Who's your favourite fictional journalist?

I QUITE liked this fella.

Comments

[Ash]

Mine has to be Carl Kolchak (fantastically portrayed by the late, great Darren McGavin) in the 70's teevee classic 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker'.

[Rob Buckley]

Ooh, tricky. So many good ones to choose from. Tin Tin? Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who, etc? There's Kevin McKidd in Journeyman to look forward to. I was always kind of partial to David Warner in Hold the Back Page. And Julia Sawalha in Press Gang. Danny in The West Wing? John Simm in State of Play?

I'd probably go for Darren McGavin in Kolchak: The Night Stalker though.

Who says I watch too much television?

[Linda]

See you two have far better taste than me - I can only think of the succession of losers who have turned up in Brookside/Corrie over the years! I loved Press Gang though too.

[The Wordsmith]

I have a sneaking fondness for Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon, who not only always nailed her story and got a front-page splash, but also solved a few murders on the way.

[Marie Phillips]

Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant in 'His Girl Friday' (can we have movies?)

[Toby OB]

Well, TV's my forte so I'd go with the following:

Carl Kolchak, 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker'
Oscar Madison, 'The Odd Couple'
Rossi, 'Lou Grant'
Greg Kettle, 'Hot Metal'
and just to prove it's not a boys' club,
PJ Franklin, 'My Boys', my latest fave.

But there's something about a great 1940/50s movie about reporters, - "Deadline USA", "-30-", even Leo McKern in "The Day The Earth Caught Fire" from 1962. The black & white photography, the rumpled suits and fedoras, the rush to deadline, the booze in the bottom drawer. Those types of movies can be as addictive as Westerns. If one's playing on TCM, I'll watch it!

[Carole Benton]

I always thought "Drop the Dead Donkey" had the perfect mix of stereotypical fictional characters

[Linda]

I feel ashamed that my TV knowledge doesn't stretch much further than the UK soaps now - and even one of them is defunct!

[Louise Bolotin]

Some great suggestions. I loved Hot Metal and Drop the Dead Donkey.

One hack at the bottom of the list has to be the dreadful Polly who worked at the Walford Gazette in Albert Square (EastEnders, for non-fans) - as if she'd get a front-page splash on a Fleet Street red top for a story about an obscure East End Asian housewife's affair. Totally non-credible and shame on the EE scripties for letting that one through.

Ditto the dreadful attempts to convince Archers listeners that Jennifer Archer and Lynda Snell are proper hacks. And even Jack Woolley was a rubbish newspaper baron...

[Neil]

State of Play, yes, but James McAvoy, not John Simm - he was, after all, a freelance.

And don't forget Kent Brockman.

[Linda]

Anything involving James McAvoy gets my vote...well except the Last King of Scotland! Euuuuuueeeewww.

[Vixx]

I can't believe that no one has said Clark Kent! Pshaw and pfft!