Reviews

I've just given a 1 star review to PhoneShop, so I wanted to redress the balance by giving almost perfect review to both series of Facejacker. If anyone reading my other review thinks I don't understand modern comedy then hopefully this will set them straight: it's not me, it's PhoneShop that is the problem!

Evidently phones are much more fun when they're "jacked" rather than "shopped", as it were, as Kayvan Novak proved so deftly in the original prank phone call show. Terry Tibbs became an immediate sensation, and in Facejacker the strange car-salesman is brought to life.

Taking an overview of both series, Terry Tibbs started off amazingly, then tailed off slightly, then made a great comeback. The first couple of Terry Tibbs appearances, when he hijacked proceedings at Pricedrop TV and then his stunning Come Dine With Me spot, were hilarious! As with Fonejacker, the comedy comes from people's bemused reactions to this obviously full-of-it cockney spiv. Adding to the prank are frequent appearances by Terry's son and daughter, just about the only other people on camera who are in on the joke.

After a few less funny sketches, Terry bounced back in Series 2 with "Talk To Terry", the new Jerry Springer show and one which should be commissioned as a real series. Terry takes to US chat shows like a duck to water, although he will have to perfect the art of running through the audience without falling over! "He's a gay! He's a gay!" he gets the crowd to chant after one poor guy fails a lie-detector test, having denied he is homosexual. Lord alone knows what the audience made of this, but they seemed to have fun on the set, and I certainly had fun watching at home.

The final Terry Tibbs sketch was "The Apprentibbs", which also featured a hilarious new character Patrick: exactly the kind of eccentric person I've met at various workplaces, making you think: "where DO these people come from?". This is the kind of caricature Kayvan is so good at, not just boring clichés but genuine three-dimensional characters with an implicit back story that makes you wonder about the rest of their lives. You can see this with Terry himself - from a voice on a fake phone call, he evolved into a real man with a real family, real kids and many real ex-wives!

You can also see it with Ray Fakadakis, a late addition to the show but a highly welcome one! Ray probably became the star of the second series, and I for one am crying out for more Ray in the future! On one level the shifty ex-con Liverpudlian is a very obvious stereotype, and in lesser hands it would have just raised a yawn. But in Kayvan's genius hands Ray becomes a hero, a pathos-inspiring creature who is desperately, frantically trying to remain positive and happy whilst fighting some very dark demons. It's going to take him a lot of time and a lot of affirming "I'm amazing!" before he finds the contentment that he genuinely wants to impart into the next generation. It's probably going to take an even longer time for his hapless students to fully comprehend the wisdom of Ray's advice, especially his altruistic gift of a Cup-a-soup to a gobsmacked young teenager.

I haven't even got to Brian Badonde yet, another true star. His finest encounter was possibly with the LA rappers, poor guys! This was closely followed by Bick at the Fine College with his nude class (I mean, we've all stood naked in the middle of the room while some nice friends paint us, haven't we?) Everyone in Brian's path ended up obliterated by the bonkers, braying, barking art critic and his Bourette's syndrome. The funny thing is watching people gamely trying to maintain dignity and an academic tone while this charlatan pseudo art expert talks gibberish.

Another treat was the various guises of the talking machine: from Moira's Drive Thru to an automated tourist kart in San Francisco, the machine unfailingly misheard its instructions, broke down with technicalty difficultings, and just plain confused its users.

Augustus Kwembe tried scamming people using hypnosis, he pretended to be a traffic warden and a supermarket cashier, plus many more scams besides.

Dufrais was probably the hardest character to watch, and the most thought-provoking. I would even say on one or two occasions he crossed the line into actually being unfunnily obnoxious, but even in those moments there was clearly a point to Dufrais. How much slack do we cut disabled people for saying or doing things that would otherwise be totally inappropriate? Should we apply exactly the same social rules to them, or should we pussyfoot around and treat them with kid gloves? Almost all Dufrais' victims were incredibly patient, some were patronising and others, most hilariously, didn't give a monkeys about his disability and totally lost their temper regardless. I'm thinking of the bus driver on the baseball tour.

There were several other equally funny characters who only made one or two appearances. The comedy often had a real heart and soul to it, as well as making subtle points about human psychology. You could debate whether these points were deliberately pondered by Kayvan, or whether every prank show tells us something about ourselves and how we try to make sense of the most bizarre circumstances. I suspect that, for example, Kayvan has thought deeply about people's slavish obedience to machines, or how easily we place our trust in professional-looking camera crews, even when doing so defies all reason. In other words, there is some real intelligence at work here - it's not just Beadle's About or Trigger Happy TV.

