Ali Bastian

After several years away from detecting action, Alan Davies dusts off his dramatic acting talent to tackle three new cases as unofficial sleuth Jonathan Creek. Our hero's trademark low-key humour weaves itself through the mystery action, which kicks off with a spot of smartphone rage on a trip to the theatre with wife Polly (Sarah Alexander, right with Davies). The familiar faces popping up in the loosely strung plot include Raquel Cassidy as a highly strung friend whose son fancies himself as Sherlock Holmes, while Ali Bastian calls on her Strictly experience as an aspiring West End musical star, complete with stalker...

Carol Carter, Metro, 28th February 2014

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.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 28th February 2014