Jonathan Creek, series 5, episode 1, review

As a lateral-thinking solver of seemingly impossible crimes, Jonathan Creek has been eclipsed by Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock.

Review: Love letters, locked rooms and some lame gags

There were a few messy resolutions and a few more coincidences, still, I'm looking forward to episode two already.

Jonathan Creek return sparks wave of Twitter excitement

Excitement has reached fever pitch for the return of BBC One detective drama Jonathan Creek.

Jonathan Creek series 5 episode 1 review

Unfortunately the main problem with The Letters of Septimus Noone is the writing itself.

Has Jonathan Creek lost its magic?

Is the BBC One mystery drama as good as ever? Or has it lost its spell over viewers? Critics Ben Dowell and David Brown have their say.

Jonathan Creek: The Letters of Septimus Noone - review

Alan Davies slips back into the title role more easily than he sits on a pony. As his wife Polly, Sarah Alexander brings a sprightly canter to an old dobbin of a show. If anything it's the audience - especially those who weren't wearing their rose-tinted glasses - who'll have felt the most out of place.

Jonathan Creek loses some of its original magic

Ultimately I feel that the once great Jonathan Creek has lost its way and the latest incarnation of the character is a step in the wrong direction.

There's a wonderful dig at Sherlock in the opening episode of this comeback series, which sees Alan Davies making his return.

Jonathan Creek finds that he has unwittingly acquired a crime-fighting apprentice - a young man with a scarf and a talent for noticing stuff. It's hilariously done, and later Creek creator David Renwick also pokes fun at Poirot and his imitators in a scene where all the suspects are gathered together. We're also treated to a clever pastiche of an Andrew Lloyd Webber-style musical, but these aren't the only unusual features about this episode.

Ali Bastian guest stars as the leading lady in a West End show with a classic locked room mystery who is later found stabbed in her very own locked dressing room. But what's most striking in this whodunit is that, for once, we are shown exactly how the crime was committed, by whom and how it was covered up. All we have to do is wait and see how Creek will work it out for himself.

Creek's improbably lovely new wife Polly (Sarah Alexander) is still getting used to this slightly bizarre world. But when she finds a secret box of letters in the massive Tudor mansion she has just inherited, she finds out that being married to a super sleuth might come in handy too.

Jonathan Creek review

Not bad for the first episode back for Creek although the forced jokes were too much like disguised exposition.

Return of Jonathan Creek: why do we love it so much?

Nearly seventeen years after the first episode aired, Alan Davies' duffel-coated sleuth is shuffling back onto our screens.