I could go on, but it feels really good to be able to enthuse wholeheartedly about an original, innovative, fresh, good-hearted, varied, high quality British comedy and to demonstrate how good comedy can really inspire us!

What a shame this was the last ever Columbo. If only there had been "just one more thing": a final send-off episode, featuring the Lieutenant reluctantly forced to retire but not before solving his most impressive case! Back in the 70s "The Conspirators" was a perfect way to end the original series - an epic, "fin-de-siecle" episode that closed the chapter with its fitting slogan: "this far and no farther".

As it stands "Columbo Likes The Nightlife" doesn't feel like the last ever Columbo ever, it feels like the start of something new. This is why it's a shame: Columbo had turned a corner with this episode, still finding its feet with the new style, and had a few more episodes been created in the same vein we could have had a last hurrah for the Lieutenant (as opposed to a last salute for the commodore!).

If anything, the new direction of "Columbo Likes The Nightlife" is almost like a return to the very first appearance of "Columbo" in "Prescription Murder". It's interesting to compare the first and last episodes, and in fact they have more in common than maybe first apparent. For starters, the character Columbo in each episode is slightly less goofy and pretend-dumb: the murderers know he isn't stupid (unlike your "Death Lends A Hand" and "Columbo Goes To College" type episodes in which he readily plays the fool). He's definitely more serious here and the style of the piece is less wacky and whimsical than usual.

If the humour is downplayed in an episode of Columbo, what replaces it? In this case, as with the original episode, what replaces it is genuine suspense. A male murderer with a female accomplice both have to deny knowing each other (well, in "Prescription Murder" they know each other professionally but have to deny they are having an affair). Matthew Rhys is a new kind of Columbo villain in terms of appearance and fashion, however typically charming and "respectable" when dealing with Columbo (though with a not very secret dark side). Jennifer Sky was absolutely superb in this episode as his accomplice. Not only is she stunning, her acting was really pitch-perfect, getting more and more worried as the net closes in.

Another similarity with the original episode is the modishness of the setting. In fact, the best Columbos (apart from a few of the late 70s ones) tended to revolve around some new fad or new technology, very indicative of their era. Whereas "Prescription Murder" was very late-60s with its cheese and wine parties, "Columbo Likes The Nightlife" was a pretty good snapshot of early 00s rave culture. I was heavily into the culture at the time (we all go through that phase when we are growing up!) so it was frankly amazing to see Columbo enter that world, and what's more do it with style and lightness of touch. The world of rave is not really that different from the world of magic, a la "Now You See Him" and the Great Santini. After all, it's all done with smoke and mirrors. And, as I have said in my other reviews, any Columbo that features an outwardly glamorous backdrop makes a great setting for intrigue and foul play.

Any faults with "Columbo Likes The Nightlife" and this return to the serious, cutting-edge type Columbo? Not his age. Somehow Columbo appeared to be slightly younger here than in the previous few episodes, maybe it was his seriousness and that there was less of his absent-minded rambling and shuffling about here. I think Peter Falk definitely had at least one, if not two or three more episodes left in him after this. He was as sharp as ever.

The ending was ever so slightly disappointing for two reasons: one, if the music was stopped at a rave people wouldn't just stand around in silence, there would be catcalls and "wtf" reactions from the crowd! It would totally confuse the ravers to be honest. And the evidence about the fish kind of came out of leftfield, which to be fair happens in loads of Columbos. Maybe I need to rewatch it to see just how quickly he picked up on the discrepancy in the numbers of fish.

All in all though, this is an interesting, original and excellent episode made even better by the wonderful Jennifer Sky and daring use of the rave environment. "Columbo Likes The Nightlife" ended up being an artistic statement that seems to say: just because Columbo is in his mid-70s, this is not an old show or a show aimed at the nostalgia market, this is a serious piece of modern police drama aimed at a younger audience (hopefully without alienating the die-hard fans who remembered the show from decades ago).

On that level, you have to say it works tremendously!

All the elements are in place here, great acting and an interesting story. Columbo's trademark mind games about smoking and mice are especially hilarious. What's great is that he suspects Graham McVeigh from the very beginning and is deliberately toying with him. It's a particularly good combination of comedy and suspense in this episode.

The triple-bluff restaurant scene was excellently planned by Columbo, and as in "It's All In The Game", he will gladly go to great lengths in socialising with people (in this case the Mafia) in order to get his conviction. But it's made clear that Columbo is a "cream soda" kind of guy, so it's not out of character at all, just what he has to do to get enough firm evidence of McVeigh's guilt.

I honestly don't think you can say this is in any way inferior to the original 70s episodes. It's perfect, timeless stuff.

One of the best.

