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Jonathan Creek: Difference between revisions
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A cult British [[Detective Drama]] about the eponymous Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies), a magician's assistant with a keen eye for detail and lateral thinking who helps a journalist, Maddy Magellan (Caroline Quentin)—and later, Carla Burrego (Julia Sawalha) in season 4 and Joey Ross (Sheridan Smith) in the most recent specials—solve mysteries involving seemingly impossible crimes, often a [[Locked Room Mystery]]. Written by David Renwick, otherwise known for ''[[One Foot in
The show's chief theme was the same one expressed by [[Sherlock Holmes]] in his aphorism "Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth". Jonathan would explain that most people are much more willing to consider something 'impossible' or invent a supernatural explanation, than allow themselves to believe that a man would put himself to the trouble of arranging a complex set of events to make it ''look'' that way. Jonathan takes this one step further by pointing out that most people are eager to believe extraordinary phenomena simply because the solutions are mind-numbingly banal: “People beg me to explain, but it’s the last thing you want to hear. Because I’m disproving a miracle.”
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* [[Asshole Victim]]: Often. Sometimes if the crime is something less serious than murder, this is enough for Jonathan and Maddy to conceal the truth from them (although this leads to [[Fridge Logic]] considering Maddy writes up all the stories for publication).
** "The Scented Room" shows Maddy explaining to her psychiatrist that unfortunately she won't be able to publish the story, since she and Jonathan sided with the perpetrator against the [[Asshole Victim]]. Presumably she doesn't publish other cases of the sort as well. Out of interest, the [[Asshole Victim]] in this particular case wasn't a murder victim, but simply a smarmy critic who had a valuable painting stolen.
* [[Authentication
* [[Badass Bystander]]: In "The Scented Room" a little old lady watches Adam get nailed into a coffin to be lowered into the ground as part of an endurance test. Unfortunately, she thinks they're gangsters, and attacks them with a tree branch, a can of mace, and a whistle. She manages to take out three grown men!
* [[Banana Peel]]: After seeing an advertisement invoking this trope, Jonathan tries to prove that it could never happen. He finally slips and falls backwards... but is still proved correct considering it was actually a dog turd that he slipped on.
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* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: When Carla freaks out over the fact that her husband was once married to a man, all he can do is casually chide her about the fact that she's being "a bit homophobic."
* [[Connect the Deaths]]: Deconstructed/critized in the episode "The Coonskin Cap" in which Carla's crime show speculates that a recent serial killer is targeting women that have floral names, the three victims being called Rose, Iris and Heather. It turns out that two murders were the work of {{spoiler|a disturbed young woman who had no discernable motive}} and the third was by {{spoiler|a police officer who used the first two deaths as a cover for his own murder}}. The names were a coincidence, but until it was cleared up, Jonathan points out that thanks to the show's fear-mongering, women named after flowers were scared out of their wits (including a publicist called "Coral", at least until Jonathan tells her that coral is actually an animal).
* [[Series Continuity Error|Continuity Error]]: An [[In
* [[Cut Apart]]: It looks like two people are on opposite sides of a locked door and one even rattles the handle as the other watches, but it later turns out that this was an extremely elaborate trick and they were in two separate locations.
* [[Deal
* [[Defective Detective]]: Subverted somewhat; Jonathan was a bit weird and anti-social, but often came across as more down-to-earth and well-adjusted than Maddy and especially Carla.
* [[Derailing Love Interests]]: Nicola from "The Grinning Man" dumps Jonathan in order to run off with a man she's never met.
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** Adam Klaus is first seen making a heartfelt and sincere thank you to an audience, calling them the best crowd he's ever performed for. The next camera shot reveals that it's an empty theatre, and he's just rehearsing.
* [[Eureka Moment]]: ex-[[Trope Namer]]
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Fair Play Whodunnit]]: The audience typically has the same set of clues that Jonathan does (bar one or two pieces of evidence - often police or medical records - that would make the result too easy), but the solutions often take a bit of lateral thinking, making this an interesting case.
