Jonathan Creek
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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.
The series follows the exploits of Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies), a designer of illusions for a stage magician (inspired partly on 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 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 has 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.
The series started in 1997; there have been four series to date (although there was a very long 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). In the 2003 series Caroline Quentin was not available to take part in filming, and so a second supporting role was introduced: Carla Borrega, played by Julia Sawalha.
External links
- Jonathan Creek on BBCi (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/jonathancreek/)
- Jonathan Creek Fansite (http://www.jonathancreek.net/)