Rik Mayall

Jonathan Creek is a changed man. He's got a fancy new office and a new job to go with it. But he can't shake Sheridan Smith's Joey Ross off that easily. When a dead body vanishes from a locked study, it occurs to her that the mystery would be right up Creek's alley. But can she persuade him to get back in the game?

While we were only able to view a ten-minute taster of this feature-length Easter special, we're guessing she manages it. Featuring guest turns from Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Joanna Lumley, this should whet the appetites of the devoted (of whom there are a surprising amount) for the new three-part series planned for next year.

Rik Mayall: I'm desperate to bring back Bottom

"I'm desperate to bring back Bottom but Ade isn't". Rik Mayall's back on TV but without his pal.

The last time we met the veteran solver of impossible mysteries was three Easters ago and the intervening years have seen a disconcerting transformation. Suited and booted, his curls now swept back in greying executive waves, it seems Creek (Alan Davies) has sold his soul to Mammon, or the advertising industry at least. But can he resist the lure of his favourite old-style puzzle - yet another locked-room mystery? His on-off sidekick Joey Ross (Sheridan Smith) sums it up: "A dead man in a room, seen and photographed by witnesses, evaporates into thin air. Walls, floors and ceiling are all rock solid. No way could he have got out the window or through the door which was being watched the whole time. And yet..." (No change in the basic plot then.) Creek professes to be uninterested in the affair until he learns that the victim was celebrated intellectual Franklin Tartikoff (Nigel Planer), and the chief witness his famously matter-of-fact wife Rosalind (Joanna Lumley). But meanwhile Creek's paraplegic arch-rival Gideon Pryke (Rik Mayall) has got his sole functioning digit wrapped round the investigation. A starry cast, a festering rivalry, a mind-boggling puzzle; for many the perfect Easter Bank Holiday drama.

Rik Mayall interview

We spoke to the inimitable Rik Mayall about his return to Jonathan Creek, the scrapped Bottom reunion, and why he is Jesus...

Rik Mayall on why Hooligan's Island was scrapped

"Ade said we're not old enough and that we should do it in ten years. I said that in ten fucking years I won't be able to think, the two brain cells I have left will not work! There is a fucking thing called acting and something called make-up but he said 'No I don't think we're old enough!'"

Rik Mayall hopes for 'Bottom' revival

Rik Mayall has revealed the revival of his madcap cult show Bottom could finally happen - but not for another decade.

Ade Edmondson on 'Bottom' revival demise

Ade Edmondson has revealed to Digital Spy his reasons for abandoning a revival of Bottom with comedy partner Rik Mayall.

A documentary to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the comedy troupe and their satirical TV series The Comic Strip Presents. The show launched the careers of, among others, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Here the actors recall the first episode - a parody of The Famous Five - and The Strike, a Hollywood version of the Arthur Scargill story. A new episode airs this week.

A look back on the alternative comedy movement

Rik Mayall, Jenny Eclair and Ben Elton are among the 1980s alt.comics who shaped comedy today.

Rik Mayall ad lands Dave with a Ofcom rebuke

Sponsorship spots on TV channel Dave starring Rik Mayall have been found in breach of the Ofcom code. The ad landed the channel in hot water after suggesting he received oral sex from a woman named Summer.