** Also subverted in that the audience rarely knows whether an episode is going to be a whodunnit or a howdunnit until [[The Summation]].
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** Jonathan meets a group of his own look-alike fanboys (complete with long shaggy hair) in ''Miracle on Crooked Lane''. On seeing a photo of them all lined up at a table Maddy comments: "I see what you mean about the last supper."
<!-- %%* FridgeLogic: See {{JustBugsMe.JonathanCreek}} -->
* [[Finger in
* [[Funny Background Event]]: Twice. In "No Trace of Tracy", Maddy interviews a man in a sound-proof room whilst his colleagues have a brawl in the two-way mirror behind them, and in "Time Waits for Norman", Maddy holds a conversation with a man outside his house whilst Jonathan snoops around for clues and gets attacked by a vicious Jack Russell. A dismayed Maddy sees all this through the bay windows.
** {{spoiler|What makes it even funnier is that the man then walks to into a different house}}.
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** The [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] between Jonathan and Carla in season four is based on the fact that she's married to another man, and yet still obviously attracted to Jonathan. Somewhat [[Deconstructed]] however in that Jonathan has no interest whatsoever in messing around with a married woman, despite his rather low opinion of Carla's husband.
* [[Groin Attack]]: "Black Canary" has a very, very nasty example indeed.
* [[Haven't You Seen X Before?]]: "Time Waits for Norman":
{{quote| '''Maddy:''' Yes, all right. Haven't you ever seen a transvestite before?}}
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: Possibly second only to ''[[Doctor Who]]'' for having a reputation for well-known British actors in unlikely roles.
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** Comedian [[Bob Monkhouse]] as the [[Asshole Victim]] Sylvester Le Fley in "The Scented Room" - Monkhouse later used this as an example for his comment "my non-comedic acting roles tend to be the sort of person who would keep their cocoa warm by burning down an orphanage".
** "Black Canary" features [[The Young Ones|Rik Mayall]] as Gideon Pryke, [[Coupling|Kate Isitt]] as Charlotte, and [[Goodness Gracious Me|Sanjeev Bhaskar]] as a doctor.
** "The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish" had [[Not the Nine O
** [[The Young Ones|Adrian Edmondson]] appears in a recurring role as Carla Borrego's husband in Series 4.
** Comedian Jack Dee in "Angel Hair" as a songwriter who married a pop starlet.
** [[Red Dwarf
** A somewhat obscure one: One of Adam's girlfriends was Eurydice in Jim Henson's ''[[The Storyteller]].''
** [[The Young Ones|Nigel Planer]] shows up as Maddy's blind date in "The Reconstituted Corpse".
** [[One Foot in
** Gillian Bailey in "Gorgon's Wood" is also [[Merlin (TV series)|Prince Arthur's mother]].
** [[Hustle|Eddy]] shows up in season 1 as a band member and season 2 as a bum.
** [[The
** [[Bill Bailey]] appears twice as street performer Kenny Starkiss.
* [[Hypocritical Humour]]: Meta example--Alistair McGowan appeared in the pilot episode, but later repeatedly mocked the show's complicated plots on his own show ''The Big Impression''. One sketch has McGowan, as Creek, trying to give [[The Summation]] by coming up with increasingly far-fetched solutions implicating each unlikely suspect in turn, while ignoring a man in the corner carrying an axe, covered in blood and grinning.
* [[Impaled
* [[Informed Ability]]: Although certainly clever and brave, Joey is initially introduced as Jonathan's intellectual equal, described on a television show as "someone whose powers of deduction and truly phenomenal flair for solving seemingly impossibly puzzles are beyond cool." Yet apart from ascertaining that the Nightmare Room is inescapable and discovering a clue that Jonathan misses (one which she slightly misinterprets), she doesn't solve any part of the mystery, and eventually admits: "I'm out of my depth here."
