PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Alan Davies - Urban Trauma 1998

Alan Davies - Urban Trauma 1998 Written by Alan Davies and directed by John Kaye Cooper. Recorded in the Duchess Theatre in Westminster, London. Alan talks about a variety of subjects, including a trip to New Zealand and Australia, beaches, Satan, the Olympics and other sports, veganism, mad cows, pot, booze, poop, motorcycles, cats, clothing and fat monkeys. A fairly good funny set in general. This show was recorded about 10 years after Alan started doing stand up, about a year since he started appearing in Jonathan Creek, and about 4 years before QI started.

Jonathan Creek - Daemons' Roost

I ordered the UK copy of the most recent Jonathan Creek episode, Daemons' Roost, from the UK since it isn't out here yet. I had a few other things to get and decided I didn't want to wait until it got cheaper.One of the other items was a copy of the US TV series The Invaders. It was under 12 pounds for both seasons in one box set, with shipping that was under 20 bucks US, the US DVDs have just had a price drop and they're about 30 bucks, for both seasons, on Amazon. Add some tax and shipping if you have to pay that. I don't with Amazon Prime.

Alan Davies is still Jonathan Creek and Sarah Alexander is his wife Polly. She's not too keen on Jonathan getting involved with the investigations but that doesn't have much weight with the script writer David Renwick. A woman, married to a man that Jonathan helped several years earlier, contacts Jonathan when strange things start happening at her Uncle's house. The Uncle, 1970s horror film director Nathan Clore, lives in a house that was once owned by 19th century sorcerer Jacob Surtees. There's a nasty legend about that old reprobate. Murder and torture, yum! Jonathan reluctantly digs into that one. There's a subplot with an ex-con who's just out of jail, he wants revenge on Jonathan for putting him there, and a failed attack at Jonathan's house puts Jonathan and Polly into Nathan's house. The ex-con has rather bad luck when it comes to revenge and I laughed at his fiery misfortune. There's another subplot involving the local Vicar, played by Warwick Davis. The Vic is a big Jonathan Creek fan. That was funny too. I enjoyed the story and want to watch it again before too long. It's been three years since the 5th series aired and hopefully the series will continue but if it doesn't it will go out on a fairly good note.

Jonathan Creek Series 4

Series 4 of Jonathan Creek was broken up into two lots of three episodes. The fist batch aired in March 2003 and the other half aired in February 2004. There will be long gaps between series and specials for the rest of the shows run. After the 6 episodes of Series 4 there was a 5 year gap before a Special aired in 2009. Specials aired in 2010 and 2013. I watched all those over the last couple of weeks.

The show continues to have entertaining stories and fun characters. Between this series and the last Jonathan and Carla Borrego (Julia Sawalha) had started a relationship and ended it. She now married to a TV show producer played by Adrian Edmondson. He'll turn up in most episodes.

The cases are as varied as ever. Jonathan and Carla go after a serial killer in the first episode. Jack Dee guests in the second episode, along with Sophie Thompson and Tamsin Greig. The puzzle on that one was how could a woman show up two days after having her hair cut off with all her hair grown back. Jonathan and Carla investigate the suicide of a fashion designer in the third episode. The series returns a year later with another suicide. This time a fax is key to the puzzle. A framed police detective gets a hand from J&C. A priceless piece of porcelain is stolen and Jonathan gets called into figure out how that was done in the last episode. Celia Imrie guest stars in that one. It's the last episode for Julia. She won't be returning when the Specials start up 5 years later.

The Grinning Man is the first special, a 120 minute long story that aired 1-1-09. A Gothic Mansion has a room in a tower that several people have disappeared from since it was built in 1938. The place was built by a spiritualist and his descendant, a stage magician, now owns the place. Sheridan Smith plays Joey Ross, a paranormal investigator who's on the way to a party in the country, with her friend, when their car breaks down. They are rescued and given shelter in the mansion. The friend disappears out of that same room and Joey calls Jonathan for help. It's a diabolical bit of business, those disappearances. I liked Sheridan Smith as Joey Ross, she's a good pain in the ass for Jonathan. She's not the investigator that Jonathan is but she helps out a bit and she pushes him to get things done.

