James Garner in the ‘Rockford Files’ was an irresistible force on our TV screens

James Garner’s portrayal of Jim Rockford in ‘The Rockford Files’ left an indelible mark on young TV fans, says Michael Moynihan

YOU can keep Game of Thrones. The Wire? A diversion, no more. The same for Breaking Bad. For this observer, those TV series come a distant second to The Rockford Files, whose star, James Garner, passed away over the weekend at the age of 86.

Garner, easy-going, handsome, irresistible, was The Rockford Files’ USP, long before that term entered common usage. He had had success earlier in his career as an easy-going, handsome, irresistible gambler in TV’s Maverick, and late in his career he was involved in a maudlin atrocity, The Notebook, which deserves a spell in the dock at a human rights courtroom in The Hague.