New Feature: Columbo Villian of the Week
3 10 2007Well that’s quite enough moping about.
It seems to me that a while back I promised some new regular features. Well I finally pulled my finger out and thought of one. So welcome one and all to the Columbo Villian of the Week.
What’s it all about then?
For many it’s Poirot, for some it’s Marple, for others Angela Lansbury and some weirdos even rate Ironside but for me the seminal TV detective will always be Peter Falk as Columbo. I have many a fond memory of, as a student, waking at the crack of noon with my head feeling like it had been sucked backwards through a blender, just in time to watch the dishevelled detective spar his way through a list of B list celebrity villians.
The thing I liked about it was that unlike a lot other police dramas it did not think it was cleverer than you and so didn’t try to keep you guessing as to who the villian was. You knew, Columbo knew, and only the villian was too dumb to know that Columbo knew. That was pretty cool for me as even with a force 10 hangover I could guess the endings of most murder dramas in the first five minutes.
Anyway I’ve often thought that in our fame obsessed society many celebrities would make good Columbo Villians and so I’ve decided to share with you - you lucky readers - my personal picks for modern day Villians.
If you want to have a go on your own blogs that’s fine, a link back to me would be cool but isn’t obligatory and if you want to nominate someone - well that’s what comments are for.
This week’s villian is Les Dennis:
If you’re not from the UK the chances are you haven’t heard of Les unless you caught him on reruns of Family Arguments (or whatever it was called) but he rose to fame via a former staple of UK television: Who do you do? before going onto host Family Humiliation .
By 2002 Les’s star having reached it’s apex with Family Funerals was in decline and his marriage to the easy on the eyes but annoying on the ear actress Amanda Holden was falling apart after her affair with easy going co-star Neil Morrissey.
Picture the scene:
Betrayed by his wife, a fellow B lister and the fickle public, Les cunningly takes out a huge life insurance policy on Amanda days before she meets a sudden unexpected end in a chicken related accident that also leaves Neil Morrissey horribly disfigured. Astride a tidal wave of sympathy Les returns to popularity, his plan is flawless except for the rumpled American Detective who just happens to be visiting the UK to find out how they do things at Scotland Yard. Tabloid heaven.
Oh yeah, just one more thing…
Alas reality was different: we were treated to a middle aged man wandering around the back garden of the big brother house weeping and talking to chickens about his wife who finally left him - perhaps suspecting an adultorous affair with a cheeky hen called Mavis. All on live television - who says art is dead?
No celebrity is safe: next week a Villian sees a legend of stage, screen and radio turn to murder most horrid.
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You are right… I have no idea who Les Dennis is. My granddad used to love Columbo though…
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