Joey calls on Jonathan a year later in the 2010 Special The Judas Tree. There's something weird going on a house called Green Lanterns. The wife falls out a window, as she lays dying she says the maid pushed her. The servant swears she didn't do it. No one actually saw who pushed the wife but the wife swore it was the maid just before she died. Jonathan's got his work cut out for him in this one. Paul McGann, Ian McNeice and Doreen Mantle are the guest stars.

The Clue Of The Savant's Thumb brings Jonathan Creek and Joey Ross back together three years later in a 90 minute episode that aired 4-1-13. Jonathan has left the world of theatrical magic and is a businessman. He works at the same  company as his wife Polly who's played by Sarah Alexander. Nigel Planner plays the guy who gets done over. His dead body disappears out of a locked room with a woman passed out on the floor. Jonathan will figure out what was up there. Rik Mayall returns, for the last time, as DI Gideon Pryke. He's one of my favorite characters in the series. Too bad he's only in the two episodes. It's also the end of Joey Ross, she just doesn't come back when they starts up the 5th series in 2014.

I enjoyed all the specials. I like the longer format episodes. It gives more room for the story to play out. Besides that 5th series to watch I'll have to try to dig up a copy of the Special that aired at the end of last month.

Jonathan Creek Series 3

Series 3 of Jonathan Creek started airing at the end of November 1999 and there were 6 new episodes. The following December 2001 there was a Christmas Special called Satan's Chimney. Alan Davies and Caroline Quentin are still playing detective and getting along like a house on fire. Stuart Milligan is Jonathan's boss, magician Adam Klaus. He provides the comic relief. The stories continue to be entertaining. A man has sold his soul to the devil in the first episode. Some old lady has dreams that seem to come true in the second episode. A dead alien does a disappearing trick that you'd have to see to believe. It's an amazing and unexpected piece of trickery. A mysterious house keeps Jonathan and Maddy busy in the 4th episode. A badly burned woman and a moving dead guy make good mysteries in the last two episodes. Jonathan meets his growing fan club in the 5th episode and they are a bit annoying and nowhere near a clever as the real thing. After the 3rd series Caroline left the show and Satan's Chimney marks the first appearance of Julia Sawalha as Jonathan's new foil Carla Borrego. Some might remember Julia as Edina's horribly put upon daughter Saffron in Absolutely Fabulous. I was glad to see Maddy go, she was an awful person. Carla is kind of a jerk but she's no where near as annoying. The stories are still entertaining, even after seeing them for the 3rd time. Alan Davies has gotten better as an actor and the stories have plenty of twists and turns. There's still more to come and they continue to make the series after all these years.

Jonathan Creek Series 2

Series 2 of Jonathan Creek has Jonathan, played by Alan Davies, and Maddy Magellen, played by Caroline Quentin, back together solving impossible mysteries. A murder disappears into a locked brick garage, a painting disappears from a well watched locked gallery, a man commits suicide when he discovers his girlfriend in bed with another guy and two weeks later he's seen strangling a woman. You get the idea. Jonathan's power of observation and knowledge base help him find the clues that give his brain the tips he needs to figure out the trick and the solve the mystery.

Magician Adam Klaus is now being played by Stuart Milligan. He's even more of a comical horn dog than the Anthony Head character in the pilot. He's always letting his mouth and/or pecker get him into hot water. It's no trick for him. There's a bunch of guest actors in each episode. Some I knew, like Peter Davison, Deborah Grant, Dermot Crowley, Bob Monkhouse, Amanda Holden, Brian Murphy and Rik Mayall. Rik would return again as the highly entertaining Detective Inspector Gideon Pryke in the 2013 Christmas Special. Sadly Rik dying means he can't comeback anymore.

