In exclusive archive BBC interviews the creators of the 90s TV series talk about their unique vision – and how the eccentric character at its centre, Special Agent Dale Cooper, was based on the director David Lynch's own personality.

On 8 April 1990, Twin Peaks viewers were introduced to the brilliant but eccentric FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan, who went on to win an Emmy for his performance.

With his unfailing courtesy, unconventional but formidable investigative methods, obsessive love of cherry pie and "damn fine" coffee, and his habit of recording dictaphone messages to his unseen secretary, Diane, Agent Cooper quickly became one the decade's most beloved TV detectives.

Writer Mark Frost told the BBC's Late Show that part of the inspiration behind the character was the show's co-creator and director David Lynch.

"I tried to base that character on David to some extent," said Frost. "A lot of his quirkiness and attention to detail, which are things that David has in great abundance, sort of came to the surface with that character. I guess his interest in people's obsessions, and characters who are obsessed with something, are pretty common with other things he's done."

Eerie, cinematic and often confusing, Twin Peaks was unlike anything else on TV at the time. Set in the picturesque town of the show's title, it followed Agent Dale Cooper as he tried to help local police investigate the murder of high school student Laura Palmer, played by Sheryl Lee. As Cooper looks for the killer, the town's dark underbelly is slowly uncovered to reveal criminality, deeply buried trauma and supernatural phenomena.

Frost had previously been a writer for the NBC TV series Hill Street Blues. That show, with its ensemble cast,........

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