I am currently reading "Four Past Midnight", the book of four Stephen King novellas which opens with "The Langoliers". I have just finished reading this story and immediately checked out the movie version. I wasn't disappointed.

Something about this story, like many of King's, really touches a nerve. The quality is mainly in the basic concept rather than the sometimes-clunky dialogue. I like the idea of the past still existing physically, until it eventually becomes swallowed up by the Langoliers, the so-called Housekeepers of Eternity who hoover up the past to make way for the present. Incidentally, while reading the book I assumed the emphasis in the word was on the "o" - langOliers, to rhyme with magnolias. But no, the emphasis is on the "i" - langol-Iers, to rhyme with chandeliers. Either way, it's a strange word used to describe a very strange (but somehow not totally unfeasible) type of creature.

Like all good "Twilight Zone" episodes, which this reminds me of, such a great underlying premise leaves a really strong, unnerving impression. As such, it doesn't matter so much that the acting and special effects aren't amazing. The atmosphere and plot are totally faithful to the original book. In a way, the slightly wooden, stilted acting suits the wooden, stilted world in which the characters find themselves. An airless, stuffy, oppressive world where you can barely light a match, where the wind either doesn't blow (according to the book), or else blows on the ground level but doesn't move the clouds (according to the movie, because they couldn't stop the wind blowing on location!). A world lying in the dumpster, slowly atrophying, thrown on the scrapheap by the constant forward motion of time's winged chariot.

Always good to see Dean Stockwell, a man who is no stranger to travelling through time! Not his greatest ever performance here, but he certainly brings enigma to the part of writer Bob Jenkins. Bronson Pinchot brought just the right amount of creepy-but-sympathetic insanity to Craig Toomey, the dictionary definition of a loser in life, and a stark warning to what can happen to children later in life if they are belittled by their over-demanding parents. By comparison, David Morse as Captain Brian Engel was low-key and understated, but that was the exact impression I got of him from the book. If you were flying in an airplane through a rip in the space-time continuum, you would certainly want your pilot to be calm and unflappable!

Unlike some posters here, I actually thought Mark Lindsay Chapman's Anglo-American accent was spot on. And I say this as a Brit who has spent considerable time in America. Out of necessity for being understood clearly and not sounding too "plum in mouth", Brits in the States have to slip in a few American sounding inflections here and there. So kudos to Chapman for a great, convincing performance as Americanised British secret agent Nick Popewell. I'd go so far as to say that his English accent was better than Harry Shearer's immortal Derek Smalls character (Spinal Tap). As for the ladies - well thumbs up for both Patricia Wettig and Kimber Riddle for certainly being very watchable, if not the most three-dimensional performances I have ever seen. And unlike many people here, I had no issues with Kate Maberly as blind Dinah.

Finally, the effects of the Langoliers themselves. No problem! Once again, my image of them from reading the book was as funny sort of bouncing balls with teeth, which is more or less how they turned out on screen. These are not hi-tech computer generated monsters full of whizzbang explosions, they are like parasitic insects that feed off the scraps of the past. I don't see how they could have been better represented to be honest.

So what we have here is a TV movie that transcends the limitations of its slightly second-rate format, by dint of the strength of the basic source material and the fact that they adhered to all the elements of the book. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I'm sorry that not everyone enjoyed the movie, and I appreciate the negative comments it has received from some. For me it boils down to the concept of the Langoliers being something that really intrigued me, in a scary way, and I can't get enough of reading about them or watching them. For that reason, the movie gave me exactly what I was looking for.

Firstly, I'd like to weigh in with my thoughts on the Mike Yanagita scene. This is possibly my favourite scene in the whole movie (amongst several classic unforgettable scenes). It's funny enough when you first watch it, even though you find yourself feeling guilty about laughing. What IS funny about someone's wife dying from leukaemia exactly? The more you try and suppress your laughter, the harder you start to guffaw. I believe the Coen brothers wanted people to laugh guiltily at this poor chap breaking down.

It's even funnier when you realise later that Mike never in fact married the woman, she never died from leukaemia and the whole thing was some sort of creepy fantasy of his.

I don't really believe there is a deeper meaning behind this scene in terms of plot development or changing Marge's motivation, though I do accept it gets her scratching her head at how nice people can barefaced lie (or deceive themselves). I just think its a wacky piece of black humour, a set-piece slightly on a tangent but very very funny and therefore worthy of inclusion in the film. Does EVERYTHING in a movie have to be directly part of a linear plot line? Is there no room for random vignettes simply included to add to the atmosphere and entertainment value?

