If Anything, They're Flexible Trivia Quiz

Answer: Auguste Didier

The television series "Castle" revolves around a successful mystery novelist, Richard Castle played by Nathan Fillion, who has (literally) killed off the lead character in his book series and is now struggling with writer's block. He gets a new lease of creativity when he is brought in for questioning by the New York Police Department in regard to a copy-cat murder that follows the plot of one of his books.

Angela Lansbury plays Jessica Fletcher, a retired English teacher, who gains international success as a mystery writer. She manages to find a lot of inspiration in her sleepy little town of Cabot Cove where dead bodies seem to appear with alarming regularity. The series, "Murder She Wrote", was extremely successful for twelve seasons between 1984 and 1996. It was produced by Richard Levinson and William Link who had previously (unsuccessfully) tried to run a similar series using a male lead character by the name of Ellery Queen.

Jason King is the title character of an ITV Entertainment series that first aired in 1971. King proved to be somewhat of a dandy who had a liking for fine art and wines and wrote adventure novels. The adventures of his main character, Mark Caine, were essentially a reflection of the writer and the mysteries he somehow got involved in. The King character had previously appeared in the 1969 series "Department S" where he collaborated with a team of international investigators.

Auguste Didier, a character from the pen of British novelist Amy Myers, is a master chef who solves mysteries.

Answer: Jonathan Creek

Creek's main job is to design the trick and set up the stage for the flamboyant magician Adam Klaus. As a result he is genius at the art of misdirection and illusion and it is these skills, along with Creek's ability to think laterally, that investigative reporter Maddie Magellan wishes to employ to help her solve the unsolvable.

As a consequence the show has Creek looking into unfeasible crimes such as locked room mysteries where it appears that it was impossible for the perpetrator to either get in or out, thefts where items appear to have vanished into thin air or crimes that seem to be of a supernatural nature. Whilst the show won a BAFTA for Best Drama it is a programme endowed with great humour.

This has been done through the clever use of comic characters and employing the services of a range of comedians including Griff Rhys Jones, Bill Bailey and Rik Mayall. Alan Davies, a noted comedian himself, fills the title role in a series that ran on the BBC on a semi regular basis between 1997 and 2004.

Answer: Accountant

Andy Barker is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) who has just started up his own practice and has rented an office in the fictional town of Fair Oaks in California. The problem he runs into is that the room's previous tenant was a private investigator, now retired, and Andy keeps getting visits from clients who mistake him for the former tenant.

The end result is that he is lured into solving mysteries while he should be establishing his own business and looking after his family. The series, first aired by NBC in 2007, was blessed with great writing but garnered poor ratings and was removed from air after only six episodes.

This was unfortunate as there were some very clever comic aspects woven into the series such as Lew Staziak, the retired P.I., who helps Andy out, suffers from lapses in memory and has an absurd fear of chickens. Each of the episode titles were a play on words of former great mystery novels or films such as "The Lady Varnishes".

Answer: Johnny Staccato

The very talented John Cassavetes plays "Johnny Staccato", a gifted jazz pianist based in Greenwich Village, who hangs out at a club run by his friend Waldo (a typically crusty performance by veteran actor Eduardo Ciannelli). Johnny is the curious kind and a sucker for the ladies, which tends to get him into all kinds of trouble. Most of the mysteries in the series are centred round the entertainment industry. One of the novelties of the show is that the "house" band changed regularly and each episode would be marked by the appearance of a prominent new musician. These included players of the calibre of Barney Kessel, Red Norvo and Shelly Manne. In the episodes "The Naked Truth" and "The Shop of the Four Winds" Johnny Williams, later to be known as Academy Award-winning composer John Williams, makes an appearance as a piano player. The series ran on NBC for one season in 1959.

The remaining answer options are all amateur detectives from the world of mystery novels. Johnny Ace is a disc jockey from the pen of Ron Ellis, Jonathan Argyll is an art dealer created by Iain Pears and Mr Jellipot is a solicitor and is a Sydney Fowler creation.

Answer: Francis "Frank" Dowling

"Father Phil, can you take ten o'clock Mass, I've got a murder to solve" or so says Tom Bosley who took on the title role in the "Father Dowling Mysteries", a programme that ran on the NBC and, later, the ABC for three seasons from 1989.
Just like Jessica Fletcher ("Murder She Wrote") Father Dowling is dogged by a very high crime rate in his neck of the woods. It appears as if his preaching is falling on deaf ears as murder and kidnapping mysteries abound. Fortunately for the good Father he has Sister Stephanie (called "Steve") to help him. Brought up in a rough neighbourhood she is handy with a gun, can hotwire cars and has little difficulty in conversing in the language of the streets. It is little wonder then that Sister Steve gets to do most of the legwork in the series.

Of the remaining options above Lindsay Gordon is a journalist, Arnold Landon an archaeologist and Francis Pettigrew a barrister when they're not off solving murders.

