Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This series is in the English tradition of the « independent » investigator who helps the police solve some bad criminal cases essentially with their mind power and their observation power. The great model of them all is Sherlock Holmes but many more were invented and developed in detective story literature, especially female specimens like those of Agatha Christie. In this case the main mind, Jonathan Creek, is associated to a woman who is a reporter or writer of some kind. They are only interested in complex cases, especially having to do with some surreal or super-real elements. Jonathan Creek is by profession the technical inventor of a very successful magician, a certain Adam Klaus. So there is always the disappearing of a criminal or of some artifact, or some illusion that has to be placed back in context, and that cannot be explained at all with normal physical considerations. In other words magic. Then the stories always add a personal element about the victims and the people around the victims that is strange too and has to do with some kind of mysterious business often shown as a scam. The object here is to show that most "magicians" are nothing but crooks who pretend they are performing something supernatural, only when they are performing a sham, an illusion, a treacherous dishonest act. The stories are extremely inventive and the situation in which Jonathan Creek and his female associate finds themselves are often hairy and frightening. Generally it ends up in the hands of the police except from time to time when they decide it is worth a special treatment. The second Christmas special is typical at that level. Satan's Chimney really is Satan's Chimney. Of course not the Satan you may think of, but quite a different one that has not been living since the Middle Ages, but one of blood and flesh today. That Satan is so perverted that he leads some people into doing some so unnatural things that the name of Satan is by far miles away from his reality. The second quality of this series is that, being a BBC production, it has no advertising and an hour is an hour. I must say that is slightly different from the one hour American series that are reduced to a small 45 minutes, when so much, because of the advertising that is interspersed in the show. The extra fifteen minutes gives the story some depth because they just have the time to build that depth and there is only one enigma in each episode which makes it possible to concentrate on the details, and that once again is a major difference with American series in the field, today imitated by some European series, particularly French series. That's definitely a positive point. If you add to that the acting that is perfect, even at times more than perfect you nearly have a totally admirable picture. But in fact there is another essential element that is 100% British. It is humour (note the spelling of course). At times it is gross, at times it is subtle, or sexual, or political, or whatever but it is humour all right and it gives the series a catching look that you cannot miss. You laugh in the midst of the worst details of the worst crimes you can imagine. Finally we will note the police is practically always shown under a non-negative light, often positive, and some times not too swift. There is a nasty copper from time to time just to spice up the vision. This series is worth the numerous hours it covers at least 1,000%.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

elsiewagon Can't they do a Johnathon Creek special like they did for The Office? They can't leave it so open-ended! I want Jonathon and Maddy to ride off into the sunset together!! I need closure and I need it now!!! * NOTE: They have book tours in England, why can't Maddy just suddenly show up for a book tour and meet up with Jonathon--then they can get things together, finally, so I can stop watching the old episodes crying in despair (lol) that it will all 'end badly'--I think that the ABFAB kid is okay but she doesn't have the on-screen chemistry with Alan Davies (going out or not) That Caroline Quentin had with him. So her leaving the acting world shouldn't put a damper on the plans...and I'm just babbling on so I can fill the ten line requirement.

Robert Barrett I have always liked Jonathan Creek because Alan Davies was hilarious in the show to begin with but in 2001 when the Christmas special episode(Satan's Chimney)had my all time favourite actress the absolutely gorgeous Julia Sawalha playing her role as Carla Borrego i just had to tune in but as i am watching Julia on repeats of series 4 of the series even now i still think Julia is not only the most beautiful woman on the show but has the best comic timing i have ever had the pleasure of watching from any performer on television,Julia is just wonderful,absolutely brilliant and she played her role as Carla beautifully,I wish at some point Julia Sawalha can come back to play Carla Borrego one more time because the last role i had seen Julia Sawalha in a role at the time was in 2000 when she played what i have always said,my favourite role Julia Sawalha ever played and that was when she played wisecracking Aussie barmaid Janet Wilson in series 1 of Time Gentlemen Please and Julia was just so wonderful in the role,I think the British film and TV industry should give this beautiful,wonderful,fantastic and brilliant actress a lifetime achievement award for being fantastic in every single role in every TV series she portrayed because i think she has earned that right for that award by now because the only actress i think should have deserved an award before i ever seen Julia Sawalha as an actress 16 years ago(1989) and that was i think (and i'm proud to say this) the best actress to come from the north west of England and she had a brilliant personality as well as being gorgeous and that was the wonderful Joanne Whalley from Edge of Darkness(1985) and Scandal.I will never ever see such an actress play any roles so fantastic in the way that Julia Sawalha did,because she is such a brilliant actress,she could do comedy with such roles as Janet Wilson and Carla Borrego and play serious roles like as Maria in Hornblower and she puts in 100 per cent performances in all her roles every single time especially in comedy,Julia really is a wonderful comedienne and i could laugh or cry when watching Julia Sawalha as a performer and i think Julia was the perfect lady to be in Jonathan Creek and i think both Julia Sawalha and Alan Davies worked really well together in their roles as Jonathan Creek and Carla Borrego and would love to see both Julia and Alan act together again for more episodes of Jonathan Creek and at that time when Julia Sawalha met Alan Davies while making Jonathan Creek i was so pleased for Julia and i'm not sure weather they are still together or not but if so i would like to wish both Julia and Alan all the best for the future as i don't get to hear what Julia is doing these days,now on the cable/satellite channels on TV i am so glad that i am getting the chance to see Julia Sawalha,my all time favourite actress on television again even if they are playing repeats of her TV/film work and i have never got bored ever with Julia Sawalha or the roles she portrayed as a performer,Julia is both extremely beautiful and she works so hard to give both her fans and other viewers such wonderful performances and is so much a normal person when she is not acting,i always loved Julia so much for that .I was never really interested in Pamela Anderson type actresses,that sort of actress to me always acted amateurish or supermodels who ended up as actresses or some American actresses whose performances ended up more and more irritating with every performance as i have seen most of those type of actresses act and it always looked very Hollywood and fake to me.Julia Sawalha will always be my all time favourite actress for a lot of reasons and would like to have the pleasure to meet that lovely actress one day just to say thanks for being so brilliant both on and off screen.Julia has played some wonderful characters in her career as an actress so far and i will keep a lookout for Julia's next role.Looking forward to seeing more of Jonathan Creek if the BBC make any more,i hope so because Julia Sawalha was brilliant as usual and i cannot see any other actress to play the female sidekick to Jonathan Creek other than Julia Sawalha,She's fantastic.

Mark Nelson (milobrandybuck) This is one of the best in the genre of murder mysteries. From the casting, to the script, to the haunting theme music of the Danse Macabre, this series continues be consistently entertaining. The inventive mysteries test your lateral thinking.The use of a magic designer to help solve unsolvable crimes is unusual, and pairing his quiet introspection with the overly enthusiastic ramblings of the writer who tries to talk him into these mysteries is quite simply excellent.Watch and try to figure it out before Jonathan Creek, all the clues are there on screen.