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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 287716" data-attributes="member: 23">Ashes To Ashes <img src="https://pics.filmaffinity.com/Columbo_Ashes_to_Ashes_TV-628769997-mmed.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 423px" /><img src="https://static2.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/columbo-ashes-to-ashes.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 638px" />That jingle is back. The theme to Chase’s radio show from Butterfly In Shades Of Grey now serves as the theme for Verity’s TV gossip show promotion. Verity, this episode’s victim, was a nice little turn from Rue McClanahan. Patrick McGoohan’s name - as actor and director - immediately raised my expectations for the episode considerably. And these were mostly met. I always enjoy the little idiosyncrasies and mannerisms McGoohan brings to his Columbo characters. Eric Prince didn’t feel a million miles away from Agenda For Murder’s Oscar Finch in terms of being avuncular and proper. Propriety in particular seems to be a running theme for his characters, all of whom have their sense of order and consider breaches of this to be very serious indeed. The backstory, with Verity threatening to out Oscar’s original sin of having stolen a multi million dollar necklace from the neck of a dead film starlet in order to build his empire of respectability, gave a great motive as one senses he was truly backed into a corner. It also meant that Columbo had to solve two crimes, as he couldn’t establish motive without deducing how Prince had hidden the necklace from the police search (he cremated a body wearing it and retrieved the gems later since they’d been resistant to the extreme heat). Cremating Verity’s body brought a kind of untouchability to Prince. With evidence of his crime scattered over the Hollywood sign, how can it be proven? I appreciated the knock-on effect this had on other “clients” of his, since Verity was substituted for another body, he later had to double-up and cremate two other bodies together. Columbo’s interactions with the widows of these two men helped things feel expansive (especially given Prince’s involvement with one of them, nicely played by Sally Kellerman). The same can be said of Verity’s photo leading him to the Sheik’s house in which the film star had previously lived. Another familiar face came in the form of Ron Másak as ex-con taxi driver Eddie. Ron is best known to be as Murder, She Wrote’s affable Sheriff Mort Metzger. The interactions between Columbo and Prince were very watchable, though it has to be said this is almost entirely due to Patrick McGoohan and his unpredictability, which either reigns in or detracts from Peter Falk’s more cartoony performance. He's so wonderfully airily dismissive and condescending. I think McGoohan ad libs as well. If not, he's certainly skilled at making dialogue sound incredibly spontaneous and immediate. There's one point where Columbo pulls out Verity's planner from one of his pockets, and Prince disparagingly mocks him for his bag of tricks or his props. It's a quiet, understated, almost humorous observation that at the same time feels scathing and challenging. Columbo has some rare flashes of anger in this episode when he realises Verity’s dog has been locked up without food. It’s always interesting to see this side to him, but it’s less effective than angry moments in earlier episodes because Peter Falk’s performance is broader and more animated these days, so there’s less contrast. The Gotcha is fine. Probably not conclusive by any means as there could be all kinds of reasons why one body’s shrapnel might have got mixed in with another body’s cremains when they were ostensibly cremated back-to-back. But as it involved some genuine detective work I’ll take it. All in all, a very watchable instalment thanks to McGoohan’s input. I have a feeling I may end up wishing this was the very final episode. But we’ll see. </blockquote>

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