Firstly, I love Columbo & despite his repetitive nature in stalking his prey, never fail to enjoy watching the legend Peter Falk made his own. I have read all the reviews on websites like this and believe I have seen probably 80% of the Columbo genre, but this leaves me with a dilemma... I live in the UK & I wonder whether some episodes aren't shown over here, so please excuse my ignorance with answering the best and worst endings...

I have to hold my hand up and say this ending could be Peter Falk related rather than Columbo related.

Ultimately I'm looking for help with the identification of the film.

"An industrial sized computer goes missing in some kind of deception." The ending has our man standing at the back of a lorry trailer and when he opens the trailer doors, the computer is there large as life. Our man, explains to his audience including his suspect, that the computer had been in the lorry all along & he only discovered this by measuring the interior of the trailer, which differed from the exterior by some margin. The manner of the reveal is typical 70's mystery style and could be one of the Columbos I have not seen or perhaps one of Peter Falk's other films.

Any help you can provide would be fantastic. Thanks!

I never got to know it TERRIBLY well, but that sounds more like a BANACEK ending. Not any particular episode that I can think of, just the general idea of the show (I think he was always solving crimes that were committed in a very "gimmicky" way, like the one you describe). Of course, it started around the same time as COLUMBO (maybe ' 72 instead of ' 71), though it didn't last as long.

My favorite ending (or one of them) is in "Columbo Goes to College". Those two punks thought they outsmarted Columbo all along, but in the end, they finally got theirs. It was a joy to see them go down finally.