Props to You Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

Originally created by Victorian novelist Arthur Conan Doyle and first appearing in the 1887 novel, "A Study in Scarlet", Sherlock Holmes has had a long and varied life on screen. "Guinness World Records" in 2012 cited Holmes as the most widely portrayed character in film and TV history.

One of the most popular incarnations was that of "Sherlock" in 2010. The series, co-written by Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss, who had devised the idea on the set of "Doctor Who", transported Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) to the modern era, using digital technology in concert with his prodigious logical reasoning to solve the mysteries that he had chosen to take on.

Answer: Thomas Magnum

One of the most popular US shows of the 1980s, "Magnum P.I." centred around the eponymous character, played by Tom Selleck. Living a luxurious lifestyle afforded to him by his successful author, Robin Masters (whose rare off-screen appearances were voiced by Orson Welles), Magnum could pick and choose which cases he wanted to work. Often they would be on the more glamorous side, where the detective arriving in his loaned Ferrari 308 would not look out of place.

The three wrong answers are all Hawaii-based detectives; Steve McGarrett was the legendary detective in "Hawaii-Five-O"; Charles Townsend was the unseen title character of "Charlie's Angels"; and Mack Wolfe was the detective in "One West Waikiki".

Answer: Kojak

"Kojak" began with its lead character, played by Telly Savalas, as a heavy smoker. The lollipop first appeared later in the debut season as the lieutenant tried to cut down on his smoking habit.

The show ran for five seasons between 1973 and 1978. A remake was first broadcast in 2005 with Ving Rhames in the title role. This version lasted just one season.

Answer: Jessica Fletcher

Jessica Fletcher was the central character of "Murder She Wrote", which ran for 12 series from 1984 to 1996. For her portrayal of the popular author, Angela Lansbury won four Golden Globes.

Answer: Jim Rockford

The ansaphone message was a running gag at the start of the show "The Rockford Files", similar to the couch gag in "The Simpsons".

An example of the sort of messages left for Rockford are "This is the message phone company. I see you're using our unit, now how about paying for it?" and "Hi, Jim, it's Jamie at the police impound. They picked up your car again. Lately, they've been driving it more than you have."

"The Rockford Files" ran for six seasons from 1974 to 1980, returning in the 1990s for a series of one-off TV movies.

Answer: Inspector Morse

"Inspector Morse" had a total of 33 episodes broadcast over a 13 year span. Played beautifully by John Thaw throughout the run, the character was based on the protagonist of the novels written by Colin Dexter. In the early Dexter novels, Morse drove a Lancia rather than the picture Jaguar but the novels written after the TV show began its run, matched the car depicted in the show.

The success of "Inspector Morse" led to two hugely popular spin-off shows, "Lewis" which was centred around Morse's sergeant, by then promoted to inspector himself, and "Endeavour", which was a prequel covering the early years of Morse's career.

Answer: Dale Cooper

The town and the show, of course, is "Twin Peaks". The series was a huge hit in the early 1990s, despite the deliberate inpenetrability of its central mystery. Cooper was the central character, played by Kyle MacLachlan as a grown up version of his teenage character Jeffery Beaumont from a previous project of show creator David Lynch, "Blue Velvet".

Answer: Robert T. Ironside

"Ironside" (or "A Man Called Ironside" as it was known in the UK) ran for nearly 200 episodes from 1967 to 1975. The title character was confined to a wheelchair after being shot and the whittling down of the numerous suspects in that shooting formed the plot for the pilot episode.

During the series Ironside operated mainly out of the back of a van with the team he recruited from the police force to aid his civilian sleuthing. The series became a cultural phenomenon spawning spoofs, remakes and a 1974 spin-off "Amy Prentiss" that lasted just three episodes.

Answer: Hercule Poirot

Poirot was the funny little man dreamt up by crime writer extraordinaire, Agatha Christie and subsequently embodied on screen by numerous great actors. Most notable among these is David Suchet, who played the great Belgian in 70 episodes of the series "Poirot", covering every one of Christie's works in which he featured as the lead detective.

Of the other answers, Brother Cadfael was a Welsh detective monk, Maigret was French (although a creation of Belgian, Georges Simenon) and Papa Schtroumpf is the original Belgian name of Papa Smurf.

Answer: Lt Columbo

"Columbo" was a different kind of TV detective show because in almost all cases, the killer was revealed at the start of the episode. The joy of the show then became the way in which Lt Columbo, played distinctively by Peter Falk for almost its entire 35 year history, gradually worked his way towards proving the suspect's guilt. The coup de grace was usually delivered after one final piece of enquiry from the shrewd detective, usually delivered after the utterance of the timeless catchphrase, "Just one more thing."

The worldwide success of "Columbo" was such that a statue of the character as portrayed by Falk was installed on Falk Miksa Street in Budapest, Hungary in 2014.