There's the usual bits of hesitant romance between Jonathan and Maddy. It's sad for me since I find Maddy even more annoying this series. Why Jonathan might think there's potential relationship material there, I just don't get. Maddy is selfish, petty and a liar. She's totally willing to break the law, or a promise, to get her way. The number of times she's screwed Jonathan over to get her story is sad to see. Must be a blind spot for the guy. His track record with women seems to be rather poor in general. He does have a bit of a fling with his tax assessor but that ends with him getting punched out by her dad and her brother.

The 6 fifty minute episodes came out in January and February 1998 and they were followed by a 90 minute Christmas Special called Black Canary. It aired Christmas Eve 1998 and it had 9.86 million people watching. Two of the 2nd series episodes had over 10 million people watching and it never went below 8.94 million viewers. I think it's popular for several reasons: Jonathan is an interesting character, many of those around him are equally interesting on their own, the scripts have clever puzzles and solutions, there are good production values and interesting locations. I think it's a series which lends itself to re-watching. Especially for those of us who seem to forget the plots after a couple of years. It's just an enjoyable place to be for a while. Can't ask for better than that.

Jonathan Creek Series 1

I watched the first series of Jonathan Creek again. I ordered the DVDs from the UK, they were cheaper than the US edition. Alan Davies and Caroline Quentin are the two main leads. Caroline plays Madeline Magellen and Alan plays Jonathan Creek. She's a writer and he designs magic acts for Adam Klaus. Jonathan lives in a windmill in the country and does not have a car. Caroline lives int he city and she's devious and cantankerous. Adam is played by Anthony Head in the pilot and then he's never seen again. Anthony went off to play on Buffy at that time. Some other actor will take over the role in Series 2-4.

There are 5 stories in this 1996 series, the 90 minute pilot and four 59 minute episodes. Each one has a complex murder puzzle for Jonathan to solve. He's bit of a mental wiz but not much good at being a social animal. There's a bit of sexual tension between him and Madeline but it doesn't pan into anything. I find Madeline annoying and can only hope Jonathan will hold out for someone who doesn't yell so much. I enjoy the stories quite a bit, enough to want to buy the discs and have them for re-watching. You could watch a lot worse.

Jonathan Creek Series 4

 

I finally got the 4th series of Jonathan Creek from the library and it was a nice 2 disc package with 6 hour long episodes. Julia Sawalha returns as Carla Borrego. The 2001 Special ended with the possibility of romance between Jonathan and Carla and it did develope off screen. Sadly it ended before the series started and Carla has moved on and married a tv producer, Brendan Baxter, played by Adrian Edmondson. Brendan produces a crime show that reconstructs unsolved cases. I doubt I would be much interested in that kind of show. I'd rahter see a show like Jonathan Creek. I've already enjoyed the heck out of the first 3 series and had wanted to see the 4th. It's got 6 episodes and the first 3 aired March 2003 and the other 3 hit the airwaves February 2004. It's much nicer to see them all on a couple of dvds. Not such a long wait.

The Coonskin Cap has Jonathan and Carla reunite to work on Brendan's tv show. There's some nice yakking between the pair and it only gets better when Adrian is in the scene. There's a good locked room mystery and some clever tricks by the murderer. 

Angel Hair has plenty of video trickery. The baddies aren't as clever as our Jonathan. Carla is jealous that Jonathan has something going on with the make up lady.

The Tailor's Dummy has Jonathan figuring out why the old guy jumped out of a window. It was murder. Like you wouldn't have guessed that.

The Seer of the Sands was a pretty good episode but I wasn't sure I bought the whole buggy premise.

The Chequered Box has a really clever frame. Jonathan figures it out.

Gorgons Wood has Jonathan figure out how that priceless monk statue diappeared. There's messed up family baggage in this one.

