"There was one in particular you love to hate--the short bald guy--who would next turn up in a toupee as a totally urbane character and you'd be half-way through the program before you realized who he was."

Well I remember the actor. I assume you mean the one who played the bullying "Mr. Strickland" in Back To The Future. Didn't make my life any easier.

The DVDs don't give adequate credit to the cast of Miss Marple, but I think the character you mention was called Jenkins and he worked his way all the way up to Superintendent in The Mirror Cracked.

Morse would have made a fine guest star on "Fraiser", wouldn't he?

BTW, we're starting to like some of the new series coming on the USA Network. My boys have loved "Monk" from the beginning and the first episode of "Touching Evil" wasn't too bad. I was worried about "Touching Evil" since I knew it was yet another American adaptation of a British series and I remember what we did to Robie Coltrane's "Cracker" a few years ago. TE is very different but it works much better than I expected.