COLUMBO CONFUSION!

Are you a Columbo fan? Being a fan though doesn’t always mean crisp strong memories of the man in the mac.

I’m a fan, but while doing some research on the New York detective, I realised that my knowledge and memory of Columbo is quite confused.

Take for instance the episode entitled “Try and Catch Me”. My memory is of an old lady being locked in her own safe by her errant nephew, who is also an identical twin. The keys to the safe are buried in sand inside a horrible freestanding ash tray (in the shape of a Doric column), nasty.

However after refreshing my knowledge of Columbo episodes on the fab website http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/ I realised I had got it all confused.

What really happens in “Try and Catch Me” is this:

The old lady shuts her nephew-in-law up in the safe to avenge the death of her beloved niece. And he isn’t a twin; I’ve confused that with the twins played by Martin Landau in “Double Shock”, who, to digress, kill their uncle.

Anyway what’s the point of this babble I’m spouting? Well there is no real point. But it show’s you how strange one’s memories of your favourite shows can become tangled. If one is going to be a good detective, your memory of events and what people have told you must be sharp! Poirot or Columbo for that matter would never be so foolish.

Being able to convey your memories is important too. For instance after I told my mate Gazza about the Columbo episode featuring the safe, he said, “That’s the Columbo episode that pops into my mind when I think of Columbo”. He was then able to articulate his memories to me he just needed a push. He went onto tell me all these details about the plot concerning a light bulb, a scratched arrow on the wall and a rolled up piece of paper. All I could remember was the door shutting and the keys being buried and even then I got that all mixed up too.
What’s your favourite Columbo memory and is it correct?