To ask which roles you think no-one else could play

[StrangledVowels]

Some actors or actresses embody a role so completely, it’s inconceivable anyone else could ever play the same part. They could never be satisfactorily re-cast.

The first one that jumps into my mind is Peter Falk as Columbo. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in that role - he was and always will be Columbo.

Can anyone think of any others?

Suchet as Poirot. I know other people have done it before and since but they’re not good. He is Poirot. He’s perfection.

Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

The Crocodile Dundee man.

And completely agree about Columbo.

Isn’t Columbo one of many examples of that flawed and grubby but still a genius detective trope. Like Gary Oldman in Slow Horses. Pretty interchangeable perhaps.

Colin Firth actually IS Mr Darcy!

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter

Definitely a trope but I don’t agree they’re interchangeable.

I just think anyone else playing Columbo would, in effect, have to do a Peter Falk impersonation.

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple

Alan Rickman as Snape (completely disagree with PP about Daniel Radcliffe, he’s a terrible actor)

John Thaw as Morse (although I liked Sean Evans In Endeavour)

Sean Bean in Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Edited to add Idris Elba as Luther

Yes.

Ruth Wilson is Jane Eyre.

Paul Schofield was so good as Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons, no one could touch that performance.

I think there should be some form of heritage protection for a limited number of plays, films or musicals such that remakes could not be made for a period of time.

Agree with Julia Roberts in pretty woman.
Anthony Hopkins will always be the one and only Hanibal to me.
Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper.
Every single cast member of Friends.
Robin Williams as Mrs Doubtfire, oh and the Genie.

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in LOTR

Noel Fisher as Mickey Milkovich in the US version of Shameless, completely different from the UK version. He somehow makes an unpleasant character really sympathetic and funny.

Came to say Colin Firth as Darcy. Apparently it’s being remade again. The 1990s adaptation remains perfect. It’s so unnecessary.

Gerry in Blue lights

I like Colin Firth as Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy, but Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson are also good in the 1940s film IMO. All the subsequent adaptations can get in the sea.

If you’ve ever seen the 1950s film of The Importance of Being Earnest, with Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell etc, it’s definitive for me. I don’t think I could ever be satisfied with anyone else playing any of those parts.

Also, Jeremy Irons will always be Charles Ryder and Anthony Andrews will always be Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited.

A soundtrack not a film, but Sarah Brightman and Steven Barton in the Phantom. Those are the voices I grew up knowing and no one else is quite right though I love seeing it live.

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple

100%!

Judy Garland as Dorothy and Vivian Leigh as Scarlett are two that spring to mind for me.

Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre - no! Absolutely nothing like how she is presented in the novel. I far prefer Mia Wasikowska.

I think Jack Nicolson in The Shining (and probably most other films he has done!).

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow
Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Gray
The entire cast of Modern Family!

I think Claire Foy would do a good Jane Eyre.

Philip Glennister as Gene Hunt

Oh Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!

Natasha Kinski (?) as Tess

And I agree about Joan Hickson.

Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins and Oliver Reid as Bill Sykes.

I agree about Mia W but i don't like that adaptation

I can't think of anyone else who could surpass Al Pacino in Godfather 2

Morse