Alan Davies

Alan Davies criticises Jonathan Creek scheduling

Alan Davies has criticised the scheduling of Jonathan Creek over the Easter weekend.

In the months since Jonathan Creek was last on our screens, writer David Renwick seems to have spent a lot of time with the Sherlock Holmes casebook. Guest Paul McGann remarks on the "lingering air of Victorian mystery" and he's not kidding. From spooky stories about people succumbing at precisely predicted times of death to Jonathan discerning sidekick Joey Ross's (Sheridan Smith) current occupation from the redness of her fi ngertips, this one-off special has the defi nite feel of a Baker Street consulting room about it. Not that this makes it any less enjoyable. Indeed, all the hoodwinking and sleight of hand will keep you on your toes right up to the big reveal. Alan Davies remains extremely likeable as the duffel-coated sleuth, his delivery of those twisted lengths of explanatory detail being so good that he even gets the opportunity to do it twice over. The only flabbiness in the plot comes from the appearance of Adam Klaus: Stuart Milligan brings a wolfish smoothness to the part of the high-profile magician, but his subplot goes nowhere and detracts from an otherwise well-burnished brainteaser of an episode.

Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies), the scruffy magician and master sleuth, is back for a one-off special. Jonathan Creek has always been a strange sort of a show. Not remotely serious enough to be scary and not funny enough to be a full-on comedy, it's more like an offbeat version of Midsomer Murders with magic thrown in. This particular story involves disappearing houses, old men crawling through the undergrowth, beautiful women impaled on railings and deception on a grand scale. Paul McGann/p] plays a writer of murder mysteries, the success of which depend on making the reader trust everyone and then, in the most innocent and everyday details, sowing the seeds of terror. There's not much terror here but it's amiable, ingenious and very silly.

Alan Davies: 'I hate QI repeats'

Alan Davies has admitted that he hates QI reruns being frequently shown on TV.

Alan Davies ('Jonathan Creek')

After the huge success of the 2009 New Year special 'The Grinning Man' it seemed inevitable that it wouldn't be long before Alan Davies put on his famous duffle coat for another Jonathan Creek mystery. Written and directed by show creator David Renwick, the forthcoming Easter special 'The Judas Tree' will see Sheridan Smith re-teaming with Davies to investigate events at a house called Green Lanterns. We caught up with the show's leading man to find out what we can expect.

A spooky Easter treat for Alan Davies fans with this one-off outing from the sporadic murder mystery series. Once again magic consultant Jonathan Creek (Davies) is inveigled into joining forces with psychic investigator Joey Ross (Sheridan Smith) when a young woman (Natalie Walter) working for a famous crime writer (Paul McGann) appears to become possessed by a vengeful spirit from Victorian times. As ever this is more howdunit than whodunit, with the convoluted plot very much designed to keep you guessing all the way to the end.

Alan Davies: "Terrible Climate Of Fear"

You can count on QI and Jonathan Creek star Alan Davies to give an honest opinion. Last month I took part in small round table interviews in London with Alan, co-star Sheridan Smith and writer David Renwick ahead of the new Jonathan Creek film - The Judas Tree where Davies spoke about "the terrible climate of fear" in British TV today.

How very British, how very self-deprecating, to name a TV series QI, meaning "quite interesting". It's a "comedy panel quiz show" hosted by the ubiquitous Stephen Fry which, in Britain, started out modestly on one of the BBC's smaller channels and has since moved to BBC One.

It's not hard to see its appeal in that country, with the combination of Fry and comedian Alan Davies, plus a revolving selection of guests. The first episode on Prime on Sunday night was, well, quite interesting. The theme was Fight or Flight, with Fry asking questions to which the panellists were expected to deliver interesting answers, if not necessarily the right ones. Why were Spitfires painted pink? What's the opposite of a flying fish? When lions fight bears, which animal wins?

The guests' efforts to deliver answers were generally nonsense, and Johnny Vegas' accent was so thick it was hard to hear what he was saying - the audience thought he was hilarious - but the answers were quite interesting and poet Pam Ayres won. The scoring system was a complete mystery but any TV which increases general knowledge has got to be a treat these days.

This esoteric quiz continues to leave us feeling we've learned something new. Tonight Stephen Fry and Alan Davies welcome guest panellist Barry Humphries. Let us hope that Humphries will display the same acerbic wit as his alter ego, Dame Edna.

I missed Stephen Fry's explanation of what "gallimaufrey" means, but it's apparnetly "a motley assortment of things", which basically means this edition of QI wasn't constrained by a strict topic. It made me wonder: is QI's alphabetical adherence to topics in its best interest? I know it gives the show structure and order, but there must be times when the behind-the-scenes "elves" are tearing their hair out trying to think of compelling subjects/trivia with a vague connection to the year's particular letter. God help us when we get to "Q" or "X"...

The guests this week were again rather restrained. Hugh Dennis and Andy Hamilton are both intelligent people, which can help push the show onwards without it getting bogged down in too much toilet/sexual humour, but they can also make it feel a little plodding. Still, I always like it when the guests throw in their own "quite interesting" facts, such as Hugh's story about a communist state altering their highway code so "red" meant go and "green" meant stop, but forgetting to change all the traffic lights.

Phil Jupitus continues to have a very odd presence on this show, looking half-embarassed to be there, or unsure of himself in some strange way. Alan Davies was okay, but it always bugs me when he bludgeons a joke to death with repeated play - this week, his impression of German car inventor Mr. Bentz writing his own driver's license. Funny once, not so funny the fourth time.