DALE COOPER

Boyscout, FBI agent, obsessive recorder, Dale Cooper is sent to the small town of Twin Peaks to investigate a murder.

The local police force, the witnesses, the magnate’s daughter all point it out: he is ‘not from here’. Against the brown of Washington state, Cooper stands out in his stark black suit-white shirt. He begins with a thin black tie. It is later replaced by stripes, dots, or a rare paisley: we never learn which club they refer to. Above the tie, the collar is always blue or white, stiff and full - compare with Sheriff Truman and Andy’s brown shirts, pointed, open, and soft. The jacket is simple, with frank shoulders, two buttons, and flap pockets. Mid-rise, the trousers break generously on the city shoes the agent never abandons. Only two particularities: a small Buddhist pin, and a slim black-dial watch with a gold rim.

The incorruptible uniform allows Frost and Lynch some fantasy . The duo play with the character. For the woods, a flannel shirt, olive whipcord trousers, and a sand-colored down vest [see also: fishing vest]. For One Eyed Jack’s, the bar-cum-brothel hidden by the town’s robber baron, Cooper wears a double-breasted six-by-one tuxedo, and a wing-collared shirt - a college remnant.

In 2017, Lynch stages the character’s return. Twenty-five years later, the old boy is an old man. He returns in two. In Las Vegas, ‘Dougie’, green-suited and clumsy , a gold club tie on rather than around his neck. In the Black Lodge,‘Mr C’: long hair, cropped A2, python-patterned shirt.

Only in the last episodes does Kyle McLachlan don the black suit again. More than any declaration of personality , it is the uniform that marks his identity: ‘Coop is back'.