If you ever manage to venture away from How I Met Your Mother repeats on that worn-out TV set in your living room, you may have stumbled across an episode of Jonathan Creek, or, more likely, flicked straight past it.
It’s a shame, because the late nineties BAFTA winning crime drama is a real mind-boggler. I have to admit I started watching the programme by accident. During a night flight a few years ago, after making the poor decision to watch Twilight: New Moon, I frantically changed channel to the Jonathan Creek Christmas special, ‘The Grinning Man’, which was ten minutes in. After a few minutes I was hooked, and watched all four series box sets once home.
The cult show stars comedian Alan Davies, whom you may recognise as the ‘idiot’ sat next to Stephen Fry in QI. In Jonathan Creek he plays just the opposite: a mop haired sleuth, who happens to have super human logic. He plays the title character, a magician’s consultant, who is reluctantly brought in by the lovably manipulative crime journalist Maddy Magellan (played by the fantastic Caroline Quentin) and other assistants over the years to help solve various elaborately executed, seemingly supernatural crimes, using his knowledge of illusionism. The show is at times fairly dark, yet is lightened up with comic moments, zany characters and romantic touches.
I’d really advise curling up on the sofa to a bit of Jonathan on these winter nights, if you fancy a bit of a light brain teaser. See if you can figure out before Jonathan how each crime was committed. I honestly bet you can’t. What I can bet is that you will be gripped, and switching over from E4 much more often.