YOUR TOP 4 TV DETECTIVES.

1.Sarah Linden
2.Jimmy McNulty
3.Inspector Gadget
4.Kojak

There's only one; DI Burneside.

1. Morse
2. Sarah Lund
3. Jimmy McNulty
4. Columbo

You're NICKED sunshine !

1 Cracker
2 Jane Tennison
3 Bloke from  the 70s   looked a bit like Charles Bronson ....driving me mad cant remember his name
4 Regan  from The Sweeney

Best combo; Saga Norén and Martin Rohde

1. Sledge Hammer
2. Starsky
3. Jim Rockford
4. Columbo

Saga Noren
John Munch
Brenda Lee Johnson
Laure Berthaud

1. Regan
2. Rockford
3. Kojak
4. Chisholm

George Gently
Endeavour Morse
Christopher Foyle
Sgt Chisholm (Minder)

was tempted to fit in Frank Drebin tbh

1) Jacques Clouseau
2) Mick Belker from Hill Street Blues
3) Columbo
4) Albert Chisholm

ah nice one Coach - you beat me to out!

If Anna Lee was still on the telly, she'd be getting a few votes.

DS Tommy Murphy (Murphy's Law)
Detective Andy Sipowicz
DI Lindsay Denton 
Laure Berthaud 

Detective Constable Isobel De Pauli (Samantha Janus) has been forgotten too.

Sherlock Holmes
Peter Boyd
Andy Dalziel
John Rebus

A lot of you may have missed Sledge Hammer! back in the 80s, even better than the man Frank Drebin, this scene from the first 10 mins of the 1st episode, stunning stuff lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R03Dtu1r6nk

COLUMBO.

Brother Cadfael
Sexton Blake
Alan Pinkerton
Columbo

Joe Friday - Dragnet
Dan Mathews - Highway Patrol
Robert Fabian - Fabian of the Yard
Mike Maguire - Dial 999

These were proper detectives in black and white.

I was going to include Dixon of Dock Green, but he was only a sergeant.
You had to be good in those days to be a detective.
Not like it is today when they'll take anybody.

They'd have had Foyle directing traffic if he'd been around at the time they made the programmes above.

Montalbano
Martin Rohde

1. Raylan Givens
2. Matt Dillon
3. Sledge Hammer
4. Frank Drebin

Scamp the man    3 Bloke from  the 70s   looked a bit like Charles Bronson ....driving me mad cant remember his name

Baretta? (Robert Blake)

If so, I liked him too.

Shame on you Vel for that list, away and put yer heid in a bucket o' Finnan Haddies.

Rebus - First by a country mile.
Taggart - Prefer the latter to the former
Columbo - Loved his style, Rab C would have proud to have been lifted by him.
Holmes - Was struggling for a fourth tbh.

Aka - I've never actually watched Taggart or Rebus.

BTW - I started a special "Calling Aka" thread to answer your query regarding the British Tanning Institute in Bothwell Street...big day fur Rangers the morra, son...

Tommy Toes...thats the one ...cheers

You're welcome.

"Keep your eye on the sparrow"!

Good interview Robert Blake with Piers Morgan about him killing his wife ...Blake gets a bit mad

Good interview Robert Blake with Piers Morgan about him killing his wife ...Blake gets a bit mad

Bergerac
columbo
shoestring
ted roach

Columbo
Quincy (a pathalogist, but still a brilliant detective)
Petrocelli (a lawyer, but also a brilliant detective)
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone, accept no other imitations)

Was it Robert Blake in Electra Glide in Blue - famous hippie cop move - also had big big trouble in real life...? Remember Baretta had a parrot. Loads of forgotten detective series...always got Baretta mixed up with Banacek.

Sorry, Scamp the Man - yeah, that was the trouble!

I think Banacek was played by George Peppard

Yeah - antique dealer.

Petrocelli's wife was ttsccsssshhhh-hot - no hair dye, no make up, natural beauty-hot.

http://www.themakeupgallery.info/images/fantasy/alien/st/kling/mara3.jpg

Petrocelli's wife!

Shoestring
Regan
Chisolm
Monkfish

Shoestring
Regan
Chisolm
Monkfish

I rarely watch anything made for American tv. What little I've watched always seems the same.
Far fetched and over sentimental. I watched one years ago with Angie Dickinson.
Always ended with her boss gushing "You okay" then angry she'd risked her life. Pap.

Police Woman.

Thinking about it, Baretta was probably my favourite because the show was on at a time when I got to know my brother.
He was a lot older than me and when he got married for the first time we hardly knew each other at all.

When he came back home after his marriage failed, we then started building a very close relationship.
He went out every night, usually till the early hours, but whatever night Baretta was on he just used to go to the pub and be in for when it was on (approx 10:30pm - 11pm) and we both used to laugh at the many funny parts in it (I particularly remember one episode where one of his sidekicks kept on about the Sheriff of Nottingham!), sometimes while he'd toast bread on the open fire for him and me.

Many happy memories of me and my brother just spending time together and laughing rather than the show itself, I suppose.

Still, it was a very good 'unusual' cop show (at the time).
And the parrot was a bonus!

Tommy I googled that and I genuinelly can't recall it at all.
I wasn't long married then so I suppose I was in bed before it started.
Nice heart warming story though about you and your brother.

Akabula, it was one of those 'hidden gems' that few people remember as it was on late at night on ITV and not promoted at all and I don't think it lasted for many series.
I think the only way me and my brother came across it was quite by chance one night when we were channel hopping - then it became a 'must see' every week.

Baretta had a great theme tune too - 'Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow' sung by Sammy Davis Jr:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jes-iZzy_Tk

Cant believe Louis and Briggs not got a mention yet, the creme de la creme of the breed

Yeah, very heartwarming story, Tommy. The telly is like the modern hearth.

"THE GYPSY QUEEN" Kojak episode is still brilliant to watch, btw - possibly the single best episode of any detective show in the 70s.

His wee side kick was his real life brother. George as he was known but his real name was Demetris or something.

Just g00gled it - "Queen of the Gypsies" - Zohra Lampert won an Emmy for her role. They tried to make a sequel but she wouldn't do it as she was working in theatre.

ME

Some of Kojak's hipster patter is rank and some of it is brilliant - probably down to the writers or how Telly Savalas was feeling on the day. Some great guest stars - like James Woods, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Gere etc. Although it's dated, some of the earlier shows are like forerunners of The Wire - police helped write the scripts too.

DCI Barnaby been waiting for this thread for years...

Columbo
Miss Marple(Margaret Rutherford...whose father was William Benn who spent time in a lunatic asylum and murdered his father...related to Tony Benn)
Holmes(Jeremy Brett)
Morse.

Me Aunty Penelope is convinced Margaret Rutherford was a man.

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes just pips it for me. Atmospheric.

Velasquez

Some of Kojak's hipster patter is rank and some of it is brilliant

At some stage he had it written into his contract that he could ad lib. Wasn't a privilege that many enjoyed.

Hee hee - maybe that's why his patter was so hit and miss, Aka.