Many criminals made the mistake of underestimating Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide investigator with a crumpled trench-coat and a beat-up car, who certainly acted as an incompetent bumbler.



But he was so polite to every suspect, and he talked so much about his wife (who we never got to see on any episode, but who many believe later had her own show, starring Kate Mulgrew, later of Star Trek: Voyager fame) that he lulled even the shrewdest murderer into a false sense of security.



And although the audience had witnessed the murder in the beginning of each episode, it was still a surprise to see what mistakes the killers had made during the seemingly perfect murder.

Rivers of ink have flowed since 1887, when Sherlock Holmes was first introduced to the world, in an adventure entitled A Study in Scarlet.

Most of the great detective's fans know him so well, that they feel they have actually met him. It would therefore be presumptuous to try and define him here, as his many friends and admirers may each have very different views about this legendary personage.

For those who have not made-up their minds, it might be useful if they read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Autobiography, Memories and Adventures. They will undoubtedly come away with the notion that Sherlock Holmes resembles in many ways Dr. Joseph Bell, one of the teachers at the medical school of Edinburgh University. Arthur Doyle was seventeen years old when he first met Dr. Joseph Bell, who was then thirty-nine. The doctor left an indelible impression upon the young student.

This is how Conan Doyle described him much later: A "thin wiry, dark" man, "with a high-nosed acute face, penetrating gray eyes, angular shoulders." Dr. Bell "would sit in his receiving room with a face like a Red Indian, and diagnose the people as they came in, before they even opened their mouths. He would tell them details of their past life; and hardly would he ever make a mistake."

We owe the improved looks of the great detective, to Sydney Paget, who took his "strikingly handsome" brother Walter as model, when he illustrated a great number of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Conan Doyle dedicated The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Bell, who gave credit to the author for Sherlock Holmes's genius. "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it," he wrote him.

HErcule POIROT

The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot first appeared in 1920 in Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Agatha later wrote numerous books about him and the last one was published in 1975 - Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. Poirot has many characteristics which have made him a legend all over the world - the odd moustache, the egg-shaped face and his high opinion of himself. He will though most likely be best remembered for his ability to solve complicated mysteries with the help of his little grey cells. In that area he was a worthy successor of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Poirot is probably Agatha Christie's best-known character - and he has of course often appeared in films, portrayed by various actors. Albert Finney played him in The Murder on the Orient Express and Peter Ustinov has also played Poirot in many movies, such as Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. Many fans of Poirot do though agree that David Suchet (from the Poirot TV series) is most likely the actor who has succeeded best in portraying the famous detective. Hercule Poirot has even become so famous as an independent character that Anne Hart, a librarian in Newfoundland has written his biogaphy, The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot. Anne Hart has also written Jane Marple's biography. But Poirot was not always alone - in Christie's early Poirot stories Captain Arthur Hastings tried to help him - but always seemed to miss the clues that were of importance. In Poirot's later adventures Hastings was not such a frequent guest but Poirot also had other friends such as Ariadne Oliver (the mystery writer) and Detective Inspector (Chief Inspector) Japp. Austin Trevor played Hercule Poirot in three movies in the early thirties (Alibi, Black Coffee, Lord Edgware Dies). Tony Randall played Poirot in one picture in 1965, The Alphabet Murders. In 1974 another unusual Poirot appeared - Albert Finney - in the Academy Award winning movie The Murder on the Orient Express, where the some of the suspects were played by world famous actors - Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud and Lauren Bacall. A new Poirot book was published in 1998, Black Coffee, based on the play by Agatha Christie, but adapted as a novel by Charles Osborne..

MISS JANE MARPLE

"Murder at the Vicarage was published in 1930, but I cannot remember where, when or how I worte it, why I came to write it, or even what suggested to me that I shoud select a new character - Miss Marple - to act as the sleuth in the story. Certainly at the time I had no intention of continuing her for the rest of my life. I did not know that she was to become a rival of Hercule Poirot."
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

Miss Marple was the star of twelve Christie books, The Murder at the Vicarage, The Body in the Library, The Moving Finger, A Murder is Announced, They Do it with Mirrors, A Pocketful of Rye, 4.50 from Paddington, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, A Caribbean Mystery, At Bertram's Hotel, Nemesis and Sleeping Murder. She also appeared in 20 short stories. She was already an old lady in the first book, as Agatha herself describes in her Autobiography: "Miss Marple wass born at the age of sixty-five to seventy - which, as with Poirot, proved most unfortunate, because she was going to have to last a long time in my life. If I had had any second sight, I would have provided myself with a precocious schoolboy as my first detective; then he could have grown old with me."

Marple is an English spinster and lives in the Englissh village of St. Mary Mead and is not a likely detective but always succeeds where the police have failed. Instead of using a magnifying glass looking for clues she uses her instinct and knowledge of human nature. Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in a few movies in the sixties but Joan Hickson is the most famous Miss Marple and appeared in TV series and TV movies, but she also played other roles in other Agatha Christie movies. Helen Hayes and Murder She Wrote's Angela Lansbury have also portrayed Marple.