5 ways to make ‘Jonathan Creek’ good again

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You’ve probably heard that to celebrate 20 years(!) since the show first aired, Jonathan Creek is returning with a new one-off special.

Titled ‘Daemon’s Roost’ (I already checked to see if there was a sneaky anagram in that title), it will apparently be ‘the spookiest episode ever’ and will see Jonathan in ‘real danger’.

And once upon a time that would have excited me no end. The younger me, from those Saturday nights in the ‘90s when Noel Edmonds had just done the National Lottery numbers and we were waiting for that brilliant BBC ident featuring the hot air balloon to fade away, and for the eerie notes of Saint-Saëns’ ‘Danse Macabre’ to slide out of the darkness.

> Buy the complete Jonathan Creek box set on Amazon.

Oh yes. That was a time when Jonathan Creek was fresh, novel – all monkeys and Eric’s spam sandwiches and Mother Redcap – and, y’know…actually good.

It was the Sherlock of the ‘90s, it just didn’t have Tumblr to back it up with gifs and racy fan art. It only had Alistair McGowan.

But even the biggest Creek apologist has to admit that it hasn’t been good for a long time now. We’re all clinging on to the recollections of those Saturday nights, and recent ventures have been undermining those fond memories.

When was the last decent episode? 2009’s ‘The Grinning Man’, probably. It certainly wasn’t the utterly forgettable ‘Judas Tree’ or the ‘Clue of the Savant’s Thumb’, with its wheelchair kung-fu and ludicrous apple juice/petrol switch. As for three-part fifth season in 2014, it was a wasted patchwork of mini-mysteries, none of which had the chills or prestige trickery of the early years. ‘The Sinner and the Sandman’ may have marked the lowest point the show has ever been at.

It pains me to say all that, because I really want Jonathan Creek to be good. I’ve been a huge fan for, what the BBC has kindly reminded me, is now two decades. I want it to be spooky and unsettling. I want it have that distinct dark sense of humour that Renwick brought from One Foot in the Grave.

Here’s how it can, maybe, hopefully, get its magic back…

 

Give him his Duffel coat back

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Last season Jonathan didn’t wear his signature Duffel coat once. Not once. That’s like Columbo abandoning his raincoat. Sherlock shrugging off his Belstaff. Batman solving crime in the nude.

Though its absence was obviously meant to show how far Jonathan had moved on in his life, leaving such an iconic piece of the show in the wardrobe was a bizarre decision. A character is more than the costume they wear, but when so much of Jonathan’s life had changed off-screen (wife, new job, no more windmill or magic career), to lose such an important visual touchstone of who Creek is/was meant it felt like we weren’t watching the character we’d originally been fans of.

The first shots of ‘Daemon’s Roost’ needs to be quick-cut extreme close-ups of Jonathan toggling himself into his coat, like those weirdly intimate suit-up shots in the movie Batman & Robin.

 

Actually bring back the magic

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It was a terrible decision to pull Jonathan away from his day job as magical ingénieur and so remove the audience from the absurdities that ensued from working for an egotist in an industry that was itself all smoke and mirrors and plywood backing.

It was a small but vital part of the texture of the show, and one which, apart from providing a seam of comedy through his boss Adam Klaus, set Jonathan aside from every other crime-solver out there. Detective drama is already enough of a crowded crime scene – the last thing you want to do is put your hero in a suit, stick him in a bland marketing job, and make him more normal.

 

Bring back Caroline Quentin

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This is a biggie. The show never quite ran at full steam after Caroline Quentin’s confident, confectionary-loving writer Maddie left at the end of Season 3 in 2000.

Julia Sawalha’s Carla was at best plucky and at worst irritating, Sheridan Smith’s Joey Ross was a breath of cheeky, chaotic fresh air, but neither of them had the chemistry and power-play with Jonathan that Maddie had. It’s like the show moved from two people solving crimes together to a ‘The Doctor and his companion’ approach to sleuthing. We need someone to keep Jonathan on his toes. An oblique equal.

Way back in 2014 Caroline Quentin said that she’d love to do more of the show. We’d love her to. Someone chat to someone’s agent and make it happen.

 

Get rid of Jonathan’s wife

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Or, better, just actually make her a real character.

Sarah Alexander’s a fine actress, and especially good at comedy. The problem is that Jonathan’s wife has barely had any voice or agency of her own since her first appearance in 2013. She’s been pushed in out of the blue, stage left, to remind us that Jonathan is a man with a life now separate and far more normal from the one we were first introduced to. And if you disagree with that, then tell me this: what’s her name? No looking up, no IMDb’ing. What’s Jonathan’s wife’s name?

I’m writing this now, having seen four episodes featuring her character, and I honestly can’t remember. Mrs Creek is the best I can come up with, and I’m not even sure that’s right.

You could cut the sexual tension between Jonathan and Maddie with one of those big magician’s saws. Looking at Jonathan and his wife (Polly! Of course, Polly Creek. Yes, I had to cheat…) you can barely believe they share a bed, such is their total incompatibility as a pairing.

 

Bring on new writers

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David Renwick has written all 31 episodes of Jonathan Creek thus far (‘Daemon’s Roost’ will be the 32nd). That’s admirable, especially as the first three season were 4-5 star excellent. But the quality of later episodes has shown that he’s running either out of steam or good ideas.

It’s no surprise. You can only do so many variations on a locked room mystery, and 2014’s run showed they’ve been done two too many times.

Perhaps, if there’s to be more Creek of any quantity in the future, David Renwick would best be used as a showrunner or a co-writer. Get some new writers in with fresh wild ideas and have Renwick shape their work to fit the tone of the show.

 

> Buy the complete Jonathan Creek box set on Amazon.

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