Alan Davies

Jonathan Creek's mind meets its match in the problem-solving brilliance of a kidnap victim, held chained in a locked room. Strands of what appear to be separate storylines weave into a neat reveal as we follow the fortunes of a horny cleaner, a corpse in a nice hot bath, visiting twin sisters and party balloons. Josie Lawrence joins Alan Davies and Sarah Alexander for this final jaunt, along with June Whitfield - who puts in a delightful double appearance as the bickering twins.

Jonathan Creek: Is it time for the show to bow out?

Jonathan Creek's latest series came to a conclusion tonight (March 14) with 'The Curse Of The Bronze Lamp'. But has Alan Davies's magical magician lost some of his old charm?

After a decade of occasional one-offs and Christmas specials, Alan Davies's magician/sleuth finally returned for a new Sherlock-style mini-series last month, beginning with a neat spin on that old favourite, the locked door mystery. Unfortunately, Creek disappears off into the shadows again after Friday's final episode, but anyone suffering withdrawal symptoms can catch the show's first four series over on Netflix.

Alan Davies having won us over on QI, the revived Jonathan Creek is a pleasantly unchallenging proposition. A show in hock to Midsomer Murders - rural setting, quality cast, mystery and shortbread - this feature-length episode finds Creek and Polly's rural idyll proving turbulent. There's apparently something out there in the bushes, while the vicar's wife has an ear for imagined double entendre. When a cosmetic makeover at an elderly man's house reveals an odd secret, Jonathan's advice is sought.

Alan Davies brings charm to another muddled episode

Ultimately, tonight's episode of Jonathan Creek was a step up on last week's opener. The central mystery wasn't solved about twenty minutes in and felt like it had more in common with the Jonathan Creek of old. On the other hand there was still far too much going on and Davies and Alexander continue to be utterly unconvincing as a married couple.

Jonathan Creek review

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

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: 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.

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.

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.