Our Hero and Dastardly Villain, in the course of a punch-up, sock each other bare-knuckle style, break chairs over each others' heads, and somewhere in the choreography they crash through a banister railing, land on the flight of steps a half-story below, still punching, kicking, biting, and gouging. When they reach the bottom of the stairs (having tumbled down three flights), Our Hero manages to land a round-house punch, knocking Dastardly Villain unconscious.

Now, were this sort of mayhem to happen in real life, the fight would have lasted about one-twentieth of the time, and even without tumbling down stairs, they would have wound up in hospital beds with their jaws wired shut, all four limbs in casts and traction, with tubes plugged into various bodily orifices, and wires coming out of everywhere and connected to a whole bank of monitors.

Instead, Our Hero gets up, wipes a small trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, and snaps the cuffs on Dastardly Villain.

Any number of movie and television heroes, Magnum P. I., Mannix, Spenser, you name it. But not Columbo. All brain work. I especially liked it when Jim Rockford (James Garner) would sock someone in the jaw, then dance around holding his punching hand and going "OW! OW! OW!" Later, you'd see him with an ice-bag on his hand.

Don Firth