# A Touch of Frost (British detective show) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047 "2019-04-04T17:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/1 "2019-04-04T17:48:07Z")
My wife and I have been streaming this for a few weeks – we’re a few episodes from the end. We like it a lot, but lately it’s gotten a bit ridiculous – about the time the show switched to HD, nearly every episode ends with the portly little 60-something detective Frost chasing down and/or physically overpowering the killer, who is usually a much younger man. And in the last two episodes, he started dating a roughly 30 year old aerobics instructor. Anyone else fans of Frost and notice this? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/2 "2019-04-05T17:33:36Z")
No Frost fans? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/3 "2019-04-05T18:21:31Z")
I remember it was on when I first started coming to Canada, 12 years ago. I watched a number of episodes but haven’t seen it since. I quite liked it. The lead played the get-rich-quick con-man Del Boy in the '70s Britcom _ **Only Fools and Horses** _. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Di86eG0hFU8/hqdefault.jpg "Only Fools & Horses Best Moments") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di86eG0hFU8) ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/4 "2019-04-05T18:33:46Z")
I enjoyed the books by R. D. Wingfield, and didn’t know there was a series. I don’t recall senior citizen superhero antics in the books, though. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/5 "2019-04-05T18:54:06Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I remember it was on when I first started coming to Canada, 12 years ago. I watched a number of episodes but haven’t seen it since. > > I quite liked it. The lead played the get-rich-quick con-man Del Boy in the '70s Britcom _ **Only Fools and Horses** _. > > [https://youtu.be/Di86eG0hFU8?t=317](https://youtu.be/Di86eG0hFU8?t=317) In the interests of accuracy, the very popular sitcom **Only Fools And Horses** was an '80s show (which dragged on with Christmas Specials until 2003.) TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/6 "2019-04-05T19:36:37Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > In the interests of accuracy, the very popular sitcom **Only Fools And Horses** was an '80s show (which dragged on with Christmas Specials until 2003.) > > TCMF-2L I stand corrected! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/7 "2019-04-05T21:03:54Z")
Have seen it in years gone by but not lately. Not sure about the heroics - as you say, they didn’t occur in the older episodes. Why shouldn’t he have an attractive girlfriend though? We all need hope! ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/8 "2019-04-06T19:25:42Z")
Stumbled on it on YouTube, watched them out of order. Like all main characters, Frost wears plot armor. He isn’t invulnerable, though: he got the George Cross or something for being shot in the line of duty (IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/9 "2019-04-06T20:07:38Z")
David Jason has been playing old-man parts for most of his career. It’s only recently that age has caught up with him. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/10 "2019-04-06T20:56:15Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Anyone else fans of Frost and notice this? Did you notice that Frost was a winner of the George Cross? Not an attribute of the faint-hearted! You’ll also note that his fisticuffs deny him a promotion. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/11 "2019-04-06T22:05:08Z")
I remember when A&E was still worth watching in the 90s they’d show 2 hour tv movies of the series the show was great the one i remember most tho was where this couple were serial killers and they arrested the female half and her backstory was she had a blind sister and the parents decided to have a another kid whos sole existence was to be the eldest ones slave girl basically to the point she didn’t go to school and was only educated enough to be able to read and write for what ever the sister needed Of course by the time the blind sister figured this out she was married and tried to help her but she already hooked up with the male half and they’d robbed and killed 5 or 6 people and frost was trying to figure out who the mastermind of the outfit really was …… and I think the girl was killed in in the end in a suicide by cop deal The other thing that amused me about the series was I noticed they used one cliché that the American police shows used in the 80s and 90s anything that dealt with teenagers or college age kids happened or started in an arcade at some point …. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/12 "2019-04-07T07:54:37Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > My wife and I have been streaming this for a few weeks – we’re a few episodes from the end. We like it a lot, but lately it’s gotten a bit ridiculous – about the time the show switched to HD, nearly every episode ends with the portly little 60-something detective Frost chasing down and/or physically overpowering the killer, who is usually a much younger man. And in the last two episodes, he started dating a roughly 30 year old aerobics instructor. > > Anyone else fans of Frost and notice this? I’ve watched them out of order so I didn’t attribute anything to a /change/ in funding. Having the leading character chase the crook is a way of avoiding paying for extra actors. I notice when shows are unacceptably cheap. When they do this by having the police officers as suspects and victims, as some shows repeatedly do as a standard plot device, I get cynical. When it’s just the leading character being the only officer present, I cut them a little slack: I’m ready to assume that police departments have budget constraints just like TV producers do. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-touch-of-frost-british-detective-show/832047/13 "2019-04-08T00:42:35Z")
We watched the whole thing. They end the series with a real ending, which is nice. Frost negotiates his way out of stuff far more frequently than him punching his way out of it. I read one of the books, but his charming obnoxiousness in the series comes off as truly obnoxious in the book. And considering his long stretch of bad luck with women he deserved a break at the end.