After the series ended there wasn't another. In 2009, 2010 and 2013 there were movie length specials. They're all as enjoyable as the series. I've gotten quite fond of Alan Davies as Jonathan. The mysteries are pretty tightly plotted and the show moves along quite briskly. There's a nice bit of comedy and the locations are all pretty nice. It's fairly benign and rather low key. I think I had mentioned they are rather in the Cozy vein. 

2009 New Year's Day Special - The Grinning Man has Jonathan team up with Sheridan Smith who plays paranormal investigator Joey Ross. People has been disappearing from the attic bedroom in a big old mansion for decades. It's a pretty diabolical trick and Jonathan manages to figure it out just in time.

2010 Easter Day Special - The Judas Tree has Joey call Jonathan to get his help with some odd goings on at another old mansion. Dangerous places, those old mansions. This one has a great bit of trickery.

2013 Easter Monday Special - The Clue of the Savant's Thumb has three great guests: Rik Mayall, Joanna Lumley and Nigel Planer. Jonathan is out of magic, he's a business man of some sort, with a wife. Joey calls him up with a mystery and he jumps right in.

The Wikipedia says that they are filming 3 episodes of the 5th season for airing in 2014. Something to look forward to.

Jonathan Creek Series 3

  

Series 3 of Jonathan Creek first started airing November 27 1999 and it ran for 6 episodes, each about 50 minutes long. There was a Christmas Special that aired in 2001. It would be two more years before Jonathan would return to the airwaves. Alan Davies plays Jonathan Creek and Caroline Quentin plays Maddie Magellan. This would be her last series, she didn't want to play anymore, and you know, I won't miss her. She was a really annoying character. One of those who would screw you over for her own gain and ask why you're upset. She'll think of something she wants you to do, assume you'll say no, and figure out a way to trick you into doing it. I guess it's to make Jonathan being so much cleverer than her that much more of a treat for me. I can't imagine why else they would write such a character. Stuart Milligan plays Adam Klaus, the magician that Jonathan works for, and his character takes a pretty good beating in the series. It's all his fault, he's an idiot the comic relief machine. 

The series got really nice ratings when it first aired with the first episode pulling 11.02 million viewers. The population of England was nearly 60 million in 1999 and that averages out to about 1 in 6 people watching. That percentage in the US would have around 55 million people watching. The highest rated show in the US, during the 2012-3 season, was NCIS wth 21.6 million. Third place was The Big Bang Theory with more than 19 million. I don't watch the first mentioned, I'm just not interested in it. I do like TBBT and look forward to catching up with the current season when it gets rolling. I usually let a few pile up, then gang watch them with the On Demand feature on Comcast.

 

In the first episode Jonathan meets a man who claims to have sold his soul to the Devil. In the second he meets an older lady who's dreams seem to come through. Alien bones, that freeze people when they touch them, pit Jonathan against the US Air Force in the third episode. He gets a $100,000 reward from them so he did ok. In the fourth a dead ghost writer haunts a house. Jonathan meets his fans and he's disappointed in the fifth episode. In the last episode of the series a dead man moved after he was sealed in a basement. That's him on the stairs and he's not even close to where he was shot in the head. How could anyone move him, when no one had been in the place since it was closed up? Jonathan figures it out.

Julia Sawalha steps into Maddie's shoes as Jonathan's foil Carla Borrego in the 2001 Christmas Special. I much prefer her to Maddie. She's way less annoying. There are two puzzles in this 2 hour episode. An actress is shot on set, through an unbroken sheet of glass. The other puzzle has Jonathan trying to figure out how a body disappeared out a locked stone room. All that's left is some ash. It's quite the solution. Bill Bailey appears as a homeless magician, he's quite funny and completely mad too.

