The Best TV Detective Revealed

This week’s poll on ATV Today asked you to vote for your favourite TV Detective out of the likes of Sherlock Holmes, DCI Tom Barnaby and Hercule Poirot. We can now reveal which detective our readers prefer above the rest.

Before we reveal the results of the poll it is worth noting that it is now our most voted upon poll! Previously our poll on Best Season Finale of Doctor Who was the poll that rated best with our readers. However, over the course of the past week this poll has shot up the charts, as the votes went up, and earlier today overtook Doctor Who by quite some margin! Obviously our readers are fans of the Detective genre and were keen to make sure their favourite won, but who was it? Who was voted the Best TV Detective of the lot?

Well it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo close once again! There is literally just a few votes and percentage votes within it. Right from the word go there were four top performers; Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and DCI Tom Barnaby. While it was often Poirot who was in the lead the next three positions were chopping and changing all the time. However, around the midweek mark it there was a turning point and the poll came down to two contenders; Hercule Poirot and DCI Tom Barnaby. The number of votes for each shot through the roof leaving Holmes and Miss Marple dwarfed by sheer numbers. Today, the last day of voting, saw the two constantly over-take each over and fall behind and in the last few minutes of voting this was still the case. But in the end it was Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot, that managed to pull far enough ahead when it counted most. Yes the most famous Belgian of all is your Top TV Detective and we’d like to think it’s a combination of strong writing from Christie and a memorable portrayal by actor David Suchet that has made – the most famous detective in the world – your top TV Detective. Poirot had 37.3% of the vote.

In a respectable second place, and so close to winning the crowning glory, was John Nettle’s detective, DCI Tom Barnaby. It seems you folks rather like Midsomer Murders, bonkers though it is, because Barnaby had 36.9% of your vote. In third place was Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes, whose enduring popularity has seen various adaptations over the years. Last year Guy Ritchie gave us the big-screen film with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as the Victorian sleuths and currently the BBC are treating us with Steven Moffat’s modern-day version with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Sherlock Holmes had 13.9% of your vote. In fourth with 8.8% of the vote is Christie’s second infamous sleuth, Miss Marple.

In fifth place was DS Peter Boyd of BBC One’s police-drama Waking the Dead – played by the brilliant Trevor Eve. Boyd and his shouting, ranting, rule-breaking ways secured 2.2% of the vote. Below Boyd with 0.4% was our “Other” selection and it was Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote that several of you put forward. Inspector Morse, memorably played by the late John Thaw, had 0.3% of your vote. In bottom place with just 0.1% of the vote was Inspector Jack Frost – played on-screen by Sir David Jason. It does rather beg the question what did Frost do that our readers didn’t like?

Thank you to all of you who took part in this week’s poll. Tomorrow will see a new poll and this week it will be asking you for your favourite period drama from the likes of Upstairs, Downstairs, Lark Rise to Candleford, Poldark and Lost in Austen.