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Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Alan Davies, Sarah Alexander, Warwick Davis, Ken Bones, Georgie Lord, Emun Elliott, Rosalind March, Jason Barnett, Caoimhe Clough, Sisan Coyle, Jo Martin, Ryan Oliva, Nicole Cooper, Chris Forbes.

Let someone get away with murder once and they will believe it can be done again, they will come up with another ingenious way to sidestep justice and the person that helped them be free the first time round will undoubetedly be called upon again to provide the alibi they require.

It is a great idea for a story, one very much worthy of David Renwick’s indomitable style of presenting a mystery to an audience; the issue always comes down to the laconic, almost dragging feet style in which his characters in Jonathan Creek have come across in the last few years; gone is the shrouded mystery, gone is the sense of magic, now it just feels as if the detection and solving of the mystery at hand is such it gets in the way of everyday life. The destective should never feel as is if the murder is anything but to be taken seriously and in Daemon’s Roost, the world of a Hammer House of Horror like situation is nothing but to be taken seriously.

Perhaps part of the problem with Jonathan Creek is that over the course of the last few years the programme has not been on enough for even older fans of the programme to care about his character’s development; it is almost as if these one off specials that are written are just a way of balancing the books, to make sure that the presence of the man is just kept within reach, that both the writer and the main star, Alan Davies, are somehow not quite sure if another full series would be well received and that a special every now and then is a fair comprimise.

An old case collides with a new mystery in this one off special and whilst the idea is very entertaining, it immediately feels old, that time is once more on a reel that has not moved in all the years that the solver of riddles and conundrums has been around and whilst Sarah Alexander brings wonderful healthy sceptisim in the form of his wife Polly, there really is nothing new about the format, save the inventive way of dying or the clues for the audience to follow, it is unfortunatly now quite an average offering.

Will this be the last sighting of Jonathan Creek, part of the brain wishes it was, David Renwick will always remain very dear to the television audience but time has moved on and when Poirot, Ms. Marple, Lewis and all the other detectives that have been on our screens show signs of their ageing, their change in personality and growth, then it is time to whisper farewell and thank you.

Ian D. Hall