Jonathan Creek is a mystery television series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. The series is primarily a crime drama, but features strong comic characters and usually features comic subplots. Somewhat anomalously, it is produced by the BBC's in-house Entertainment department rather than the Drama department. The first series was produced by Susan Belbin; all subsequent episodes have been produced by Verity Lambert.

Overview

The series follows the exploits of Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies), a designer of illusions for a stage magician (inspired partly by Ali Bongo), and Maddie Magellan (Caroline Quentin), a pushy journalist, as they work together to solve baffling crimes where others have failed to do so. Jonathan Creek contributes his superb lateral-thinking brain, and Maddie Magellan is a plausible liar who never seems to have trouble sneaking in to closed crime scenes. The programme usually features 'impossible crimes', for example a mysterious crime having been committed in a sealed environment from which no earthly criminal could have escaped. This type of story is usually called a locked room mystery. There also seemed to be an element of sexual tension between Jonathan and Maddie, although this is not a feature of every episode. The stage magician Adam Klaus, played by Anthony Stewart Head in the pilot and Stuart Milligan from the second series, is portrayed as a rather amoral and ambitious man, played for humorous effect, whose magic tricks often go wrong.

The series started in 1997; as of December 2005 there have been four series (although there was nearly a year's gap in the middle of the fourth series, which might lead some to argue there are actually five series, with the last two being very short). For the 2001 Christmas special and thereafter, Caroline Quentin declined to appear, and so a second supporting role was introduced: theatrical agent Carla Borrego, played by Julia Sawalha. After her first appearance, the character married TV producer Brendan Baxter, played by Adrian Edmondson, and she became a TV presenter.

Part of the humour comes from the fact that Jonathan often doesn't want to get involved in other people's problems, and has to be pressured into it by Maddie or Carla. In The Scented Room, which centred around a theft from a critic who had lambasted Adam's act, he took great delight in announcing he had solved the crime but wasn't going to tell anybody how it was done.

There were two attempts to make a U.S. version of Jonathan Creek. The first involved Castle Rock, the production company behind series such as Seinfeld, but the initial scripts were not felt good enough, and David Renwick's script were rejected by CBS. The second attempt, also by Renwick, was for Whoopi Goldberg and would have included Alan Davies.

Cast

• Alan Davies : Jonathan Creek
• Caroline Quentin : Maddie Magellan (1997-2000)
• Julia Sawalha : Carla Borrego (2001-)
• Stuart Milligan : Adam Klaus (1998-)
• Adrian Edmondson : Brendan Baxter (2003-)

Episodes

Series 1 (1997)

1. The Wrestler's Tomb
2. Jack in the Box
3. The Reconstituted Corpse
4. No Trace of Tracy
5. The House of Monkeys

Series 2 (1998)

1. Danse Macabre
2. Time Waits for Norman
3. '''The Scented Room
4. The Problem at Gallow's Gate - Part I
5. The Problem at Gallow's Gate - Part II
6. Mother Redcap

Series 3 (1999-2000)

1. The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish
2. The Eyes of Tiresias
3. The Omega Man
4. Ghost's Forge
5. Miracle in Crooked Lane
6. The Three Gamblers

Series 4 (2003-2004)

1. The Coonskin Cap
2. Angel Hair
3. The Tailor's Dummy
4. The Seer of the Sands
5. The Chequered Box
6. Gorgon's Wood

Specials

1. Black Canary (24 December 1998)
2. Satan's Chimney (26 December 2001)

DVD releases

Region 2 (United Kingdom)

The series has not yet been released in any other region. It has been reported that a number of episodes in the Series 3 & 4 boxset are the international versions (with scenes shortened or edited out to allow for commercial breaks). The Complete Series 1-4 & Christmas Specials boxset contains the original, uncut versions of the episodes.

External links

• Jonathan Creek on BBCi
• Jonathan Creek Fansite
• British Film Institute Screen Online

BBC television dramas | Comedy-drama television series