The quirkiness of the Yanagita scene leads me onto my next observation about "Fargo": Marge is the natural successor to my hero Lt Columbo (who I have reviewed several times on IMDb). When she first checks out the car wreck, in between barfing and drinking her coffee, Marge's style of deductive police work is pure Columbo. When she interrogates people, it's with the same "dumb friendly" schtick Columbo uses. Not that she's a one-dimensional copy of the Columbo character, far from it, just cut from the same cloth. Works for me!

Everyone in this film, every piece of dialogue, every snowy scene, every "ya" just works somehow. It would be much easier to analyse what's wrong with a movie than what's right, but in this case I find very little to criticise. The acting all round is stupendous. I actually rewatched "Reservoir Dogs" after this, so impressed with Steve Buscemi's acting that I wanted to see more of him. For the first time ever, I felt disappointed with "Reservoir Dogs", a film I normally love. Watching it back to back with "Fargo" revealed the superiority of the Coen brothers' movie to Tarantino's (still a great film don't get me wrong).

There are so many little touches that make this movie entertaining: the appalling muzak at the cafeteria; Carl's hilariously ill-at-ease facial expressions under the glare of the traffic cop's torchlight; Jerry "co-operating" with Marge, before getting carted out of his own house in his underwear, screaming like a baby; and all the peripheral but memorable, eccentric characters like the waitress at the diner, the escort girl at the Feliciano show with Carl and the "pathetic piece of (whatever)" parking attendant etc. Shep also plays his part excellently.

Just absolutely chock-full of great scenes, I actually watched Fargo three times yesterday and didn't get sick of it once. I feel like watching it again! And this is not because of hype or a feeling that I'm "supposed" to like this movie. I just do! I really feel it is something unique, not the most upfront, dramatic movie of all time, not a movie with a great profound message, just a lovable slice-of-Minnesotan life and some very entertaining winners and losers going about their business.

I love The Professionals. Great acting all round from the excellent trio of Lewis Collins, Martin Shaw and Gordon Jackson. Gripping, complicated story lines and great action sequences...never a dull moment! Surprisingly undated (aside from the cars and clothes, obviously). Bodie and Doyle's gallows humour and irreverent banter is so true to life.

I did have issues with Bodie's racist attitude in the "Klansmen" episode. Not because I shy away from dealing with serious issues in drama (and in all other respects "Klansmen" tackles racism very directly and bravely). My main issue was just that I didn't feel it suited his character to start making pig-ignorant racist comments, it seemed thrown in by the scriptwriters simply to make a point. (SPOILER: Point being that, by the end of the episode, having been treated by a black doctor and nurse, Bodie is miraculously no longer racist). I didn't want to hear that kind of talk from Bodie because, with all his life experiences he just wouldn't think like that. By all means have other characters in the storyline use those terms in context, but not a "professional" like Bodie!

As for sexism. Na! Just harmless blokey banter. Nothing's changed over the last thirty years apart from the feminisation of the TV industry. Ask Andy Gray or Richard Keys...

Out of all the episodes I've seen, "Klansmen" (well Bodie's dialogue in "Klansmen") hit the only wrong note. As for my favourite episodes: Hunter/Hunted", "The Madness Of Mickey Hamilton", "In The Public Interest", "The Rack" and "Heroes" all stand out. But all the episodes are watchable thanks to Collins, Shaw and Jackson.

Now I wanna get a Capri!

I received a box set of Series 2 DVD's for Christmas and rapidly devoured every episode, even though I have seen nearly all of them before. Yesterday I finally plucked up the courage to watch "Dagger Of The Mind" again, this time with my reviewer hat on.

The result was that I saw more good in this episode than I had noticed before, having been comprehensively turned off last time by the appallingly bizarre parallel-universe version of London on show here. It can't be London, England. Maybe there's another city called London somewhere in California where people speak with these peculiar accents, but it sure as heck isn't the London I know and love. (And it's not an era thing, as one poster pointed out, look at The Sweeney or The Professionals for a much more realistic glimpse of 70s London, not REALLY that different to today).

But yesterday when sitting down to watch "Dagger Of The Mind", I was prepared. I KNEW that what I was about to view bore no resemblance to any real location, so I deducted points for the misrepresentation of London at the start of the episode, and from then on simply allowed myself to watch the detective story, which isn't that bad.

It's not that great either, but there's so much going on that despite its flaws, this episode is never boring! Richard Baseheart and Honor Blackman actually made pretty good Columbo villains, and it was a good touch having two villains instead of the usual lone operator. Columbo's UK host Durk is played rather more subduedly, one of the less cartoony characters here.

