RUMPOLE AND COLUMBO: TWO ICONS OF THE 1970s TV MYSTERY SCENE
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(NOTE: This essay was published in the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine blog on April 20, 2023.) John Mortimer, creator of the immortal fictional barrister Horace Rumpole (aka Rumpole of the Bailey), was born one hundred years ago this month. I don’t know if he ever acknowledged it, but Mortimer, when he created Rumpole, almost certainly must have been inspired, in part, by Columbo, the American TV series starring Peter Falk. The two programs – and their main characters – have a lot in common, even though Columbo was committed to putting people in jail and Rumpole to keeping them out. Both series debuted in the 1970s, but have roots that go back even farther. In the 1950s and 1960s, Mortimer wrote a variety of plays – for the stage and for British television – that featured barristers who could be considered prototypes for the Rumpole character. Likewise, Richard Levinson and Willam Link, the two high school best friends who created Columbo, wrote several stage and television plays in the 1950s and 1960s featuring detectives who were embryonic versions of Columbo.
RUMPOLE AND COLUMBO: TWO ICONS OF THE 1970s TV MYSTERY SCENE
RUMPOLE AND COLUMBO: TWO ICONS OF THE 1970s…
RUMPOLE AND COLUMBO: TWO ICONS OF THE 1970s TV MYSTERY SCENE
(NOTE: This essay was published in the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine blog on April 20, 2023.) John Mortimer, creator of the immortal fictional barrister Horace Rumpole (aka Rumpole of the Bailey), was born one hundred years ago this month. I don’t know if he ever acknowledged it, but Mortimer, when he created Rumpole, almost certainly must have been inspired, in part, by Columbo, the American TV series starring Peter Falk. The two programs – and their main characters – have a lot in common, even though Columbo was committed to putting people in jail and Rumpole to keeping them out. Both series debuted in the 1970s, but have roots that go back even farther. In the 1950s and 1960s, Mortimer wrote a variety of plays – for the stage and for British television – that featured barristers who could be considered prototypes for the Rumpole character. Likewise, Richard Levinson and Willam Link, the two high school best friends who created Columbo, wrote several stage and television plays in the 1950s and 1960s featuring detectives who were embryonic versions of Columbo.