I enjoyed this batch of shows so much I watched them twice. Plus I watched little pieces of  them on YouTube when I was checking out the quality of hte picture. Not bad, the dvds are obviously better, but certainly watchable. Alan Davies has gotten better at the acting bit since he started the series. The Jonathan Creek character is such fun. I even enjoy his name, thinking it's a pretty cool one. I likea lot of quirky detective characters and this is a good one. The mysteries are usually odd and interesting. Another series that I'd recommend highly. You can see the whole third series here on YouTube. Watch them while you can.

Jonathan Creek Series 2

 

I got the second series of Jonathan Creek the other day and watched it over the weekend. I've been enjoying them, maybe even more than the first series. The 2nd series aired from January 24 to February 28 1998. December 24 that same year there was a 90 minute special called Black Canary. The show is still nice and popular with the average episode getting over 9 and a half million viewers.

Alan Davies is Jonathan Creek. He lives in that windmill and designs stage magic illusions for Adam Klaus. Adam is a randy guy that can't keep his pecker in his trousers and starting with this season Stuart Milligan plays him. Caroline Quentin plays Maddie Magellan, a crime writer who loves sticking her nose into other peoples business. She's never shy about breaking into someone's flat, stealing evidence or lying like a sidewalk. She's a short bundle of annoyances which makes me wonder what would be attactive about her to Jonathan. You know, other than a possible shag. Sad that he would be that desperate. The two of them have a few dust ups from hurt feelings and the like.

Danse Macabre has a writer killed by a man in a skeleton costume. Later her head is stolen. That shot of her bloody stump is about as gory as the show ever gets but that's not the main mystery. How did the skeleton guy disappear out of a locked garage. That's the question. Maddie gets involved but Jonathan can't help much as he is working trying to keep Adam out of trouble. Adam picked up a woman from the bar who is now blackmailing him for a role in his show. Peter Davison (Doctor Who) guest stars.

Time Waits For Norman is about a case of mistaken identity. How could a man be seen in a resturant in London when he was seen in New York City at the same time. The wife asks Maddie for help and Jonathan gets pulled into it. He's having a bit of trouble with the tax lady who came to call. They wind up in the sack and Jonathan finds out she's bald. Jonathan isn't as troubled by that as he is of her pushy romantic plans. She invites him to dinner with her parents. A simple observation from Jonathan puts him on the serving trolley which is then ejected out the front door. Jonathan isn't very good at the relationship thing, at least at this stage of his life.

The Scented Room has a costly painting disappear from it's frame. No one was in the room and the door was only closed for 30 seconds. The owner is a critic, and a bit of an asshole, who gave Adam's show a bit of a razz. His wife is a horrible type too. Jonathan won't tell them how it was done. Not even for the 50 thousand pound reward. The wife has connections and she puts a bit of a crimp in getting the permits for a stunt Adam wants to do in a park. No wonder the working man hates the powerful yoiks, huh. Jonathan bows to Adam's presures and shows the critic and wife how it was done and who did it. It's not what they want to hear and Maddie makes sure to rub it in on the way out. Bob Monkhouse plays the rich critic. The only thing I remember about him was he used to have a show in the 1960's that I watched as a kid. I couldn't tell you what it was about, I just remember his name. The most interesting thing about Bob, from his Wikipedia page, is that he was a home video tape enthusiast. He had 36,000 tapes in his collection. It started in 1966 when video recorders were thousands of dollars. The BBC didn't have enough of them.

The Problem at Gallows Gate Part 1 & Part 2 had a man commit suicide after he finds the woman he's in love with in bed with his pal. Later he's seem strangling the woman in her cottage. Adam's sister is the person who saw the killing. She's quite the character. The show has a tendency to exaggerate some of the personalities of the guest star roles. It's good for the comedy.

Mother Redcap has a judge killed by a thin blade in his heart. No one was there but his wife and she says she didn't do it. Jonathan figures it out from a fingernail. Maddie visits a house where they practice nudity.