Needless to say Columbo himself was played perfectly by Falk. It never ceases to amaze me that even in the worst Columbo episodes, whenever Falk comes on screen he elevates the quality of the viewing experience. I would like to see more of Columbo in London, because the idea of the LA cop checking out an important London murderer has real potential IMO, once over the novelty of Tower Bridge and Big Ben (which according to my DVD copy has the most bizarre chimes ever - did the sound guys drop a cassette of the chimes in a cup of hot coffee or something? The chimes play ridiculously slowly, and start speeding up halfway through, even though Columbo and Durk are having a normally pitched conversation over the top of this strange noise). One thing's for sure...I'd like to see Columbo detour into Harlesden or Peckham!

If the nature of my review is slightly scattergun and disorganised, that's a reflection of this real mixed bag of an episode. It has great actors mixed in with awful ones. It has a good murder mixed in with a bunch of unbelievable clues and coincidences. It is a silly episode, but yet it's actually quite watchable.

I'll give it a 6 out of 10, because of the watchability factor.

Finally...do actors really ponce around quoting Shakespeare in real life? As Lily says to Nicholas: "stop acting!" This could have been a lesson for the makers of this episode. Real acting doesn't mean affecting a hammy voice that nobody ever speaks like in real conversation, it means bringing a character to life and making him or her believable. Less is more, as Falk proves. If only a few of the extras hadn't "acted" so much, instead just played their parts in a more low-key, well-observed way then the show may have been more realistic.

The only reason I bring it up is that in almost every Columbo episode (possibly not the Sky High IQ one), the beautifully subtle, understated bit-parts add to the realism and atmosphere of the show. Whereas with "Dagger Of The Mind", it's this out-of-place "acting" that causes all the problems with this episode. A bit less acting and the whole thing wouldn't seem so ludicrous!

Well, maybe not "Murder With Too Many Notes", although that was good in its own way. But, hot on the heels of watching "Etude In Black" and giving it a perfect ten, I am currently rewatching "Swan Song" just to see if it too deserves ten out of ten. The verdict? Hell yeah! Maybe it's because the world of music is so full of backstabbing prima donnas that it makes such a good setting for Columbo episodes. There's something innately intriguing in the contrast between uplifting musical performances onstage, and the secretive, dark dealings that go on behind the curtain, unknown to the adoring fans in the audience.

In "Swan Song" the musical connection goes even deeper than "Etude In Black", because whereas John Cassavetes merely waved his arms about a bit and asked members of his orchestra to "play some Chopin"; in "Swan Song" we have a real musician, bringing total credibility to the role of gospel singer Tommy Brown. Obviously John Cassavetes is a far more natural actor than Johnny Cash, but because Cash is playing a singer not unlike himself, what he lacks in technical expertise he makes up for in his own real-life experiences. The first few scenes after the brilliant musical introduction made me a bit tentative about how successful Johnny Cash would be in his acting venture. He doesn't really gel with Ida Lupino, who plays his wife, the business brains behind their musical career. Their acting seems rather stilted and artificial, but to give them the benefit of the doubt, they are playing a couple with a terminally damaged relationship (though she doesn't realise it just yet), so it's only natural I suppose that their conversation will be forced.

This is one of those Columbos where the murderer has already decided to murder his victim before the episode even starts (other Columbos involve either unplanned murders, or ones that only occur after an on screen dispute). As murders go, deliberately crashing a plane into a mountain and bailing out at the last minute in a home-made parachute is as good a way as they come! (I'm joking, before anyone gets any ideas...) The price of this stunt, a broken leg, is a small price to pay for Tommy Brown, when the alternative is to be held to ransom for the rest of his life by his domineering, unloving wife, who withholds money from Tommy and denies him the right to sleep with starstruck young groupies.

It takes a bit of time before Columbo finally catches up with Tommy Brown, and rather unusually for Columbo, he is strongly urged to go after the suspect from the beginning, by the victim's brother. It's normally Columbo's own intuition that leads him to the murderer, but this time he is initially rather hesitant and only questions Tommy at his brother-in-law's insistence.

It's at a rather tactlessly joyful party Tommy Brown is holding in the wake of his wife's death that the brown stuff first hits the fan. It was at this point, when Tommy violently loses his temper, that I started to warm to Johnny Cash's acting ability. The worse his character behaves, the better his acting becomes.

As soon as the episode settles into the traditional Columbo cat-and-mouse, Johnny Cash hits his stride and really starts to shine. The rapport between the two of them is tip-top Columbo. Johnny Cash brings to Tommy Brown real charisma, cockiness and the perfect mixture of respect, affection, condescension and irritation towards Columbo (for a non-actor, the ability to express all these emotions simultaneously really was a great achievement). Columbo continually claims he is just tying up a few loose ends to please his superiors, it's just routine etc etc.

