User Reviews

It's fair to say that the last few outings for Creek and co have been very much hit and miss. Good or bad I'm a huge fan of the series, and glad to have it back, this episode I thought was a pretty good one. In some ways it felt like an echo back to Satan's Chimney, a hugely successful episode. Demons' Roost not the quality of Satan's Chimney, but full of good stuff nonetheless. I don't think it's as deserving of the negative reviews, as a few others are.

On the downside, I found the plot a little muddled at times, it could have been me, or simply the Red wine. The two sub plots seemed to combine in a somewhat odd manner.

The negatives I felt were rather minor, the production values were top notch, and as a story it kept me guessing right the way through. David Renwick's imagination is a wonderful thing, some of the theories and plots here were very well thought out. Lovely light touches and bits of humour, Renwick has a particular brand of humour which I love. That lighter side was well balanced with the darker side too, the death of Patrick (Ryan Oliva) was very grim.

I loved the references back to earlier episodes, the show boasts a rich history, it's nice that it's mentioned. I also thought that Creek and Polly felt a much better combo (at last.)

More please. 7/10

The new Jonathan Creek special finds a way up for Creek. By no means perfect, this episode does bring back the core of the series that was so painfully betrayed in the previous three episodes. There are a lot of mysteries to be solved, and most of them are quite satisfying. Several mysteries spanning many eras tie together, with Creek being pulled in to help solve them. There may be one or two plots that cross the line of silliness for little reason, but much of this episode works very well, and the creepy bits are quite well crafted. It may not be up there with the first two Creek specials, but it's great to see something that really does rightfully belong in the series.

Recent irregular episodes of Jonathan Creek did not match the earlier vintage series but Daemons' Roost suggested we were going to have the right mixture of the macabre, fiendish puzzles and humour.

Alison is returning with her husband to her childhood home owned by schlocky horror director Nathan Clore who wants to tell her some family secrets but he becomes incapacitated by a stroke.

The house was once owned by a 19th century sorcerer Jacob Surtees who terrorised the nearby village and had a torture chamber in the mansion. Some spooky incidents leads Alison to call Jonathan as he once helped her husband, Stephen out in the past when he was accused of killing his first wife.

There were plenty of red herrings but also some confusion and plenty of daftness in the plot. It turns out that Stephen might have fooled Jonathan in the past and it did occur to me this might had happened when Jonathan revealed how he solved his first wife's murder. There was one thing bothering me, that Stephen never seemingly met his brother in law.

The ex con stalking Jonathan and who gets burnt to a crisp by also sat uneasily with me.

Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies) and Sarah Alexander make the best romantic team since back when Caroline Quentin played Maddy. Maddy was the best partner to Creek. She had a genuine comedy chemistry and warmth that none of the replacement girlfriends or wives ever had with Alan Davies. The subtle humor of Davies depended on having a great partner.

I love the Jonathan Creek series. I am sad that it ended. Stuart Milligan played a great supporting role in the series, and he was eliminated in season five. He added humor too.

Jonathan had an unlikey job this season as a corporate CEO in a business owned by his Father-in-Law. After a couple of scenes at the coporate offices, that entire back-story disappeared. Jonathan Creek's career as a magic show consultant was part of what made him unique and special. Jonathan's career background was one of his strengths, and it should have been respected.

In regards to this episode, one of the worst misses is that the amazing Warwick Davis was the guest star, but it seemed like they had no idea what to do with him. Having seen Davis in numerous other roles, it was clear that he was given nothing to do in this episode. What a waste.

The back-story about Belkin, the death of his past wife, and Jonathan's involvement in that mystery was badly botched. It was clear almost as soon as the story was revealed, that Belkin would probably turn out to be the killer. All the odd flashbacks were intended to deflect suspicion away from the killer, and so they just came across as bizarre.

Especially odd was the giant pill that rolled down the shelf into the cup. That pill would have taken hours to dissolve, and it would have been impossible for anyone not to notice a big fat pill in their transparent cup of water.

The fact that nothing about the first victim's family was discussed made the eventual twist seem kind of a cheap dodge by the writer. Also wrong was when everyone met the vigilante killer at the end, why wasn't Belkin's wife included in the meeting? They all knew Barnett killed Belkin, so why was the meeting so angry?

Barnett figured it all out before Creek or Warwick Davis. That was also kind of deflating for this last episode. It seemed like a lot of the story was about Jonathan Creek failing to discover who the killer was on the first time Belkin killed his first wife, and then failing again in this mystery. Barnett even made dismissive remarks to Creek, and that was not really necessary. Him going out like a loser was a bit sad for any fan of Jonathan Creek.

The last subplot that was a waste of time was the Tyree character trying on various occasions to kill Creek. It seemed like a tip of the hat to the Pink Panther, or perhaps some other character. It also felt like they were using that vengeful ex-convict as a time-filler to make up for a light script.

Another odd plot twist was that Philippa (Rosalind March) kept quiet about the fact that the 6 page letter to Alison (Georgie Lord) from her Father (Ken Bones) was missing four pages. Considering all the grief that caused everyone, it was hard to believe Philippa's excuse for not telling everyone the truth.

Overall, I was sad to see that Warwick Davis, one of my favorite actors, was not better integrated into the story, and that there was a lot of negativity going in the direction of Jonathan Creek and his skills.

On the positive side, there was a fair amount of action, and a lot more killing than usually happened. All the villains got their due.

A return to form after the poor episodes of series 5 until now, this harks back to the basics that the show got so right in its vintage years.

I too loved the references back to the show's past, and it was a neat idea to have Jonathan stalked by someone he helped put away previously (the culprit in the 'House of Monkeys' episode - although he wasn't actually seen in that particular episode). There were echoes of 'Satan's Chimney' in this episode, although this episode is inferior, I feel.

I too felt that at last Polly and Jonathan seemed to be a much better fit - this was certainly Sarah Alexander's best performance in the role. The scene where she gets into bed with a corpse was laugh out loud funny.

The striped unicorn subplot was almost as interesting as the main story itself, although anyone with a knowledge of chemistry will spot the culprit easily, as I did.

On the downside Warwick Davies tries to be funny but ends up just being annoying.

The show began with an appalling 'risque' racially tinged 'joke' that laid the foundations for a dreadful episode of what was once my favorite British television show.

The entire episode felt like an amateur production. The casting was atrocious throughout - not sure what would have motivated the casting director to choose any of the supporting members, besides desperation.

The writing was equally poor, failing to captivate in the manner of older episodes with a lazy unsatisfying conclusion to boot. Gone are the days of the clever plot twist and analysis by the main protagonist, instead the viewer is reminded of the creative failings of the writers who refuse to wrap up this end of year Jonathan Creek special in the conclusive manner that fans of this once great show have become accustomed to.