Jonathan Creek

1 9 9 7 – 2 0 0 4 (UK)
1 x 90 minute episode
22 x 50 minute episodes
3 x specials

Pugnacious investigative journalist Maddy Magellan (Caroline Quentin) teams up with Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies) – a designer of illusions for stage magician Adam Klaus (Stuart Milligan) – to solve seemingly unsolvable mysteries.

Creek warns against confusing “what’s impossible with what’s implausible” before explaining how an apparent suicide in a sealed underground bunker is in fact murder, how a man can be in London and New York at the same time, how someone can walk on snow without leaving any footprints, and other intriguing riddles.

Most episodes split the focus between the mystery, Klaus’ comic mishaps and the will-they-won’t-they romance between the hard-boiled, strictly urban Maddy and the cerebral Creek, whose country residence is in a windmill (actually in Shipley, West Sussex).

The two eventually end up in bed together in ‘Miracle in Crooked Lane’ but the romance is soon off again.

When Caroline Quentin became unavailable for the 2001 Christmas special ‘Satan’s Chimney’, the neurotic Carla Borrego (Julie Sawalha) was introduced. She then replaced Maddy in the subsequent series.

Jonathan Creek
Alan Davies
Maddy Magellan
Caroline Quentin
Adam Klaus
Stuart Milligan
Carla Borrego
Julia Sawalha