
Hetty Wainthropp: Murder She Wrote for other side of The Pond or a modern classic. your votes will be the judge!
Second Semi-Final (begins August 27)
A Touch of Frost: The highest vote getter in all five preliminary rounds. David Jason, a British television legend who refuses to rest on his many and varied laurels, brings new depth to the detective series genre.
Miss Marple: Agatha Christie is represented by her own senior sleuth. Surprisingly Hercule Poirot did not make the cut!
Rumpole of the Bailey: An all time great makes a surprisingly strong showing against it's younger, flashier rivals. Crime is also fought in the courtroom and nowhere more charmingly then with John Mortimer's Rumpole as portrayed by the marvelous Leo McKern.
"The Sweeney : 's doing ninety 'Cos they've got the word to go / They get a gang of villains / In a shed up at Heathrow /They're counting out the fivers / When the handcuffs lock again ..." "Cool For Cats" - Squeeze (Difford &Tillbrook)
Taggart: Mark McManus's signature role and even without him one of the
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