Jonathan Creek review

Someone in the new Jonathan Creek has Sherlock delusions of grandeur - but it's not Alan Davies.

Jonathan Creek, BBC One, review

It may seem Pie in the sky, but I'd rather be up the creek than in Baker street.

Jonathan Creek: Should it have returned?

The introduction of Sarah Alexander as Creek's wife Polly was a nice touch, but I realised quite quickly that Creek works best when Alan Davies has a sidekick like Caroline Quentin or Sheridan Smith to bounce off of.

Jonathan Creek review

It felt like this episode wasn't interested in explaining one big elaborate mystery, but instead wanted to have fun with several small ones - including the case of disappearing funereal ashes spilled on a carpet, and the discovery of love letters from the titular Septimus Noone.

Jonathan returns with wife Polly (Sarah Alexander) for a fifth series and he's quickly absorbed in the mystery of an actor stabbed in a locked room. It's a strangely sad case, making Creek's work experience boy, Sherlock-obsessive Ridley, and his extremely weak powers of deduction about the most entertaining aspect here. Better are the uncanny goings-on in Polly's family home after the death of her father, both debunked and given real-life meaning by Creek's enthusiastic cynicism.

After several years away from detecting action, Alan Davies dusts off his dramatic acting talent to tackle three new cases as unofficial sleuth Jonathan Creek. Our hero's trademark low-key humour weaves itself through the mystery action, which kicks off with a spot of smartphone rage on a trip to the theatre with wife Polly (Sarah Alexander, right with Davies). The familiar faces popping up in the loosely strung plot include Raquel Cassidy as a highly strung friend whose son fancies himself as Sherlock Holmes, while Ali Bastian calls on her Strictly experience as an aspiring West End musical star, complete with stalker...

Why we love Jonathan Creek

After waiting nearly a year Jonathan Creek is set to return to our screens tonight with a brand new series. And I couldn't be happier.

Radio Times review

David Renwick beckons us back into the world of his reluctant detective for the first new series in a decade. And what a horribly strange world it is, full of knowing puzzles and macabre games.

Creek's new wife Polly (Sarah Alexander) is less than keen: "I sometimes wonder, Jonathan, exactly what I married! Free admission for life to the twilight zone?"

This first instalment is typically high black comedy. The main story revolves around an actress in a West End musical (listen out for some fine pastiche Lloyd Webber) who is stabbed in her dressing room, while locked inside - the victim of a seemingly impossible crime.

But that case is just a frame on which to hang all sorts of other treats and tricks, including a lovely bit with a young would-be detective who makes a string of Sherlock-style deductions... that are completely wrong.

It's great fun, and the story becomes like an ingenious music box packed with little clockwork mechanisms. There's a grinning corpse, a mystery letter, a demonic child and a nasty moment with a tuba that is pure, horrible Renwick.

Alan Davies interview

Jonathan Creek returns - and when he isn't solving fiendish crimes, Alan Davies is relaunching his stand-up career.

The 5 best episodes from Alan Davies's detective

Jonathan Creek is back and this time he's sticking around for a little while.