Famous fictional detectives

A private detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who lived in Baker Street, London. who made his first published appearance in 1887. He was devised by Scottish author and physician.

Holmes is famous for his prowess at using logic and astute observation to solve cases. He played the violin.

Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories. Almost all were narrated by Holmes' friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, with the exception of two narrated by Holmes himself and two more written in the third person.

Study in Scarlet (serialized 1887)
The Sign of Four (published 1890)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialized 1901–1902; original illustrations by Sidney Paget)
The Valley of Fear (serialized 1914–1915) (briefly involves Professor Moriarty)

There have been many TV adaptions of the famous character. Sherlock has also appeared in Star Trek the next generation, and in a humerous film with English actor Michael Caine where the doctor is the real intelect with Sherlock simply an actor.

Columbo was a USA crime fiction TV series created by Richard Levinson and William Link. It aired regularly from 1971 to 1978, and sporadically from 1989 to 2003. It starred Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Columbo could tell instantly who had committed the crime, and would follow his chief suspect around acting like a fan often fainfing interest in whatever the chief suspect had a line of work in. Colubmo would dress in unitdiy manner, and had scruffy dog, to make the suspect underestimate him. Columbo would lull the suspect into a false sense of security. Before revealing how the murderer committed the crime.

The suspect is often played by a famous star such as William Shatner, or Billy Connoly.

Columbo would often say his wife wanted to know more about a certain subject and that he was asking for his wife.

Hercule Poirot is a fictional character, the primary detective of Agatha Christie's novels. He appears in over 30 novels and over 50 short stories and is one of her most famous characters.

The character was born in Spa, Belgium, and worked in the Belgian police, notably in Brussels, but moved to the UK during World War I to start a second career as a private detective. Poirot is remarkable for a meticulous moustache, dandified dressing habits, absolute obsession with order and neatness. He prefers to examine the psychology of a crime to discover more evidence, once even betting his friend and Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector, Chief Inspector Japp, that he could solve a case simply by sitting in an easy chair. He is helped by Hastings, his loyal deputy.

Although he is Belgian what happens most often in Agatha Christie's books is that he is thought to be French.
He is populary played on TV by famous actor Suchet.

A television show about an obsessive compulsive detective Adrian Monk, played by actor Tony Shalhoub. debut in 2002 produced by the USA Network. Created by Andy Breckman.

Adrian Monk, graduate of University of California, Berkeley, was a detective of the San Francisco Police Department. Due to an unusual upbringing, which is being slowly revealed both in flashbacks and the present, Monk grew up with a variety of quirks and tics. After the murder of his wife, Trudy, and his inability to solve it, the only case in his career Monk has never been able to solve, Monk suffered a nervous breakdown, and his eccentricities manifested as an extreme case of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). After Trudy's death, Monk's life spun out of control and he ended up losing his badge. He refused to leave his house for three years. After these three years in seclusion, Monk began to perform consulting work for the department, helping the police solve difficult cases. Police Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lieutenant Randall "Randy" Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), call on and spar with Monk when they have a case they can't crack. Stottlemeyer is often infuriated with Monk's disorder, but respects his observational abilities, as does Disher. Monk continues to search for information about his wife's death as he works on other cases with both Leland and Randy aiding him.

Monk's personal nurse, Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), helped get him back on his feet. Once, Sharona's son Benjy (Kane Ritchotte) helped Monk with a case, unintentionally. Bitty Schram left the show during the third season due to creative differences. Traylor Howard plays Monk's new assistant, Natalie Teeger. Much like Sharona, Natalie is a single mother and has a daughter about the same age as Benjy named Julie (Emmy Clarke).

A Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has wrote many episodes. Set in tough gritty Glasgow, it revolves around a group of detectives in the Maryhill CID.

A common one-line parody of the entire show is the word murder pronounced with a thick Glasgow accent. The show is named after the orginal lead character Taggart who was played by famous Scottish actor McManus. The show has cotinued without Taggart. Yet many would say that though the show remains professional it lacks, the orginality, depth that the show had. It is true to say the orginal stories had a mix of depth, sophistication and subtle darkness that very few programmes in TV history have matched.

Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse features in a series of thirteen detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, though he is better known for the TV series produced by Central Independent Television from 1987–2000. Morse is a senior CID (Criminal Investigation Department) officer with the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England.
The Inspector Morse novels were made into an extremely successful series called for ITV. The series was made by Zenith Productions for Central, a company later acquired by Carlton. The series comprises 33 two-hour episodes.

Th egreat John Thaw and Kevin Whately as Morse and Lewis Morse himself was played by John Thaw and the faithful Detective Sergeant Lewis by Kevin Whately. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes. The series remains popular and is repeated on ITV1 and ITV3 in Britain, and in the United States.

The show is based in the famous university city of Oxford and many cases centre around the great university. Morse is a fan of opera, while his deputy is a fan of football. Both enjoy going down the pub, although not in a yobbish way.