It looks like Columbo has got Tommy Brown firmly in his sights, but just before Columbo can pounce, Tommy skips town, supposedly to do some dates hundreds of miles away. Columbo follows him to the airport, and there is a hilarious scene where Tommy spots him and yells out to him. I just love the way Tommy Brown laughs in Columbo's face. He knows Columbo knows he did it but has no proof.

In fact, the only piece of evidence to conclusively link Tommy to the murder is the parachute, stashed inside a tree on the mountainside. But Columbo has planted a seed of doubt in Tommy's mind that a massive group of people has been enlisted to comb every inch of the mountain the next morning. So Tommy flies away, then immediately flies back and drives up to the mountain that night in a desperate search for the parachute before daybreak.

Columbo has already twigged that this would happen, in fact it was his plan all along and Tommy has walked straight into it, incriminating himself whereas if he had not returned, he would probably still be free. Columbo calmly picks up the parachute and offers to drive Tommy to the police station. Being an expert in the psychology of murderers, Columbo figures Tommy is secretly glad he was caught, he is too spiritual a man to evade his punishment forever.

In conclusion, this gets ten out of ten because it's so unique and gripping. Johnny Cash was a real gamble, but he pulled it off with style. The story might not be the most believable or watertight, but there's nothing particularly jarring about any of the details. The music is sensational as well, especially if you like Johnny Cash's music (who doesn't?!).

One of my Top 5 episodes, if not Top 3.

After repeatedly saying how brilliant so many Columbo episodes are, it's time to honour an episode with maximum points. "Etude In Black" is not 100 percent perfect, but it's certainly more than 90 percent...maybe 96 or 97!

Last week I reviewed "Just Married" and compared it unfavourably to "Meet The Parents". Well here's one of the parents, Blythe Danner, in a much earlier role as the wife of famous orchestral conductor Alex Benedict, played by the legend that is John Cassavetes. Alex has been having an affair with Jennifer Wells, a girl in the orchestra (not his first affair, one suspects). She is blackmailing Alex to leave his wife, but as his wife's mother holds the purse strings for the orchestra, Alex doesn't think it'd be such a smart move to destroy his career and marriage overnight. Instead he hatches a plot to sneak out of the concert hall before a performance and murder his young lover while making it look like a suicide.

Enter Columbo and guess what? It takes him about two seconds to realise that homicide is more likely than suicide. It doesn't take much longer for Columbo to connect Alex to the victim, and soon he's following him around wherever he goes. Even though Columbo is certain Alex is his man, it actually takes quite a while and a few false leads (none of which Columbo really swallows) before he has the vital piece of evidence.

Along the way there are some top-notch extra characters, ranging from the precocious young neighbour of Jennifer Wells and the English mechanic who sounds like he would be more at home on Coronation Street, through to the bedraggled looking brass player who nearly finds himself fitted up for the murder (he had also been seeing Jennifer Wells, the busy girl!). And there's even a brief cameo from Commandant Lassard from the Police Academy films. As with Leslie Nielsen in "Lady In Waiting", it's impossible to take him seriously (I bet you're thinking of that speech he made at the podium, aren't you?!)

But it's Blythe Danner, John Cassavetes and Peter Falk who steal the show here. Blythe is absolutely divine as Mrs Benedict. From the moment she spots Alex dialling Jennifer Wells' number from memory, she feels deeply troubled by exactly what their relationship was. It's a masterful performance as she struggles to trust Alex despite her intuition telling her something is very, very wrong. Columbo doesn't help matters by interrupting her game of tennis to ask her impertinent questions about Alex's relations with members of his orchestra.

As for John Cassavetes, well it's a shame he didn't make any repeat appearances as Columbo villains, because he could have been up there with Jack Cassidy and Patrick McGoohan as one of the all-time greats of the show. But this performance is superb! He's another one who falls into the "highly irritated" category, losing all patience with Columbo rather than befriending him and indulging him. Despite this, when the game is finally up he does grudgingly acknowledge Columbo's genius.

Well it's a really, really fantastic show. It loses a couple of very small points for its rather sledgehammer view of classical music, as highlighted by many of the posters here, but none of these have any bearing on the logic of the story or the characterisations. And at least the music is good, dramatic and exciting!

Finally, if you haven't come across it, there is an absolutely amazing clip of John Cassavetes and Peter Falk on the Dick Cavett show from the early 70s. I'm totally convinced Steve Coogan watched this clip and based Alan Partridge on it. Everything about the clip resembles Knowing Me Knowing You, from the cringeworthy introduction to the total humiliation of Cavett by his guests. Even the orchestra get in on the act, playing circus music while Falk, Cassavetes and their friend Ben Gazzara fool about and ridicule the host.

