best television Detectives

steeljack · 15-09-2007, 03:07

Anyone know if any of the Ian Rankin , John Rebus detective books have been filmed for television , the books are in a similar vein to Dalziel and Pascoe/ Morse /Insp. Lynley etc.
anyone not familiar with Ian Rankin and his John Rebus character and who enjoys a good crime fiction I urge you to give him a try .

my rankings for top TV detective

1, Morse
2, Dalziel
3, Jane Tennyson, Prime Suspect
4, Frost
5, Lynley
6, Adam Dalgliesh ( the bald guy, not Martin Shaw)
7, Hetty Waintripe (just for trying to spot the scenes shot around
Hyndburn/ Accrington & District. eg outside Palatine cafe in
Gt. Harwood.)

ok ....lets have your choices

maybe someone with better skills than me could set up a poll

panther · 15-09-2007, 07:03

i have to say columbo

oh and hetty wainthrope, like you , i like to look where they are and see if i notice it

thats it really cant think

pipinfort · 15-09-2007, 07:49

Dangermouse and Penfold get my vote.....

Ianto.W. · 15-09-2007, 09:39

Columbo, becase the true born and bred Yank cannot work a 'who dun it' out and needs to be told beforehand the perpertrator of the crime. Not a lot to be said for inbreeding the North ,South,East, and Western zones of the planet Earth.

Ianto.W. · 15-09-2007, 09:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by steeljack

Anyone know if any of the Ian Rankin , John Rebus detective books have been filmed for television , the books are in a similar vein to Dalziel and Pascoe/ Morse /Insp. Lynley etc.
anyone not familiar with Ian Rankin and his John Rebus character and who enjoys a good crime fiction I urge you to give him a try .

my rankings for top TV detective

1, Morse
2, Dalziel
3, Jane Tennyson, Prime Suspect
4, Frost
5, Lynley
6, Adam Dalgliesh ( the bald guy, not Martin Shaw)
7, Hetty Waintripe (just for trying to spot the scenes shot around
Hyndburn/ Accrington & District. eg outside Palatine cafe in
Gt. Harwood.)

ok ....lets have your choices

maybe someone with better skills than me could set up a poll

Ian rankin like most of the other writers mentioned here are very good read the first time, but begin to lack ideas and 'flog' the same plot spun a different way to compensate for lack of ideas, and become very predictable,if not downright boring.

glasgow guy · 15-09-2007, 10:47

taggart ! wipes the floor with majority of those.. and what about Cracker ?....also quite good ..

flashy · 15-09-2007, 11:11

cracker, i just loved Robbie Coltrane

Tin Monkey · 15-09-2007, 11:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by steeljack

Anyone know if any of the Ian Rankin , John Rebus detective books have been filmed for television , the books are in a similar vein to Dalziel and Pascoe/ Morse /Insp. Lynley etc.

I've read all the Rebus books, except the new one that came out this month. There was a TV programme made featuring the character called, surprisingly, Rebus.
I only saw about 5 minutes of it, but turned it off as soon as I saw the bloke playing Rebus. He was nothing like the book character, which ruined it completely for me.

I also think you're stretching it a bit to compare the Rebus novels to Morese, Insp. Lynley, etc. OK, so he's a policeman, but I think that's where it ends.

See here for more information....
"Rebus" (2000)

egg&chips · 15-09-2007, 11:34

I used to like Sexton Blake

grannyclaret · 15-09-2007, 13:06

Fabian of the yard... ,Jason King...but then i might be the only old codger to remember them

MargaretR · 15-09-2007, 13:15

Life on Mars
BBC - Drama - Life On Mars
I found this detective series absolutely riveting

PS a sequel on its way --yipee
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Life on Mars sequel jumps to '80s

Doug · 15-09-2007, 13:48

Morse
Frost
Jane Tennerson
Cracker
Life on Mars

mobertol · 15-09-2007, 14:06

Unbeatable Morse! A respectable second Dalziel and Pascoe.
In the 70's I used to love Starsky and Hutch, remember watching Kojak too and then Cagney and Lacey.
Recently seen Rosemary and Thyme which I thought was a bit pathetic given that Felicity Kendal is generally such a good actress! Also on BBC prime they are re-running the old Miss Marple series - Kevin Whately (Sgt.Lewis in Morse) was a policeman in one of the episodes!
The top detective show on Italian TV is (unbelievably!) Murder She Wrote starring an Octogenarian Angela Lansbury -it has the highest ratings at prime time once a week! I quite like it, but with it not being on SKY I can't see it in English - the dubbed versions always lose such a lot of the original character.
Both Morse and Frost have terrible voices in the Italian versions...

jackyalex · 15-09-2007, 17:39

i loved watching miss marple ,

SPUGGIE J · 15-09-2007, 18:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by glasgow guy

taggart ! wipes the floor with majority of those.. and what about Cracker ?....also quite good ..

Now you are talking.