Watching the Detectives

This drawing is probably, as the kids say, not that deep – the Elvis Costello song it refers to is partly about watching detective shows on TV, so here we have a pantheon of TV detectives: Peter Falk as Columbo, Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, and David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. TV detectives certainly serve a purpose, providing the illusion that evildoers will be brought to justice and victims will be believed and supported. Comforting to think about and rarely true. Adopting a fan-like attitude towards the avatars of a false system is strange. Now in the collection of Melissa Fisher.