History Main / Campion

* ''Series/{{Campion}}'', television adaptation of the above starring PeterDavison

{{Campion}} was a British series, adapted from the books by Margery Allingham, which ran between 1989 and 1990, and featured PeterDavison as Albert Campion; outwardly a {{Rich Idiot With No Day Job}} but in reality a {{Gentleman Adventurer}} [[WeHelpTheHelpless who is willing to sell his skills to anyone in trouble]]. Aside from his enquiring mind and deductive abilities, his main attribute is his incredible range and depth of contacts, ranging from low class criminals up to the Chief Constables of a number of police forces. He was assisted on most of his adventurers by Magersfontein Lugg - a burglar turned valet.

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!!This show provides examples of
* AffablyEvil: Many of the villains.
* AssholeVictim - The victim in 'The Case of the Late Pig' was at school with Campion and used to bully him, at one point holding Campion over a gas jet until he fainted.
** Also [[spoiler: Cousin George]] in "Police at the Funeral"
* BattleButler: Lugg and Scatty Williams.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Campion might act like a silly ass, natter on about his mouse's birthday, and compulsively make jokes, but you never should underestimate his mental or physical capabilities. Ever.
* BluffingTheMurderer
* BodyDouble: Campion employs one of these in [[spoiler: "Sweet Danger"]]
** Also, at the end of "Mystery Mile" (book) Campion is asked to do this [[NoodleIncident apparently again]] for a foreign prince.
* BritishBrevity - Only two series, each consisting of four stories.
** Well, given that there were only 19 novels that Allingham wrote, one of which published [[AuthorExistenceFailure after her death]], it's not surprising there were so few...
* CoolCar: A red 1932 Lagonda 16/80
* CordonBleughChef: Lugg. Herrings in tomato sauce for a start...
* CruelAndUnusualDeath - In 'Sweet Danger', [[spoiler:the evil tycoon]] is crushed by a mill wheel. It is not nice.
* DeadpanSnarker: Inspector Oates
* DetectiveDrama - Not exclusively, but a number of the episodes did revolve around the traditional whodunnit format.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Well, he gets one eventually (or she gets him, perhaps more appropriately), but before then any of the women Campion's interested in end up falling in love with one of Campion's [[TheLancer friends/clients]]
* DoItYourselfThemeTune - In the first series, the theme song (consisting solely of the word 'la') was sung by Peter Davison.
* FreudianTrio: Lugg is the Id, Stanislaus the Superego, and Campion the Ego
* FriendOnTheForce - Technically, Campion is friends ''with'' the force, as he lives next door to a police station. A more specific friend is Detective Inspector Stanislaus Oates, who takes Albert's calls and even saves his neck from time to time.
* GentlemanDetective: Campion, obviously.
* IHaveManyNames - Campion has used many pseudonyms including 'Christopher Twelvetrees' and 'Orlando'. Even 'Albert Campion' itself is a pseudonym. (In the books, it's revealed that his first name is Rudolph.)
** It is implied in the books, but never outright stated, that he is really the bastard son of King George V.
* IronLady: Mrs. Faraday
* TheJeeves - Subverted with Lugg.
** If anything, he's a PersonalMook.
* JoinOrDie
* KarmicDeath: Happens to many of the villains.
* LightsOffSomebodyDies: In "Death of a Ghost."
* LockedRoomMystery: In Flowers For The Judge.
* LondonGangster: Plenty of these.
* MacGuffin: The Gyrth Chalice in "Look to the Lady". The Crown, the Charter, and Metternich's Receipt in "Sweet Danger".
* MacGuffinGuardian: Is the guardian of the Gyrth Chalice real, or just a legend and a set of coincidences? It's left up to you to decide...
* NewOldFlame: Janet Pursuivant
* ObfuscatingStupidity - Campion's stock in trade. By the time his enemies have seen beyond the glasses and the frivolous remarks, it's generally too late.
* PresentCompanyExcluded
-->'''Lugg:''' It's all nobs and nobodies with him, I can't stand either of them. Begging your pardon, ma'am, and present company excluded.
-->'''Noblewoman:''' Do you like anybody? Present company excluded?
-->'''Lugg:''' Suppose I must. Be hard to name any names though.
* RecruitingTheCriminal: Thos. T. Knapp
* ReformedCriminal: Lugg used to be a catburglar.
* SarcasticDevotee: Lugg
* SharpDressedMan: Goes with being a GentlemanDetective
* SmokeOut: Campion uses smoke bombs when his compatriots decide to deviate from his more subtle plan and go on a RoaringRampageOfRescue.
** In the book, Campion personally made the bombs.
* SpiritedYoungLady: Amanda Fitton.
** WrenchWench
* TechnicalPacifist - Campion has a 'rule' not to kill -- partly because of his arrangement with the police and partly because it just wouldn't be gentlemanly -- but he's quite ready to punch people into the wall. And the table. And [[CombatPragmatist the bookshelf...]]
** Part of the conflict in "Mystery Mile" comes from the 'kill or be killed' situation he ends up in.
** The only exception to the 'rule' was in the book "Traitor's Purse" in which he is a secret agent during World War II.
* TheVicar: Swithin Cush.
* UnsuspectinglySoused: Campion has this done to him when BluffingTheMurderer (Type 3) he accepts a dinner invitation and is manipulated by the MagnificentBastard into having a cocktail. The cocktail however reacts with the rare wine the murderer had specially ordered at the restaurant, and causes Campion to become soused. Fortunately Campion had asked (in the books) Inspector Oates for a few plain clothes policemen to watch over him, otherwise the murderer would have gotten away with pushing the inebriated Campion beneath a train.
