Jonathan Creek

After a five-year absence, Jonathan Creek returned with a two-hour special, The Grinning Man. Vanishing guests in a haunted attic was the theme, with Alan Davies joined by Sheridan Smith as his latest sleuthing sidekick.

As an audience participation puzzle it couldn't be faulted. I spent the final 30 minutes hurling increasingly desperate and ultimately incorrect speculations at the screen - It's a false knife!, It's a false corpse!, The magician is the reincarnation of his grandfather! etc - but never came close to unravelling any of the several mysteries contained in David Renwick's script.

But for all its ingenuity, Renwick's work just couldn't support its excessively indulgent running time, with the drama beginning to sag long before the murderer was revealed.

Jonathan Creek is reborn, after a few years away. He's looking into a series of disappearances in the attic of a big old country pile. More than the murders, though, it's about boobs. Or it certainly looks that way from where I'm sitting. They're everywhere. All the women in the show - Creek's sidekick, her mate, the killer's wife, the porn star in the strange subplot - are wearing virtually northing, and the camera never misses the opportunity to zoom in on a plunging top or a heaving chest. Oops, one of the porn star's bursts; they weren't real, it turns out. But there are still plenty more around to focus on.

To be honest I'm finding it hard to complain about ... but no, I must, this is the Guardian, for heaven's sake. It's gratuitous, all these scantily clad women about the place, simply for the titillation of the viewer. Soft porn masquerading as murder mystery. Where's Benny Hill? Probably in that bath...

The Times Review

Our hero was brainy and cranky and the show itself awkward, funny and idiosyncratic (as you'd expect from the creator, writer and director David Renwick). If you were looking out for it, there was even an attempt at profundity: something about having to choose between the present and posterity.

Of all the revivals dredged up by the BBC this Christmas, this was the worst. We thought it would never end; Alan Davies still can't act very well; the mystery was far from gripping; the denoument was silly. There's no clamour for a new series from us.

The Mirror Preview

The mop-haired amateur detective and his trusted sidekick are back to solve more bonkers crimes. When I say his trusted sidekick, of course I mean his duffle coat - which I suspect is really the source of his remarkable powers of deduction.

Review of 2009 Special

Television rarely comes much gentler than Jonathan Creek and last night's one-off special was the first we've seen of the popular how- (as opposed to why- or who-) dunnit set in the world of magic and magicians in almost five years. Yet it all felt so comfy and familiar, it was as if the show had never been away.

Sheridan Smith Interview

Sheridan Smith revealed a few behind the scenes secrets when I met her earlier this year.

David Renwick resurrects his sleuth

It's been five years since the illusionist-detective Jonathan Creek vanished from our screens. So what, you may wonder, has caused him to rise from his box now.

Alan Davies Interview

Leading man Alan Davies was under no illusions when he reflected on returning to the role after a five year absence.

Another David Renwick Interview

The Off The Telly website interviews the writer of the show about the new 2008 Christmas special.

David Renwick Interview

M.E.N. interviews the Jonathan Creek writer about the new special.