Morse has a jaguar, and is intelectual, while his deputy is more practical. Morse is single and often gets romantically involved with women who turn out to be involved in the cases. Often cases bring up old cases from his job, old buddies from university, and stories often play into Morse's interest in opera.

Characters
The main two characters were Detective Inspector Jack Regan (Thaw ) and Sergeant George Carter (Waterman). Their superior officer being Frank Haskins. These were womaning, drinking, cops who worked for the Metropolitan police. Often they could not cath the crooks. And some say this is the first modern cop show, due to langaue, and womaning, and drinking.

Di Tyler a cop from 2005 has a comma and finds himself working in the seventies as a cop. In the show there is a constant mystery of whether DI has travelled back in time, or is just in a comma. The programme is based in seventies Manchester.

DI Sam Tyler is played by John Simm. His superior officer is DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), who plays a Sweeney style seventies cop. WPC Annie Cartright (Liz White) plays Tyler's friend, whio Tyler confesses to that he is from the 21st centruy and other characters are DC Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster), the young trainee, cop and DS Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) who was passed over from promotion due to Tyler. The show sees Tyler, see his past self growing up, and solve cases with Seventies cops. The show shows Tyler as a more sophisticated, clean cop compared to the seventies cops who rely on hunches.

In later episiodes of the first series Tyler sees his family with himself growing up and discovers, why he is in the seventies.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel (usually known as Andy) and Detective Sergeant (later Detective Inspector) Peter Pascoe are two fictional Yorkshire detectives in a series of novels by Reginald Hill and a BBC television series.

Seen as BBC version of Morse. In the tradition of apparently mismatched detective duos, the characters are divided by attitude, class and generation.

Andrew "Andy" Dalziel (from Scottish ancestory, often seen wearing a kilt) is a John presscott style Detective Superintendent, who likes to get the job done. He is a hard talking, northern person. Dalziel prefers the old school way of policing, which goes against everything Peter Pascoe is about, although he is a progressive in other ways. In recent episodes Dalziel has had to face up to his unhealthy lifestyle, when he suffers severe health lapses.

Peter Pascoe is somewhat the polar opposite of his partner Dalziel. He is sometimes calmly aloof, professional, a university-educated Detective Inspector. In the second TV series Pascoe separated from his wife, with whom he has one child. The split came about because of his dedication to his job, rather than to his family. He faced the prospect of his wife and daughter going to live in the United States.

A Clubbable Woman (1970)
An Advancement of Learning (1971)
Ruling Passion (1973)
An April Shroud (1975)
A Pinch of Snuff (1978)
A Killing Kindness (1980)
Deadheads (1983)
Exit Lines (1984)
Child's Play (1987)
Underworld (1988)
Bones and Silence (1990)
One Small Step (novella) (1990)
Recalled to Life (1992)
Pictures of Perfection (1994)
The Wood Beyond (1995)
Asking for the Moon (short stories) (1996)
On Beulah Height (1998)
Arms and the Women (1999)
Dialogues of the Dead (2002)
Death's Jest-Book (2003)
Good Morning Midnight (2004)
One Small Step is included in Asking for the Moon.

TV series
The novel A Pinch Of Snuff was filmed for a three-part 1993 ITV serial starring the comedy duo Gareth Hale and Norman Pace as Pascoe and Dalziel respectively. Christopher Fairbank was cast as DS Wield. h

In an adaptation of the first novel A Clubbable Woman. Produced by BBC Birmingham, it starred Warren Clarke as Dalziel, Colin Buchanan as Pascoe and David Royle as DS Edgar Wield. Susannah Corbett appeared as Ellie in the first full series later that year. Later seasons introduced Jo-Anne Stockham as DC Shirley Novello and Katy Cavanagh as DS Dawn Milligan, the latter characters swiftly nicknamed "Ivor" and "Spike" by Dalziel, never one to let the most obvious joke pass him by..

The TV and novel continuities are separate, therefore both Ellie and Wield still appear in the most recent books despite having been written out of the TV series.

The episodes have been based in numerous locations from, nursing homes, football clubs, a pontins style sea side resort, and an old motorway B&B establishment.

United States television series that aired from October 3, 1976, to May 11, 1983, on NBC. It starred Jack Klugman as Dr. Quincy, a brilliant Medical Examiner in Los Angeles working to ascertain facts about suspicious deaths. In the process, he frequently comes into conflict with his boss and the police, each of whom have their own (often flawed) ideas about what's going on. Quincy single handidly solves cases.

Quincy is hospitalized, is helped by Sam Fujiyama (Robert Ito), Quincy's faithful co-worker.

Early season episodes focus on criminal investigation; a typical episode would find Quincy determining the real murderer in a crime or the real cause of an unusual poisoning case. Later seasons' episodes began to introduce social responsibility topics such as racism, the holocaust, health and safety waterfor instance water in a stadium being contaminated.

