# Detective (TV series)

Detective is a British mystery anthology television series adapted from stories by numerous prominent crime fiction writers, with each episode focusing on a particular detective character. Several prominent fictional sleuths were showcased, including Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Thorndyke, Philip Trent, Sir Henry Merrivale, Roderick Alleyn, Father Brown, Albert Campion, C. Auguste Dupin, Sir John Appleby, Inspector Ghote, Nigel Strangeways and Gervase Fen.
Many of the episodes were introduced by Rupert Davies, in-character as Inspector Maigret, reprising his role from the eponymous BBC series that had aired from 1960 to 1963. Several episodes functioned as Backdoor pilots for potential future series. Of the 45 episodes, only three such shows were produced as a result: Cluff (1964–65) starring Leslie Sands, Thorndyke (1964) starring Peter Copley, and Sherlock Holmes (1965–68) starring Douglas Wilmer, and later, Peter Cushing.
Of the eighteen episodes from the first series twelve are currently known to exist; nine episodes from series two survive; while only one episode from the third series remains in the archive.

## Recurring characters

Characters who appeared in more than one episode:
* Glyn Houston and Bernard Horsfall as Nigel Strangeways (2 episodes)
* David Horne and Martin Wyldeck as Sir Henry Merrivale (2 episodes)
* Michael Hordern and John Welsh as Detective Inspector Rason (2 episodes)
* Geoffrey Keen and Michael Allinson as Roderick Alleyn (2 episodes)
* Dennis Price and Ian Ogilvy as Sir John Appleby (2 episodes)
* Patrick Troughton and Colin Blakely as Jasper Shrig (2 episodes)
* Jane Merrow and Penelope Horner as Eve Gill (2 episodes)
* Lee Montague as Fred Fellows (2 episodes). Montague is the only actor to reappear in the same role.
* Derek Godfrey and Edward Woodward as Commissaire Bignon (2 episodes). Woodward had previously played C. Auguste Dupin.

## List of episodes
### Series One

| No. | Title | Original author(s) | Detective(s) | Actor(s) who portrayed detective(s) | Status |
| 1.1 | The Moving Toyshop | Edmund Crispin | Gervase Fen, Oxford professor | Richard Wordsworth | Missing |
| 1.2 | The Drawing | Gil North | Detective Sergeant Caleb Cluff, Yorkshire policeman | Leslie Sands | Missing, spawned a series |
| 1.3 | Trent's Last Case | E. C. Bentley | Philip Trent, journalist | Michael Gwynn | Missing |
| 1.4 | End of Chapter | Nicholas Blake | Nigel Strangeways, private detective | Glyn Houston | Survives |
| 1.5 | The Judas Window | Carter Dickson | Sir Henry Merrivale, amateur detective | David Horne | Missing |
| 1.6 | Dishonoured Bones | John Trench | Martin Cotterill, archeologist | Alan Dobie | Survives |
| 1.7 | The Man Who Murdered in Public | Roy Vickers | Detective Inspector Rason, officer of "The Department of Dead Ends" | Michael Hordern | Missing |
| 1.8 | The Speckled Band | Arthur Conan Doyle | Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective | Douglas Wilmer | Survives, spawned a series |
| 1.9 | The Night of the Horns | Douglas Sanderson | Robert Race, lawyer | Frank Lieberman | Survives |
| 1.10 | Subject: Murder | Clifford Witting | Inspector Charlton and Peter Bradford | Basil Dignam and Mark Eden | Survives |
| 1.11 | Death in Ecstasy | Ngaio Marsh | Roderick Alleyn, police inspector | Geoffrey Keen | Survives |
| 1.12 | A Connoisseur's Case | Michael Innes | Sir John Appleby, police officer | Dennis Price | Survives |
| 1.13 | The Loring Mystery | Jeffery Farnol | Jasper Shrig, Georgian era hero | Patrick Troughton | Survives |
| 1.14 | The Hungry Spider | Selwyn Jepson | Eve Gill | Jane Merrow | Survives |
| 1.15 | The Case of Oscar Brodski | R. Austin Freeman | Dr. John Thorndyke, Forensic sleuth | Peter Copley | Survives, spawned a series |
| 1.16 | The Speaking Eye | Clark Smith | Nicky Mahoun, accountant | Frederick Jaeger | Survives |
| 1.17 | Death of a Fellow Traveller | Delano Ames | Dagobert and Jane Brown, married investigators | Leslie Randall and Joan Reynolds | Survives |
| 1.18 | The Quick One | G.K. Chesterton | Father Brown, Roman Catholic priest | Mervyn Johns | Missing |