Black Canary has a woman commit suicide in front of her husband. When the police come they find she had been dead for 4 hours. Rik Mayall plays Detective Inspector Gideon Pryke and he's great. Jonathan nearly scores with a blond lady but Maddie scares her off. She really is a gargoyle. Jonathan pulls it all together when he sees a hobo limp. I know, it's the littlest things that trigger the clue needed in the mystery.

Again they were a nice bunch of interesting and enjoyable stories with entertaining characters in well written scripts with good mysteries. The production values remain high and Adam occasionally gets some stage magic to do. If only he could keep his fly zipped.

Jonathan Creek Series 1

 

I was curious about the Alan Davis tv series Jonathan Creek. Alan is the regular guest panelist on Qi and he's enjoyable there. I've seen a bit of his stand up comedy but I haven't seen him in much where he actually acts. Jonathan Creek sounded like the best bet, which was great because the library had the complete series. I put the first one, from 1997, on my queue and it came the other day. I watched all 5 episodes pretty quickly. I really enjoyed them. It's a bit slow, there's a lot of talking, walking, driving and detecting but usually it's interesting and quirky enough to keep my interest. The show did really well in the ratings, starting at 9.68 million viewers and averaging about that for the rest of the season.  That's the kind of ratings Doctor Who gets at times.

The creator, David Renwick, wanted to make a British Columbo with unusual and impossible murders. He did a good job at that while still making his detective unique and interesting. Each story has a puzzle to work out and Jonathan is the guy with the brains to do the job. Not that it's a job Jonathan wanted. He's got his magic thing going and since he's a bit of a low key kind of guy he doesn't like the spotlight much. He's quite happy to live in his windmill some 35 miles out of London. It's nice inside. Caroline Quentin plays writer Maddie Magellan and she's pretty much the opposite of our hero. In fact, she's a bit of a nightmare. She campaigns on behalf of wrongfully charged criminals but she lies all the time so she can get close to people. She'll break into your house if she thinks there's a story home. She'll steal from you or trick you into doing something without telling you what you're getting into. She's the reason Jonathan gets drawn into the first mystery. The murders are all different and interesting. You can see all the episodes are on YouTube so catch them while they're available.

 

The Wrestler's Tomb is the pilot that introduces us to Jonathan Creek. He's designs illusions for magician Adam Klaus who's played by Anthony Head. Adam has some nice stage pieces we see during the program. He was written out of the rest of the series for budget reasons. An artist is murdered and a woman is found bound and gagged in his bedroom. A petty criminal is accused of the job but he says he didn't do it. Someone did. You can find out on YouTube.

 

Jack In The Box finds a dead comedian in a fallout shelter locked from the inside. He had such crippling arthritis that he couldn't have pulled the trigger of the gun to kill himself. So who did? Maddie had worked to get the man who murdered the comedian's wife out of jail. Based on recent evidence he was wrongfully imprisoned. The comedian's wife has heard about Jonathan and she asks him to look over the fallout shelter. After seeing the toilet he figures it out.

The Reconstituted Corpse is about plastic surgery and murder. Nigel Planer appears as Maddie's blind date. They don't get a second date but he does help her carry up a large cabinet that dumps out a dead body when they get it into her bedroom.

 

No Trace Of Tracey is about a vanishing teen and an aging rock star. I actually figured out how they did part of the mystery but not who did it. There's tree lovin' going on here, so watch out. The hippy farm is builidng an ark. As you can see from the screen grab above it's not the best process shot but it gets the job done in making you think that the hippies are truely off.

 

The House Of Monkeys has a man murdered by a samuarai sword in a locked room. Was it ghosts? Hell no! Jonathan nearly gets killed by a gorilla and that turns out to be the clue to the whole thing.

There's plenty of interesting places to visit and nice big houses. The one the artist lived in was pretty interesting. I found the show well worth watching. There are three more seasons and some specials. It maintained a fairly good rating over the 16 years since it started and a fifth season is coming out next year.