'Chinese Holmes' comes home to reality show on CCTV

Henry Chang-Yu Lee, the forensic scientist, had his own number tag (2056) at the Connecticut Department of Public Safety. But whenever his colleagues phoned for him, they asked for "007".

In his career of more than 50 years, the Chinese-American investigator has been variously described as "Chinese Holmes", "king of crime scene" and "most feared crime fighter" for the thousands of cases he helped crack, including the O.J. Simpson case and a re-investigation into president John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Not to exaggerate his power of observation, but while looking at an empty table and chairs, he could say how tall the guests were, based on how far the chairs were from the table, whether or not the guests were on good terms, based on the angles of furniture, how many days the room had stayed vacant (he sniffed it) and scores of other clues that would escape others.