* VillainousWidowsPeak
* VitriolicBestBuds: Campion and Lugg. If they're not insulting eachother, something's wrong...
* WeHelpTheHelpless: Campion's business card reads: Coups neatly executed. Nothing sordid, vulgar, or plebeian. Deserving cases preferred. Police no object.
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!! Apart from the above tropes, the books also provide examples of
* AmnesiacHero: Campion in "Traitors Purse".
** Possibly first amnesiac secret agent who must find out [[IdentityAmnesia who he is]], and what he forgot that is so important so he can stop an evil plan during World War II
* BadassPacifist: Canon Avril.
* BigDamnHeroes: In [[spoiler: "The Crime at Black Dudley"]] Guffy Randall and The Hunt, of all things
* BlackSheep: Campion and his sister Valentine.
* BookcasePassage
* BreakoutCharacter: Campion was originally a supporting character in a relatively interesting spin on a [[DarkHouse manor murder mystery]] which, frankly, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness wasn't that great]]. The main character ended up as TheWatson in the same book, simply because Campion was such fun to write
* CloudCuckooLander: Richie Barnabas
* CoolOldGuy: Campion becomes one of these.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Campion tends to do this in a comedic manner. Needless to say, whatever BigBad is in the story [[ColdBloodedTorture does not usually take this well]]
* ElCidPloy: Campion plays this in the beginning of "Sweet Danger" in order to try to draw the villains into the open.
* EverybodySmokes
* FramesOfReference: Campion purposely wears overly large spectacles to emphasize his ObfuscatingStupidity
* GenreAdultery: The Campion books might be billed as mystery stories, but Margery Allingham often switched between genres (helped by the fact that Campion was quite versatile). Sure she had whodunnits and country house murders, but there were also adventure novels, thrillers, comedies of manners, secret agent thrillers, mild science fiction, and mild fantasy/horror (though because it's left ambiguously YourMileageMayVary).
* GoodIsNotDumb: Canon Avril
* HairpinLockpick: Campion employs this several times (usually borrowing one from a female companion), though he prefers his real lockpicking tools.
* HeroicBsod: Campion has a mild case of this and JadeColoredGlasses for about a book and a half after seriously contemplating ignoring his ideals [[spoiler: i.e. seriously contemplating pointing the authorities toward his client so he could steal the man's wife]] but [[HesBack he's brought back to himself]] in the next book via LoveRedeems.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Campion and Lugg.
* HoldingTheFloor: Campion is very, very good at this. One character mentally comments that this is probably one of Campion's "chief stock in trade."
* HonoraryUncle: Lugg to Rupert. William Faraday to Campion.
** Campion terms himself 'universal uncle' making himself honorary uncle to everyone.
* KillItWithFire: How the BigBad in "The Crime at Black Dudley" intends to kill his hostages, and how Campion deals with the menace in [[spoiler: "Traitor's Purse"]]
* KnifeNut: Captain Jack Havoc
* LifeImitatesArt: After World War II, Margery Allingham was told that the diabolical Nazi plan that Campion has to stop in "Traitor's Purse" was something that the Nazis had actually tried to do.
* MorallyBankruptBanker: In [[spoiler:"More Work for the Undertaker"]]
* NoodleIncident: Campion and Thos. T. Knapp's previous times working together.
* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Campion (in his sixties) having to fight a murderer who is not only nearly half his age, but a master of martial arts.
* OlderSidekick: Lugg
* PluckyGirl: Amanda Fitton
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Amanda Fitton
* SpySpeak: A rather ingenious one involving the voluble Campion and equally voluble old woman when he needs to get information to/from his superiors during/after World War II.
* ATasteOfTheLash: Happens 'off-screen' in "The Crime at Black Dudley" after Campion [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu makes a fool]] out of the BigBad that has him held hostage.
* Telepathy: "The Mind Readers"
* TenMinuteRetirement
* TheKillerBecomesTheKilled: In "Crime at Black Dudley" and in "Flowers for the Judge" (by a SympatheticMurderer).
* TheMentallyDisturbed: Campion is occassionally taken for this.
* TheUnreveal: Campion's identity; subverted when in "The Crime at Black Dudley" Abbershaw thinks he's finally figured out who Campion is, then uses the name to try to shock Campion, but it's just another of Campion's aliases.
* WeirdAside: Campion, Amanda, Whippet, and the occassional old woman tend to do these.
* WindsOfDestinyChange: Capt. Jack Havoc and Canon Avril are both what Havoc calls 'Watchers'


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*** The only exception to the 'rule' was in the book "Traitor's Purse" in which he is a secret agent during World War II.

* TenMinuteRetirement: Campion decides to give up his adventurous carreer to have a 'respectable' aristocratic position so he can provide a steady income for his family, but just as he is about to officially accept the position a mystery presents itself and he happily declines the position. Campion, Amanda, Lugg, AndTheFandomRejoiced.

** Also, at the end of "Mystery Mile" (book) Campion is asked to do this [[NoodleIncident: apparently again]] for a foreign prince.