The Lynch Mob: A Twin Peaks Who’s Who

Agent Dale Cooper: He may appear like a straight-laced, suit-wearing FBI agent, but there is nothing normal about Dale Cooper (a career-best performance from Kyle MacLachlan). Constantly talking into a tape recorder, he uses unorthodox Tibetan dream techniques and throws stones at bottles to solve the death of Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Despite his sunny demeanour and perky outlook on life, the all-American boy scout hides a dark past and a broken heart. It’s these frailties, and an addiction to sugary highs and coffee rushes, that help him connect with the inhabitants of the Black Lodge.

Audrey Horne: The daughter of megalomaniac land tycoon and owner of the Great Northern hotel Benjamin Horne (West Side Story’s Richard Beymer); sultry sweater wearing sexpot Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) at first glance appears to be a spoilt brat reacting against an unloving father who is more interested in the staff of brothel One Eyed Jacks than being a parent. Too dreamy Audrey finally finds happiness in the arms of Billy Zane, but not before she is kidnapped, becomes infatuated with Agent Cooper, and melts water coolers with an audition involving her tongue and a cherry stalk.

The Man From Another Place: His backward talking slow-motion shuffling hijinks in the mysterious Black Lodge ensured that Michael J Anderson’s The Man From Another Place became synonymous with the show. When the dwarf rocking a red suit first appeared to FBI Agent Cooper in a dream, clicking his fingers to Angelo Badalamenti’s dreamy score, the fact we were watching a television show conjured up by the misfiring synapses in David Lynch’s brain became all too clear. Or not. His appearance marks the beginning of a typically Lynchian non-linear storyline. Let’s rock!

Donna Hayward: Laura Palmer’s best friend, Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) leads a complicated life. Dumping her boyfriend Mike, she hooks up with James Hurley (James Marshall), who was previously having an affair with Laura Palmer. Taking matters into her own hands she, along with James and Laura Palmer’s cousin Madeline (a double role for Sheryl Lee), investigate Laura’s murder. Donna ends up in the house of agoraphobic orchid obsessive Harold Smith (played by Electric Dreams star Lenny von Dohlen) who possesses Laura’s secret diary.

Shelly Johnson: The “cherry” of David Lynch’s deaf Bureau Chief Gordon Cole’s eye, the Double R Diner waitress Shelly Johnson (Mädchen Amick) is married to violent trucker, and part-time drug dealer, Leo Johnson (Eric DaRe). To escape her ordeal, she is having an affair with Laura Palmer’s boyfriend Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbook). It all goes downhill for the sweet-as-sugar Shelly when rent-a-thug Leo tries to kill her, tying her up near an incendiary bomb at the Packard Saw Mill. Briggs then shoots Leo who is left a dribbling mess. Shelly is left to look after her now incapacitated husband.

Major Garland Briggs: The father of tearaway teen Bobby Briggs, Major Garland Briggs (Don S Davis) is a buttoned-up United States Air Force Officer with delightfully velvety diction. His work is so top secret that not even his family know what he gets up to. They do get a clue when he vanishes in the woods, and returns with a new unexplained tattoo, the Major becoming central to a bizarre supernatural subplot. After sifting through garbled communications and space garbage it is his duty to decipher, it is Briggs who delivers Cooper the legendary line, “The owls are not what they seem.” He is the only person in town who seems to understand The Log Lady.

Leland Palmer: At first his extreme behaviour is understandable, being overcome with grief after the loss of his daughter Laura. There is a moment, however, when Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) awakens one morning with an instant white hair-do, that grief turns to insanity. He becomes an all-singing, all-dancing showman who rejoices in singing Fifties show tunes and dancing the day away with some killer moves. When he tries to get guests to sing “Get Happy” with him at a dinner party hosted by the Haywards, it goes horribly wrong.

Harry S Truman: Taking the position previously filled by his father and his brother, Harry S Truman (Michael Ontkean) is the sheriff of Twin Peaks. After hours he is having an affair with Saw Mill owner Josie Packard (Joan Chen), oblivious to the double-crossing dealings she is up to her neck in. Working with Deputies Hawk (Michael Horse) and Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz), and police station secretary Lucy (Kimmy Robertson), Truman plays the straight man to Agent Cooper’s giddy law enforcement techniques.

The Log Lady: Not since Ren & Stimpy’s line in faux advertising has an inanimate lump of wood been given so much primetime screen time. Omnipresent Margaret Lanterman (played by Catherine E Coulson) is seen by many of inhabitants of Twin Peaks as the crazy woman in town. No mean feat considering who else lives there. She wanders around town, a log cradled in her arms, offering sage counsel to anyone who will listen. That advice is from her log with whom she is psychically linked. Like a Lynchian Lorax, she speaks for the log. Her proclamations a delightfully kooky conduit for Lynch’s askew view of the world.

Nadine Hurley: One third of the Ed, Nadine and Norma love tangle; Nadine (Wendy Robie) is married to Ed, proprietor of Big Ed’s Gas Farm. Ed, however, only has eyes for Norma Jennings, owner of the Double R Diner. Nadine lost an eye during a freak hunting accident on her honeymoon and now wears an eye patch, she psychotically obsesses over developing the world’s first silent drape runner. That is until she awakens from a coma after a failed suicide attempt and regresses to her 18-year old self; developing superhuman strength, over-exuberant cheerleading skills and an eye for freshman.