Jonathan Creek – Daemons’ Roost [DVD] [2017]

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It’s this kind of thing that shows that Renwick has still got the flair to weave a complex mystery that has always made Creek so popular. And if this turns out to be the final episode, and Creek’s last bow, then it is a fitting ending to the whole 20 years of impossible mysteries.

Although I haven’t seen any other episodes of “Jonathan Creek” at the time of writing, there was enough characterisation to ensure that the episode wasn’t confusing. Guest stars: Rebecca Front, Paul Blackthorne, Peter Blake, Margery Mason, Terrence Hardiman, Diana Weston, James Gaddas and Damien Goodwin. There is also the film Willow which he starred in and he will also star in the TV series which is supposed to be released in 2022. Meanwhile Polly uncovers a cache of love letters between her late mother and a mysterious admirer, Septimus Noone. I’m just sayin’, that is a lot of books to choose from… Second, due to Polly’s interference, we are 40 minutes into this 90 minute episode before Jonathan hears of this woman’s problems and gets to the scene of the crime (and even then it’s a scarecrow competition that enables this…just don’t even ask).When his first wife Imelda was found poisoned to death in a bizarre locked room case it was only through the deductive talents of Jonathan Creek that the puzzle was eventually solved. As he aids in the supernatural investigation, Jonathan finds himself also confronting events from his own past. Creek’s own story, is also more familiar, putting him back in the more rustic countryside, away from the city. Alan Davies, now doing a perfect impression of Alastair McGowan doing an impression of Alan Davies, remains the master of starting to talk only then to stop mid sentence and go ‘of course’.

Onto Daemons’ Roost and possibly the stepfather being the mystery or possibly the ancient warlock thing.That Renwick knows his impossible crime fiction can’t really be in doubt — not only does he avoid many of the easy tropes, he blazes new trails into the old ground (a man shoots himself in a locked room despite crippling arthritis making it impossible for him to hold and fire the gun) while littering these new roads with references to the classics — Norman Stangerson in ‘Time Waits for Norman’ gets his surname from Gaston Leroux’s genre milestone The Mystery of the Yellow Room; Doomdorf Castle in the second Christmas special ‘Satan’s Chimney’ is taken from Melville Davisson Post’s story ‘The Doomdorf Mystery’; and did anybody else spot what I think is a reference to The Hollow Man in series 3? Back at the theatre, Adam has fallen in love with a 29-year-old Austrian woman, but she may have more layers than even he knows.

When the two plots eventually collide, it gets stranger still, with Oliva seemingly being refused a speaking role. The first three series, by and large, are built around a brilliant impossibility, fairly clued for the most part, and throw Jonathan and Maddie into the mix quickly and with a fair dose of humour that works perfectly. Desperate measures are required to get him to help, but the only clue he will reveal is that a spam sandwich is involved.

Jonathan, Polly and the vicar go to all of the trouble to set up a meeting with the culprit in a fancy restaurant. Jonathan arrives, and it turns out — over half way through by this point — that the mystery is how the men could be made to fly through the air, and we forget about the dead family completely. They have stood the test of time (late 90s to early 00s) well and remain entertaining with some great one liners. With an unnecessary subplot and too much waffle before Creek reaches the main location of the mystery and some terrible comic set pieces – Polly’s mistaken vodka ice cube ‘drunken’ scene being a new low for her character – there’s easily half an hour that could’ve been shaken out.