Answer: Angel

"Angel", which ran for five seasons between 1999 and 2004, is a spin-off from the successful "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" series and stars David Boreanaz in the title role.

In his quest for redemption Angel decides he should "help the helpless" and sets up "Angel Investigations" which, essentially, runs on a shoe string budget in Los Angeles. The majority of his cases involve clients who are the victims of some demonic source or humans who have aligned themselves with some form of demon. So if he's a private investigator professionally how does he manage to get a start in this quiz? In his final season Angel takes over the business of his arch nemesis, the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart. He continues to pursue his investigations while running the firm, thwarting the plans of the Senior Partners and infiltrating the Circle of the Black Thorn.

Monk, Kojak and Cannon are all investigators but they are also very much alive.

Answer: Mrs King

Amanda King (Kate Jackson) is a divorced mother of two who lives with her mother. One morning, at the train station, a package is thrust into her hands by a man who calls himself Scarecrow (Bruce Boxleitner) with the instruction "give this to the man in the red hat". She looks around the station to see scores of men wearing red fez hats. The mission fails, Scarecrow gets captured and Mrs King proves intrepid enough to save him. So begins one of the most ridiculous pieces of television to hit the small screen (with apologies to those of you who got a kick out of the show). Eventually Amanda scores a job with the agency, she and the Scarecrow develop a relationship, yada yada yada...

"Mr and Mrs North" are wealthy socialites who play at amateur detectives. They first saw light in a series of novels by Frances and Richard Lockridge and were initially adapted for television by CBS in 1952. "Hart to Hart" (1979-1984) produced wonderfully chemistry between its two leads Robert Wagner, the wealthy Mr Hart, and Stephanie Powers as Mrs Hart, his wife. The programme was often spoken of as a resurrection of "Mr and Mrs North". "McMillan and Wife" was a hit for NBC and ran for five seasons from 1971. Rock Hudson played McMillan, a forty something Police Commissioner based in San Francisco and Susan Saint James was his twenty years younger, very attractive though somewhat daffy wife. The pair would attend a lot of parties and benefits and somehow get caught up in a lot of murder mysteries.

Answer: Pushing Daisies

Ned has the gift of re-animating the dead simply by touching them but, there is a catch or two. Should he revive something that lives for a minute then something else of a similar nature in the area will die to maintain the balance and, should he touch that entity a second time, they will die again, this time the condition would become permanent.

Ned, played by Lee Pace, also has a talent for making pies and so sets up a restaurant called The Pie Hole. Unfortunately he doesn't have the same propensity for business and the eatery soon falls on hard times. A private investigator by the name of Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) accidently discovers Ned's ability with the deceased and makes a deal with our simple pie-man. His plan is for Ned to re-animate murder victims long enough for them reveal who committed the crime and how to find the clues to solve the case quickly. He then collects the reward and splits it 50/50 with Ned. Helping them in these mysteries is Ned's childhood sweetheart Charlotte Charles, known as Chuck. Ned had lost track of Chuck over the years until he'd heard that she'd been murdered on a sea cruise. Ned brings her back to life, they fall in love again and share a house together. This provides the show with some quirky moments as, despite their love for each other, the pair cannot touch each other.

The series ran on the ABC for three seasons from 2007.

Answer: The Persuaders

Danny Wilde, played by Tony Curtis, was raised in the Bronx, served in the US Navy and he made a fortune in the oil industry. He has a penchant for sport, alcohol, women and gambling.
Lord Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore), on the other hand, had a privileged upbringing, was educated at Oxford, served in the British Army and is a former racing car driver. He has a penchant for sport, alcohol, women and gambling.

The two of them meet on the French Riviera, take an instant dislike to each other and wind up in a brawl. They're arrested, brought before the court and that's where Judge Fulton delivers his ultimatum to them. They complete the assignment but continue to stumble into further adventures either by accident or some design by the judge.

The series aired on ITV and the ABC in 1971 and it relied on its sense of glamour and adventure and the by-play and the opposite natures of the two lead characters. Despite the fact that Curtis and Moore had careers that were ascending at the time their star power was not sufficient to generate strong ratings and the series was discontinued after two seasons.

Answer: The Mentalist

Five years before the events depicted in the pilot episode of "The Mentalist" Patrick Jane appeared on television and claimed that his psychic abilities had enabled the police to profile a dangerous serial killer known as Red John. This upsets Red John and he takes out this slight by killing Jane's wife and daughter. Jane now wants his slice of revenge and so ingratiates himself to the California Bureau of Investigation to provide him with the means of tracking down the killer.

Cleverly portrayed by Simon Baker we learn that Jane was raised by his father in a carnival show. He is a con-man who manages to pass himself off as a psychic. He is able to do this with a strong set of observational skills that include hot and cold reading, muscle reading and an almost unbelievable capacity to discern and interpret microexpressions. Oh, he's also a highly proficient pick-pocket.