Jonathan Creek – The Grinning Man

Review by David Woodward

The British TV industry has a curious habit of producing Christmas Specials for its various series during their initial run and even after the series has ceased production, and the trend shows no signs of changing with Jonathan Creek.

Jonathan Creek was a UK mystery series cleverly written and directed by David Renwick about a magician who solved seemingly supernatural mysteries using logical deduction and a knowledge of illusions. The series concentrated on the actual work of detection, rather than action, and also had an eccentric comical aspect, perhaps due to the presence of its star, comedian Alan Davies.

The series originally ran for four seasons between 1997 and 2004 during which two Christmas Specials were aired. After a hiatus of five years, Jonathan Creek returned in 2009 with yet another Special "The Grinning Man" which has now been released on DVD.

"The Grinning Man" starts with black-and-white footage of the 1938 disappearance of a man from the attic of an English mansion. The storyline switches to the present when a young woman disappears from the same haunted room. Jonathan Creek is called in by the girl’s friend to help solve the mystery. Interestingly, after solving the girl’s disappearance, he must then solve yet another related murder.

This story is the quintessential "locked room mystery" which the Jonathan Creek series did so well. With a running time of two hours, there is some padding that slows down the narrative, but it does not dampen your interest in finding out what happens next.

Alan Davies takes a layback approach to the title role, yet he manages to bring the viewer along with him as he methodically analyses the facts and develops a theory on how the mysterious disappearances occurred.  As often happens in this series, the explanation is relatively obvious once you hear it.

In this particular Special, Jonathon has two female side-kicks, instead of his normal lone assistant.  In previous episodes, Caroline (Men Behaving Badly) Quentin or Julia (Absolutely Fabulous) Sawalha had provided the moral support and acted as a sounding board for his theories.

In "The Grinning Man", Sheridan (The Royle Family) Smith takes on this assistant role, while Katherine (Doc Martin, The IT Crowd) Parkinson follows him around as an ex-girl friend.  Both are impressive.

Whether or not Jonathon Creek will return more regularly is not certain, although at least one more appearance is scheduled for 2010. I look forward to watching any further potential stories about this quirky master of illusion solving “locked room mysteries”.

DVD Special Features

Unusually for a BBC DVD release of this nature, there are a number of annoyingly short extras featuring behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of several scenes and a longer five-minute sequence of deleted scenes cut from the final version.

Finally, there are two six-minute featurettes detailing the design and building of the attic set which is the focal point of "The Grinning Man".

Conclusion: Episodes 80% Extras: 70%