Columbo no more

I've just learnt that one of my favourite television detectives - no, make it my all-time favourite television detective - has passed away.

Peter Falk, who had been playing the shabbily dressed Columbo - trench coat wearing, cigar-welding, seemingly absent-minded, pesky and persistent fictional television detective since 1968 - died two days ago on 23 Jun 2011, aged 83.

In the last years of his life, Falk suffered from Alzheimer's disease and in 2009, his memory had been affected so much that he could no longer remember playing the television role that he was most famously associated with.

Falk's portrayal of Columbo, won him the Emmy Award four times. I had written my tribute to this TV show about four years ago. Click here to read it.