### Series Two

| No. | Title | Original author(s) | Detective(s) | Actor(s) who portrayed detective(s) | Status |
| 2.1 | The Deadly Climate | Ursula Curtiss | Robert Carmichael, reporter | Dudley Sutton | Missing |
| 2.2 | Dover and the Deadly Poison Pen Letters | Joyce Porter | Inspector Wilfred Dover, irascible police officer | Paul Dawkins | Survives |
| 2.3 | A Man and His Mother-In-Law | Roy Vickers | Detective Inspector Rason, officer of "The Department of Dead Ends" | John Welsh | Survives |
| 2.4 | Lesson in Anatomy | Michael Innes | Sir John Appleby, police officer | Ian Ogilvy | Missing |
| 2.5 | The German Song | H.C. Bailey | Reggie Fortune, police consultant | Denholm Elliott | Survives |
| 2.6 | The Beast Must Die | Nicholas Blake | Nigel Strangeways, private detective | Bernard Horsfall | Survives |
| 2.7 | The Avenging Chance | Anthony Berkeley | Roger Sheringham, amateur sleuth | John Carson | Survives |
| 2.8 | Born Victim | Hillary Waugh | Fred Fellows, police officer | Lee Montague | Missing |
| 2.9 | The Unquiet Sleep | William Haggard | Rachel Borrowdaile and Colonel Charles Russell, government agents | Sarah Lawson and Roland Culver | Survives |
| 2.10 | The High Adventure | Jeffery Farnol | Jasper Shrig, Georgian era hero | Colin Blakely | Survives |
| 2.11 | Cork on the Water | Macdonald Hastings | Montague Cork, insurance agent | Colin Douglas | Survives |
| 2.12 | The Case of the Late Pig | Margery Allingham | Albert Campion, gentleman detective | Brian Smith | Survives |
| 2.13 | The Golden Dart | Selwyn Jepson | Eve Gill | Penelope Horner | Survives |
| 2.14 | Crime of Passion | Colin Morris (dramatization of the real-life Dr. Crippen case) | Walter Dew | Glynn Edwards | Missing |
| 2.15 | Artists in Crime | Ngaio Marsh | Roderick Alleyn, police inspector | Michael Allinson | Missing |
| 2.16 | Deaths on the Champs Elysees | Francis Didelot | Commissaire Bignon | Derek Godfrey | Survives |
| 2.17 | The Murders in the Rue Morgue | Edgar Allan Poe | C. Auguste Dupin, French detective | Edward Woodward | Missing |

### Series Three

| No. | Title | Original author(s) | Detective(s) | Actor(s) who portrayed detective(s) | Status |
| 3.1 | The Prisoner's Plea | Hillary Waugh | Fred Fellows, police officer | Lee Montague | Survives |
| 3.2 | The Singing Sands | Josephine Tey | Inspector Alan Grant, policeman | John Carson | Missing |
| 3.3 | The Public School Murder | R.C. Woodthorpe | Sir Luke Frinsby | Cyril Luckham | Missing |
| 3.4 | Put Out the Light | Ethel Lina White | Miss Pye | Angela Baddeley | Missing |
| 3.5 | The Tea-Leaf | Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace | Ruth Kelstem | Hannah Gordon | Missing |
| 3.6 | Hunt the Peacock | H.R.F. Keating | Inspector Ganesh Ghote, Bombay policeman | Zia Mohyeddin | Missing |
| 3.7 | Elimination Round | Ludovic Peters | Ian Firth and John Smith | David Buck and Meredith Edwards | Missing |
| 3.8 | And So to Murder | Carter Dickson | Sir Henry Merrivale, amateur detective | Martin Wyldeck | Missing |
| 3.9 | The Poisoners | Francis Didelot | Commissaire Bignon | Edward Woodward | Missing |
| 3.10 | Mr. Guppy's Tale | Charles Dickens | William Guppy, law clerk | Bill Fraser | Missing |