‘The Chelsea Detective’ star Adrian Scarborough on quirky sleuth

05.03.2022 - 03:27 / nypost.com

Scarborough, 53, told The Post.“I watched a lot of ‘Columbo’ as a child and always loved the quirkiness of Peter Falk. I thought he was brilliant,” he said.

“We also have a show over here called ‘Inspector Morse’ with John Thaw in the lead role and that was incredibly popular in the ’80s and ’90s. It took things to a whole new level with the psychology of detective work.”There’s a lot of that in “The Chelsea Detective,” premiering Monday (March 7) on Acorn TV.

DI Arnold — who’s dyslexic, lives on a houseboat after separating from his wife and plays piano in an elder-care facility — uses his powers of deduction and focus to solve the cases to which he’s assigned in the Chelsea district of London. He’s joined by his longtime partner, DS Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry, “Star Trek”), who’s just back from maternity leave and isn’t shy about speaking her mind — particularly to Max.“He’s got this sidekick who occasionally put the boot in him,” Scarborough said of Shamsie.

“She tells him to get real — he’s a bit of a dreamer and a melancholic and she’s anything but …she’s out there to solve problems and get on with life.”Max rides his bicycle to work and drinks a lot of coffee from his beloved coffee maker — traits he shared with Scarborough. “We had to do lots of montages of me cycling around and they were such joyous days because I didn’t have to remember a single line,” Scarborough said.

“I do ride my own bicycle because I don’t live in London, so I have a fold-up bike that I can put on the train, and once I’m actually at the station in town I cycle absolutely everywhere in town.“I was particularly interested in the bicycle side of things because we haven’t had a policeman riding a bicycle on TV for quite a while,” he said. “I