Dangerous
Davies by Leslie Thomas (1976)
When it comes to reading I am a neophiliac so I rarely read a
book more than once, but it was after reading ‘Dangerous Davies’ for the third
time that I wrote my first (unfinished) novel. I loved Leslie Thomas’ mixture
of comedy, whodunit and a very English admiration for the under-dog.
Detective Constable ‘Dangerous’ Davies (we never get to know
his real first name) is a sort of English equivalent of US TV’s Colombo,
scruffy, bumbling and accident prone but he gets the job done in the end.
Thomas wrote 4 Dangerous Davies books. As well as the original,
there was ‘Dangerous in Love’, ‘Dangerous by Moonlight’ and ‘Dangerous Davies
and the Lonely Heart’.
You may have seen the TV series based on the character – ‘The
Last Detective’. It starred Peter (Dr Who) Davison and comedian Sean Hughes who
played Dangerous’ sidekick Mod.
There was also a film ‘The Last Detective’ (1981) with Bernard
Cribbins as Dangerous and a terribly miss-cast Bill Maynard as Mod.
Fun Fact: I saw Leslie Thomas once. He was walking along Exeter
Street by the wall of Salisbury Cathedral Close. I waved but he ignored me.
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