The Best of the Professionals

"This is official police business, Mr. Basil — business for the official police, not amateur detectives..."

In the year 1897, Scotland Yard had twenty-nine detectives for the whole of London whose population had grown to over five million. London had become a great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire were irresistibly drained. Certainly, the life of a policeman is an increasingly rough one. As a civil servant of the law, an officer endures a great deal of guff for long, labourious hours and for minuscule wages, as he places his life in everyday harm for an adverse, displeasured populace who does not appreciate him nor acknowledge the thought. Despite this, Vole has no complaints.

Recently promoted, Sherringford Basil has praised Chief Inspector Vole as the "best of the professionals" — the pick of a bad lot. Official attitudes, at the time, were based on class prejudice. The appropriated detectives believed on that all the evil and corruption of the crime lie in the filth and squalour of the lower orders, not by the gentry; however, it was Vole who separated and transcended himself away from his contemporaries in the force: He is well aware that the grace and gentry that crime, with their wealth and power, can easily exist in the drawing-rooms and salons of the West End of London, as it can in the stews and alleyways of the East End. He is an active campaigner in the anti-corruption reform, and is well recognized and praised for his loyalty and heroism.

He is an intelligent, industrious, diligent, no-nonsense individual who is neither an uppity snob nor an incompetent bungler. Quick and energetic, but conventional and shockingly so, lacking the creative imagination that Basil finds necessary for all criminal investigations, he is, nonetheless, a meticulous and capable investigator who prefers to solve crime the old-fashioned way — by putting in the hours! Vole looks into everything with a jaundiced eye, scribbles copious notes in his official black book, and piles up the evidence before he draws up an expert conclusion towards the guilty party. This, of course, is not the most colourful of methods, but it is an effective one! He does not offer great leaps of deductive logic, nor does he talk like an elocution expert, or dine like epicures, or dress like a peacock from Savile Row. He is a simple, hard-working honest cop, as colourful as boiled cabbage, who sees the enormous amount of injustice and suffering in the world and concludes that his only moral choice is to devote his life a hundred-and-ten-per-cent to his work. It was his bull-dog tenacity and stinging honesty that propelled him to the top of Scotland Yard. He does have a patronizing attitude towards Basil's eccentric methods, proclaiming that he could have be "one of the best officers in the force, if he'd only stay to traditional means." Vole initially finds Basil a bit of a nuisance, often (mis)pronouncing his name as "Mr. Bassul" in his nasal voice, constantly poking his nose where it's not wanted and occasionally embarrassing him and taunting his abilities — abilities which Vole takes immense pride in — but, regardless, he will swallow his ego with munificent humility when Basil proves him in the wrong, and proudly preens when he's in the right! Despite their constant rivalry and one-upmanship, they share a great respect for one another.

He is bright and diligent, resolute yet stubborn, pessimistic and self-conscious, serious and socially awkward, to the point and often easily irritated when others are not. He is quite the stiff shirt, noted for his thinly curled mustache and his prominent beaky schnoze, with a wry (if dry) sense of humour. However, he is a chronic "workaholic" who channels all his waking energy into his work, channeling his lack of self-worth and worldly loneliness in the most self-destructive ways. He has no personal life — no family, no friends, no loves, no breaks, no vacations; he sacrifices both health and happiness for the sake of duty — and yet he is the most reliable, most faithful, and most indispensable of men.

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Well, here's the GMD version of Inspector Lestrade. It's unfortunate that Lestrade has gotten such a bad wrap. He's often portrayed as a idiot, like Watson, when he certainly was not. He was always one of my favourite inspectors from the Sacred Writings, mainly due to Colin Jeavons' portrayal of him, who is the best Lestrade ever, in the Granada series. He was clever, endearing, humourous, and downright sexy at time! Eve Titus mentions an "Inspector Vole" in the first Basil of Baker Street book and I wanted my Vole to move far away from the "idiot" portrayal. I plan to do (solo) Vole mysteries someday. Goddamnit, respect the Lestrade/Vole!

(My favourite episode with Mr. Jeavons' Lestrade — and one of my favourite episodes of the entire series — is The Six Napoleons! Here's some clips and it may contain spoilers, but I hope it will convince you to read the story and/or watch the entire episode! )

Inspiration - Inspector Lestrade (STUD, CARD, NOBL, BOSC, HOUN, EMPT, SECO, NORW, BRUC, CHAS, SIXN, LADY, 3GAR) | Models - Colin Jeavons, David Thewlis

Medium - Photoshop, 2B mechanical pencil, Col-erase blue.

Chief Inspector Vole © Diane N. Tran.