Although Quincy studies bodies in-depth at his laboratory, he also does plenty of police investigation work technically outside the role of a coroner for the purposes of the show. A well liked man, Quincy lives on a houseboat, frequents "Danny's" pub, and is popular with the ladies. Although often the women turn out to be his chief suspect. In one epsiode a chief suspect conns him into falling for her, and then tries to murder him.

The show was based on a Canadian television series, Wojeck, broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1960s.

Canadian Mountie Benton Fraser, and his dog Diefenbaker, come to Chicago to pursue his ( Benton's) father's killer, and is assigned to the Chicago Consulate in the position of R.C.M.P. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Deputy Liaison Officer.

He teams up with Det. Ray Vecchio an Italian (wise talking) American, and they have plenty of success cleaning up crime in Chicago; Vecchio by pointing guns at people, Fraser by following scent trails and helping old ladies cross roads.
"Thank you kindly." Romantic intrest is provided by Inspector Margaret Thatcher (Camilla Scott) Domineering, hostile, strong-willed - she's Fraser's boss at the Canadian Consulate. Although she has in the past put him on probation, sacked him and even got him to pick up her laundry, Meg has also shared a kiss with Benton and still secretly finds him attractive.

Starring retired cops solving cold cases. Starring Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman charged with the task of keeping the boys well behaved. Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing, womanising, sweeny style cop, he mixes easily with criminals, although he likes nothing more than bringing them to justice, James Bolam as Jack Halford, great police officer, but trying to cope with his wifes death, he talks to his wifes grave, in his garden. After a few years on the golf course, the distinguished detective has returned to his first love, catching villains., and Geordie Alun Armstrong as Brian Lane. A first class detective, recovering alcaholic, forced into early retirement.
Also starring Anthony Calf as Robert Strickland, the commanding officer of the team. Susan Jameson as Esther
Brian Lane's wife.

New Tricks follows the antics of three retired cops recruited by Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.

But their hunger to right the wrongs of the past is still strong, and they're willing to resort to the most unconventional methods if it means they can close a case. The programme manages to attract famous guest stars such as Jenny Agutter.

Another cold case team this time of officers still employed by the police. Trevor Eve as Peter Boyd

The Head of the Cold Case Unit. Sue Johnston as Grace Foley the team's Psychological Profiler. Find out more »

Wil Johnson as Spencer Jordan Detective in the Cold Case team, Esther Hall as Felix Gibson

The team's new Pathologist. Félicité Du Jeu as Stella. A Major Former Character played by Claire Goose was Mel Silver a detective who died tragically.

The programme encapsulates the modern style of slick team based murder programmes, instea od the buddy buddy, or lone ranger cops whos of the past. .

Upper class Inspector Lynley and his female partner DC Havers solve cases. The programme is similar in production and style to Daziel and Pascoe

A British television show set on the channel island of Jersey. It starred John Nettles as the title character Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in the fictional Bureau des Etrangers, part of the States of Jersey Police.

The series lasted from 1981 to 1991. Regular characters in the series included Charlie Hungerford, Jim's ex-father-in-law and a local tycoon, (played by Terence Alexander, well-known as having played Monty in the BBC adaptation of The Forsyte Saga), Deborah (Deborah Grant), his ex-wife, and his boss, Chief Inspector Barney Crozier (Sean Arnold).

Midsomer Murders is a popular British television series about murders that take place in the imaginary rural county of Midsomer. Based on a series of crime novels by the author Caroline Graham, the detective drama focuses on the main character of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby, played by actor John Nettles ,Bergerac fame, First transmitted in the United Kingdom in 1997. Although the show's death rate is high, with each episode averaging at least three murders, the feature length drama manages to maintain a warm comforting middle class atmopshere giving off the feeling of what city folk imagine English village life to be like. The show attracts a number of well known actors from stage and screen in guest-starring roles. The majority of the early episodes were written by the writer and author Anthony Horowitz, who, together with the original producers Betty Willingale and Brian True-May, also created the series. Filming of the series takes place in the English counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey, and, owing to its huge success.

Barnaby is a married staid professional officer. He has a deputy, in each episode, who tires to learn from Barnaby.

Miss Marple

Another of Agatha's charcters. She lives in the little village of St. Mary Mead. She looks like an ordinary spinster, in tweed and with a curiosity as wide as the world, but when it comes to solving mysteries, she has a sharp logical mind. In the best detective story tradition, she often embarrasses the local police, usually by making an analogy with some village occurrence or character.

The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency written by Alexander McCall Smith, this humorous and heart-warming tale follows the investigations of Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's first female sleuth. After setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone to help people with problems, Mma Ramotswe, the book's ever resourceful heroine finds herself hired to track a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter.

The book's author, Alexander McCall Smith, born Zimbabwe. Along with an international career in medical ethics, McCall Smith has somehow found the time to write more than fifty books: from seminal academic titles to immensely popular children's stories.

The book has also inspired a brace of productions for the BBC; including a real-life documentary for BBC2 and a Radio Four dramatisation.