It might not be strictly relevant to this review, but the Cavett show clip gives a nice insight into the deep friendship and professional relationship between Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. It's clear to see from the quality of "Etude In Black" just how well the pair worked together!

The murder in "Suitable For Framing" must be one of the earliest to occur in all the Columbo films. No lengthy build-ups here, just a short burst of piano music interrupted within seconds by a gunshot. I always remember this episode and its startling introduction from years ago, and it's probably the one I've seen most of all.

Dale Kingston is a tremendous villain. I love the fact that he is so short-tempered, nasty and utterly disdainful of Columbo. I have no problem at all with there being no love lost between the two of them, it means there is always tension in the air!

Columbo's facial expression at the end is awesome (even though I ticked the "spoilers" box, I still don't want to reveal exactly what his evidence is). Without saying a word, he conveys with his eyes: "Come on mate, why are you making such a fool of yourself?! Everyone knows you did it, so why not just quit all this pointless shouting and getting angry, it's ridiculous!"

Up there with "Death Lends A Hand" as one of the standouts of the first series.

Wow! After watching this a couple of times, it didn't stand out as particularly special, but somehow on the third viewing all the quality of this simply superb episode was revealed to me. I've just watched it for a fourth time and it just gets better. It's an incredibly rich, exquisitely textured episode, full of great dialogue and an intriguing storyline.

Columbo himself is in top form, Peter Falk at the top of his game. I can see why one poster said Columbo's mock-grieving wasn't very realistic, but I think that was almost intentional, his way of gently taking the pee out of the murderess. Knowing full well that she is insane, Columbo deliberately has some fun with the whole scenario! Plus, Columbo isn't an actor. So Peter Falk is doing a good acting job in portraying a cop trying his hand at acting.

I love the little things in this episode, such as the saga of the abysmal chili cooked by Heinrich, not the previous chef with "one blue eye, one brown eye"! One wonders if this is a sly piece of self-deprecating wit regarding Falk's own distinctive eyes...

I also love the golf course scenes with the excellent Ian McShane. They remind me of the scenes with Robert Culp in "Double Exposure": Columbo bumbling around on a stuffy golf course, totally disrupting the game and embarrassing the man he's interrogating.

The climax of the movie, where Columbo gets his confession before admitting the whole funeral for Mrs Columbo was a fake, is a classic Columbo ending.

This is yet another modern episode just as good as the 70s ones. Maybe one reason why many people don't rate the modern ones as much is that they are less immediately gripping, they take a few viewings to really appreciate them. But I wholeheartedly recommend watching "Rest In Peace Mrs Columbo" over and over...you won't get bored of it and you'll catch something new in each viewing.

If it wasn't for the stunning mountain scenery and the role it plays in this story, I'd probably only give this episode seven. But the dramatic cable car scenes certainly add an interesting dimension to this intricately plotted Columbo adventure.

Roger Stanford is extremely annoying, I can't deny, but I don't have any problem with Columbo murderers being annoying. It just makes their eventual arrest that much more satisfying. And the way in which Stanford incriminates himself is very enjoyable.

I find the ins and outs of the plot quite a lot to take in, despite repeated viewings. It all revolves around the wheelings and dealings of a large family-run chemical corporation. The murder is caused by a home-made bomb planted into a cigar case.

It's not the best, it's not the worst, but it's highly watchable.

Whenever I feel like watching a Columbo (rather a lot since I decided to review them all), this episode never grabs my attention. But I do enjoy it. Whereas some Columbos inspire me to write about them, it's actually quite difficult to think of anything interesting about this one.

The only thing about "Lady In Waiting" that really gets my attention, not for the right reasons, is Leslie Nielsen. I know, I know, it's ridiculous to judge a drama that was made years before he turned to comedy...but come on, it's Leslie Nielsen! It's scientifically impossible to regard him as a serious actor, and I don't mean that disrespectfully: if anything it's a compliment to how deeply his comedy schtick has imprinted itself on our collective consciousness. He's not a bad actor (far superior to, say, William Shatner)...but he's Leslie Nielsen for heaven's sake!

I wish I could find more to say about this episode of Columbo, other than the fact that it's entertaining and reasonably dramatic. There's certainly nothing that stands out as irritating or flawed to spoil it in any way.

Along with Patrick McGoohan and Robert Culp, Jack Cassidy was an iconic Columbo villain. The very first "proper" episode of Columbo, following two standalone pilots, "Murder By The Book" is not far off classic status.

