10 best TV ’tec duos
ere are 10 vintage TV H
double acts to keep you entertained during COVID-19 lockdown. All the programmes and films mentioned are available on DVDs and some, including The Sweeney, Scott and Bailey and the Persuaders can be seen on Freeview, writes Sue Wilkinson.
1 Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Probably the most detective double act in the world are the residents of 221b Baker Street. The first Sherlock Holmes story appeared in print in 1887 and was A Study in Scarlet. The first series of short stories appeared in The Strand Magazine, beginning with A Scandal in Bohemia in 1891s. On the big screen the best, for me, were Basil Rahtbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Holmes. On TV Jeremy Brett was perhaps the most famous Holmes with David Burke and Edward Hardwicke both playing his sidekick. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman barely warrant a nod – neither does Robert Downey Jr. Cost: Sherlock Holmes: Basil Rathbone: Definitive Collection, £24.99
2 Starksy and Hutch American television series
The series’ protagonists were two Southern California police detectives. David Michael Starsky, played by Paul Michael Glaser, the dark-haired, Brooklyn transplant and US Army veteran, with a street-wise manner and intense, sometimes childlike, moodiness. And Kenneth Richard “Hutch” Hutchinson, played by David Soul), the divorced, blond, Duluth, Minnesota native with a more reserved and intellectual approach. The co-stars were “jivetalking” Huggy Bear, Antonio Fargas and Starsky’s twodoor Ford Gran Torino, which was bright red, with a large white vector stripe on both sides.
Big screen version starred Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. Cost: Starsky and Hutch: The Complete Collection, £17.99
3 Sapphire and Steel British TV series
The programme centres on a pair of interdimensional operatives, the eponymous Sapphire and Steel, played by Joanna Lumley and David McCallum . Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series but they appear to be engaged in guarding the continuing flow of time. They assume human form and are sent to investigate strange events. Cost: Sapphire And Steel Series 1-6 Complete 6-Disc Set, £22.95
4 Cagney and Lacey American TV series
The show starred Sharon
Gless and Tyne Daly as New York City police detectives who led very different lives. Christine Cagney, Gless, was a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey, Daly, was a married working mother. Al Waxman co-starred as Cagney and Lacey’s goodnatured and sometimes blustery supervisor Lt Bert Samuels. Carl Lumbly and Martin Kove played, respectively, fellow detectives Marcus Petrie and Victor Isbecki. Cost: Cagney and Lacey: The True Beginning, £12.29
5 The Sweeney British TV series
British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling
armed robbery and violent crime in London. It starred John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. The programme’s title derived from Sweeney Todd, Cockney rhyming slang for Flying Squad. You can see it on Freeview channel 24 twice daily. There were also two films starring Thaw and Waterman. A 2012 film starred Ray Winstone as Regan and Plan B, credited as Ben Drew, as Carter. Cost: The Sweeney The Complete Series 1-4 Definitive Collection (DVD), £11.03
6 Dalziel and Pascoe British TV series
Crime drama based on the novels of the same name, written by Reginald Hill. The series was first broadcast on March 16 1996, with Warren Clarke being cast as Dalziel and Colin Buchanan cast as Pascoe. The series is primarily set in the fictional town of Wetherton in Yorkshire, following the work of two detectives that are thrown together as partners. Complete opposites, different backgrounds, different beliefs, different styles, they get on each other’s nerves. Cost: Dalziel and Pascoe An Autumn Shroud New DVD, £3.15
7 Demspey and Makepeace British TV series
Lead roles were played by Michael Brandon, Dempsey, and Glynis Barber, Makepeace, who later married each other on November 18 1989. The premise of Dempsey and Makepeace was the oddball pairing of two police detectives. An elegant British noblewoman Sgt (Lady) Harriet Makepeace and a streetwise working class New York er Lt James
Dempsey, both working for an elite unit of the London Metropolitan Police. Cost: Complete DVD set, £26,72
8 Scott and Bailey British TV series
The series stars Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharp, Amelia Bullmore, Nicholas Gleaves, Danny Miller, and Pippa Haywood. The show, written by Sally Wainwright, revolved around the personal and professional lives of Detectives Janet Scott, played by Sharp, and Rachel Bailey, played by Jones. Cost: Series 1-4 DVD, £18.25
9 The Persuaders British TV Series
An action-comedy series starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. The Persuaders are two equally-matched men from different backgrounds who reluctantly team together to solve cases that the police and the courts cannot. Danny Wilde, portrayed by Tony Curtis, was a rough diamond, educated and moulded in the slums of New York City. Lord Brett Rupert George Robert Andrew Sinclair, played by Roger Moore, was a polished British nobleman, educated at Harrow and Oxford, a former British Army officer and an exracing car driver. Cost: DVD sets from £22
1 0 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) British TV series
A crime-fighting duo with a difference ... one of them is dead! Jeff Randall, Mike Pratt, is haunted by his former fellow sleuth Marty Hopkirk, Kenneth Cope. Only Jeff can see Marty, although Marty’s lack of corporeality proves a drawback. The series was remade with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Cost: Complete series, £34.51