** In "The Judas Tree" Adam describes her to Jonathan as someone who is: "every bit as smart as you." Except...she's really not, and once again she doesn't provide any meaningful insight into the mystery they're trying to solve.
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** A straighter example is Maddy's cameraman boyfriend from the pilot (played by [[Hey, It's That Guy!|Alistair McGowan]]) who was intended to become a recurring character, but is never mentioned again.
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: That damn {{spoiler|harvest fly}}.
* [[Put
* [[Quote Mine]]: Sinister example in "Satan's Chimney", using an edited recording.
* [[Rear Window Witness]]: In "The Problem at Gallows Gate", Adam's sister Kitty witnesses a murder through a pair of high-powered binocculars during a badger watch.
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** Although the [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] common to Maddy and Carla is averted for the most part with Joey. Otherwise played straight.
* [[Sweetie Graffiti]]: A clue in "Gorgon's Wood", though it wasn't carved by "sweethearts".
* [[Tap
* [[Thanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|Andre Masson}} rigs up his suicide to make it look as though he's been murdered by one of his employees.
* [[Theme Song Reveal]]: In the episode ''Satan's Chimney'', {{spoiler|Allan Kallanak's first appearance shows him rehearsing his escape act to the sound of the Eurythmics' ''Missionary Man''. In hindsight, this not only gives away his identity as the killer, but his motivation as well: "don't mess with a missionary man..."}}
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* [[The Watson]]: Maddy, Carla, Joey.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Previous candidates for the role of Jonathan included [[Rik Mayall]], [[Hugh Laurie]] (who was still being typecast as an [[Upperclass Twit]] back then) and even [[Bill Bailey]].
** Hugh Laurie was actually cast at one point before the pilot was filmed, but left the project because of Jonathan's reluctance to solve crimes - Laurie couldn't find the character's motivation for ''actually'' following Maddy on her investigations. Somewhat ironic, given that [[House (TV series)|House]] is something of a [[Dr. Jerk]] Jonathan Creek - obsessed with puzzles, not so much with people.
** Rik Mayall did have a guest appearance as a brilliant and hammy detective who rivalled Jonathan's skill, and Bill Bailey was a terrible aspiring magic trick creator that ended up working with Jonathan for Klaus.
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?]] - In "Angel Hair", Jonathan works out the core mystery pretty quickly but keeps schtum about it while he tries to work out the details. To help Carla along, he writes two proverbs on a piece of paper and she spends half the episode trying to find any hidden meaning in it. After spending hours agonising over it, her husband leans over and casually notes that it's {{spoiler|the first two lines to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind", in the wrong order}}.
* [[What Happened to
** From "The Judas Tree": whatever happened to the man in the grass? Did anyone ever find him, or did he die out there?
* [[What Have We Ear?]]: Jonathan and Adam do this on a few occasions (but Jonathan draws the line when Adam asks him to design a trick that allows him to pull a postage stamp from under the Queen's tongue).
* [[Xanatos Roulette]]: The plot of "The Judas Tree" hinges on the assumption that Emily {{spoiler|wouldn't just quit her job}} and the local vicar {{spoiler|wouldn't be asked to identify the body}}.
** {{spoiler|Or that the police wouldn't do a tox screen on the body. Or a paternity test. Or look up the family of Emily's previous victim.}} See the [[Jonathan Creek
** The first explanation Jonathan gives for how the murder could have been done in "The Wrestler's Tomb" is also a [[Xanatos Roulette]]...which is why Jonathan dismisses it as too unlikely to be plausible.
* [[You Got Murder]]: Occurs in {{spoiler|"The House of Monkeys"}} in which a self-addressed envelope laced with poison is sent to the victim. On licking the flap, he trips out on hallucinogenic drugs and manages to {{spoiler|impale himself on a sword}}.
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[[Category:Crime and Punishment Series/Detective Drama]]
[[Category:Jonathan Creek]]
[[Category:TV Series
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