Sleuth Trivia Quiz

Answer: Columbo

"One more thing" is the repeated line by Lieutenant Columbo in the eponymous TV series (1971-1978). In almost all of the 43 episodes, the first scene is the murder, and the rest is dedicated to how Lieutenant Columbo of the LAPD solves the crime by some odd clues.

Peter Falk (1927-2011) played the character Lieutenant Columbo in a shabby raincoat. He also appeared in a movie that made fun of a similar police officer: "Murder by Death" (1976).

Answer: Inspector Morse

John Thaw (1942-2002) started his acting career in 1961 with several small roles in the TV series "The Younger Generation". He appeared as a police officer in a few episodes of "Z Cars" (1963) and as sergeant of the military police in "Redcap" (1964-1966). His main roles were detective Jack Regan in "The Sweeney" (1975-1978), the lawyer James Kavanagh in "Kavanagh QC" (1995-2001) and the eponymous Detective Chief Inspector in "Inspector Morse" (1987-2000).

DCI Morse was an Oxford-based detective, fond of classical music, cryptic puzzles, classical art, poetry, and ale. The character was created by Colin Dexter.

Answer: Kojak

"Kojak" was the surname of the New York City Police Lieutenant Theodopolus Kojak, nicknamed Theo for evident reasons. The series ran from 1973 to 1978 in 117 episodes. One distinguishing characteristic of the main character (apart from being bald) was his habit of enjoying lollipops, as he wanted to quit smoking.

Telly Savalas (1922-1994) had already played some memorable roles, as Dr. Blofeld in the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) and Sergeant Big Joe in "Kelly's Heroes" (1970) when he took the role of Kojak. After the TV series was scrapped because of failing audience numbers, Savalas rekindled the role of Theo Kojak in seven TV movies between 1985 and 1990.

Answer: Derrick

"Derrick" was a German detective series, running from 1974 to 1998 in 281 episodes. The series was named after the eponymous Munich Detective Chief Inspector. All episodes were written by Herbert Reinecker.

Horst Tappert (1923-2008) started his acting career in 1950. Before his lead in "Derrick", he had also appeared in a few episodes in the similar TV series "Der Kommissar" (1970-1973).

Answer: A Touch of Frost

"A Touch of Frost" ran for 15 seasons between 1992 and 2010 in 42 episodes. This TV series was named after the main character, Detective Inspector Jack Frost, stationed in the fictive town of Denton. The screenplay was based on the works of R. D. Wingfield.

David Jason was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, in 1940. He started acting in 1965 as King Goose in the TV Movie "Mother Goose". He showed his comedy talent in "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (1967-1969) and "Only Fools and Horses" (1981-2003).

Answer: Wallander

The British TV series "Wallander" was based on the novels by the Swedish author Henning Mankell. It was the first foreign series based upon these novels - the Swedish television already had a series that started in 2005 and ran until 2013 over 32 episodes.

In the British TV series, it was Kenneth Branagh who played the title character, detective inspector Kurt Wallander. The British series ran only for four seasons (2008-2016), each with three episodes.

Odd enough, the Swedish media prefer the British TV series "Wallander" over their own version.

Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast in 1960. He starred in several Shakespeare productions and also appeared in a few movies based upon Agatha Christie's detective stories ("Murder on the Orient Express" in 2017 and "Death on the Nile" in 2022 were the first two).

Answer: Maigret

The Belgian author Georges Simenon created the character of Jules Maigret, a French police commissioner.

Several movie and TV adaptations were made of the novels by Simenon. The French TV series "Maigret" (1991-2004 in 54 episodes) starring Bruno Cremer is perhaps the best known in continental Europe, and may have covered most of the 75 novels by Simenon.

Other adaptations were a British TV series starring Rupert Davies (1960-1963, 52 episodes), another British TV series starring Michael Gambon (1992-1993, 12 episodes), and a British TV series starring Rowan Atkinson (2016-2017, 4 episodes).

Bruno Cremer (1929-2010) was a French actor. He started his career on stage with productions of the ancient Greek tragedies, as well as theatre plays by Shakespeare and Beckett. In 1953, he landed his first movie role, and would make several other movies. On television, we know him for "Maigret" and for a main role in the Italian TV series "La Piovra" (198-1992), about the mafia.

Answer: Midsomer Murders

"Midsomer Murders" was a long-running TV mystery series set in the fictive English county Midsomer. At the start of the series in 1997, the main character was Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, who was replaced after 81 episodes by his cousin DCI John Barnaby.

John Nettles (born 1943 in Cornwall) played the role of Tom Barnaby. Before this, he already had starred as the Jersey Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac (later acting as a private detective).

Answer: McCloud

"McCloud" (1970-1977) was an American TV series about a police detective from New Mexico stationed in New York. The title sequence showed the title character riding on horseback through the New York rush hour.

Dennis Weaver (1924-2006) played the title role, Sam McCloud. He was already well known as one of the main actors in "Gunsmoke" (1955-1964).

Answer: Poirot

"Poirot" is of course based on Agatha Christie's works involving the Belgian ex-detective. Seventy episodes were made during thirteen seasons, from 1989 until 2013.

Top-rated episodes of the series include "The ABC Murders" (season 4) and "Curtain" (season 13, the very last episode).

David Suchet was born in London in 1946. He acted in the theatres since 1969 and in movies and television series since 1970. He was one of the best-known actors in the role of Hercule Poirot.