Jack Cassidy plays Ken Franklin, one half of a murder mystery writing partnership. His partner Jim is the talented one, whereas Ken has no talent other than the gift of the gab and a skill for promoting the books. As soon as Jim has decided he no longer requires Ken's marketing skills, Ken hatches a plot to kill Jim. Except it's not a new plot, it's actually the implementation in real life of a murder storyline originally intended for one of their books.

It doesn't take Columbo long to work out that Ken is the murderer, although unfortunately another murder has to take place (Ken romances and then kills a key witness) before Columbo has enough evidence to secure a conviction.

Nothing whatsoever wrong with "Murder By The Book", but it's not quite top-notch. I would just give "Publish Or Perish" the edge over this: both episodes feature Jack Cassidy and the world of publishing, but "Publish Or Perish" is a fraction more tense and unpredictable. But this is still a great episode.

"Death Lends A Hand" is one of the pivotal early episodes of "Columbo" that helped define the show for the next thirty years. It marks the first of Robert Culp's four appearances (three as a murderer), playing much the same role in each show.

In this case Culp plays Brimmer, the head of a large private detective company who is asked to investigate whether the wife of a wealthy newspaper magnate, Mr Kennicut, is having an affair. Although she is, Brimmer decides not to tell Kennicut, in the hope that he can blackmail his wife in return for snippets of information about her husband's business associates. She reacts badly to this suggestion, an argument ensues which rapidly turns violent as Brimmer whacks her across the face. Because he is wearing a large ring, the blow knocks her to the ground and kills her.

There are some really priceless moments in this episode. One of my favourite scenes is where Columbo pretends to be into palm-reading, although this is in fact a ruse to discover the shape and size of Brimmer's ring without admitting that he knows the killer wore a ring. Columbo being Columbo, he only reveals what he really knows when the time is exactly right to turn the screws a little. So initially he goofily plays the part of a rather simple-minded man who gets excited by the "lifeline going over the mound of the moon", or some equally ridiculous palm-reading mumbo-jumbo.

Another great scene is when Brimmer tries to offer Columbo a job for his firm, effectively bribing him to stop poking his nose around. Again, Columbo doesn't reveal that he knows what's going on, he pretends to be honoured and excited by this job offer.

And there's another where Columbo says to Kennicut, in front of Brimmer, that he wishes the murderer could hear their conversation. He wants to hint to Brimmer that he is onto him, without directly accusing him, so he rather cruelly (but understandable in the circumstances) decides to play mindgames on Brimmer in order to spook him into panicking and doing something stupid. Which of course he does! All the while, the grieving Kennicut is unaware of the subtext of this conversation. It's only near the end that Columbo explains all to Kennicut (not shown on screen).

I won't reveal how Columbo finally nails the killer bang to rights, but let's just say there's a potato involved...

A really really good episode, possibly the very best of the first series. If you liked this then you'll like "Double Exposure" too, also featuring Robert Culp.

This is an extraordinary Columbo episode quite unlike any other. Although not 100% successful, the ambition of this final episode from the 70s marks it out as a great ending to the series. This far, and no farther...until 1989! It's quite something to see a show as quintessentially Californian as Columbo tackle the Northern Ireland troubles. What's more, the producers, writers and actors do a pretty good job of examining some of the characters involved in terrorism, whilst simultaneously adhering to the usual Columbo formula.

Joe Devlin is a notable comic poet who regales his audiences with blarney, banter and bogus pacifism. The adoring crowds happily dig into their pockets to contribute something towards keeping the peace, unaware that their hard-earned cash is secretly being used to purchase weapons for the IRA.

All in all Devlin is a first-rate Columbo villain, although I really wish a few stupid errors had been spotted before broadcasting. Joe Devlin has a broad Southern Ireland accent as opposed to a Northern Ireland one, and no Republican would ever refer to Derry as Londonderry. Bearing in mind that the research and accuracy on this show was generally pretty good, these goofs really shouldn't have slipped through the net.

Another small gripe is that once again, like many of the late 70s episodes, the murderer never really gets annoyed by Columbo, well not to his face anyway. Plus, if Devlin is callous and violent enough to kill an arms dealer and trade in huge quantities of weaponry, would he or his gangster associates not try to bump off Columbo? Unarmed and wandering around alone, he would make a very easy target. Instead, Devlin always seems remarkably pleased to see Columbo whenever he shows up on the scene, relishing their verbal sparring and swapping limericks and wisecracks like old buddies. Although I do like to see banter between Columbo and the villains, it's always best when there is an undercurrent of antagonism between the two. Otherwise it seems a bit too cosy.

But these glitches are a minor issue, because I can't think of any other American drama show that even attempted to use the Northern Ireland issues as a backdrop for a storyline. To do so with such a controversial, divisive topic, without falling flat on its face or alienating half the population makes this Columbo worthy of great praise.