The Clue of the Savant's Thumb

I really suppose we should have not watched this in the first when it was billed at 90 minutes. Previous episodes at 60 minutes were often quite boring too. But we gave it a try.

The basic premise of all JC stories is a death in a locked room near the beginning and Creek works it all out at the end. In between there is a lot of padding and all the way through far too much very loud music. A terrific cast clearly thought they were hamming it up, I hope Joanna Lumley was very made up, she looked awful.

Ric Mayall and Nigel Planer played it all very much for laughs, the former doing a Peter Sellers from that film about a bomb, or Goldmember. The whole thing drags along and by the end we simply did not care and rued the fact we did not switch off earlier.

This new special is not as terrible as other reviewers would have you believe. I believe it's more disappointing than intrinsically bad. Had this been the first time I ever watched Jonathan Creek, I imagine I might have enjoyed it.

However, with the series strong track record in mind, this Easter special feels laboured and not very fresh. The central mystery - a body vanishing from a locked room - is making its 3rd appearance in the show's history (at least), and on one occasion the solution was practically the same. Seasoned fans (Creekians? Creeksters?) therefore may find themselves puzzling most of it together well before the final reveal. The novice viewer, however, might well be in the dark to the end and get that great satisfaction that fans have come to love.

What bothered me more, though, were the side-plots. The whole business at the school felt bit messy and wasn't a good enough mystery to warrant so much screen time. And the bit tucked on at the end just felt excessive, adding absolutely nothing to the story. But my real beef is with the flimsy and implausible "spiritual" motive that makes an uncalled-for sideways entry at the end, and which is decidedly un- Creekian.

Still, I just haven't the heart to flunk this episode. I'm too fond of the series for that, and part of me will always be happy to see some more of it. I just hope that the new series, which is in the pipeline for 2014, won't push me over the edge into bitterness territory.

Here we are presented with the two lives of Johnathan Creek, the emasculated spouse of Polly. Who has apparently successfully saved him from his former self, and magically managed to rebirth him in a suit.

His previous female tormenter Joey Ross had sought him out, only to virtually step into one of their mystery worlds, to locate him in this parallel dimension.

I love his initial dialogue at their meeting that I just had to note it down verbatim, for me it's proof positive of the frontal lobotomy, his other half has successfully carried out on him.

"The fact that I've finally managed to turn my life around, progress my career. Do something a bit more grown up, responsible and creatively challenging. Only I've got a very important presentation to Wheetabix in five minutes".

Further proof of Polly Creek's mental manipulation of her new man, is presented later when she detected he may be regressing.

"Where's that little knob? You know the one we have to keep turning down, when your brain keeps getting over heated"

Polly Creek is however slipping in her reprogramming of Johnathan, as surprisingly she hasn't cast out, all of his old clobber to the jumble.

Joey Ross has a new ally in D. I. Gideon Pryke who had always rather, fancied himself as something of a Sherlock Holmes.

This episode is spiced up with a plethora of star turns in the shape of Joanna Lumley, Rick Mayall, and Nigel Planer.

The Clue of the Savant's thumb is my least favourite episode of Jonathan Creek. At the time I remember being delighted that it was back, and was glad to see the return of Sheridan Smith.

The first half of the episode is good, the beginning is very good, unfortunately it tails off half way through, and ends poorly.

Jonathan and Joey could have been a fine team, they were wonderful in their first case, but they didn't get the same quality script, and lacked a bit of the chemistry they had previously shared.

Rik Mayall is the shining light, he's wonderful, it still upsets me so much that he went before his time. Nigel Planer is wasted, as is dare I say it Joanna Lumley.

I did miss the links to the past, the windmill, Adam Klaus, Maddy, at least they brought his duffle coat out.

The lowest point, but still a half decent watch, 5/10.

On Creek's last outing in 2009 I wrote a review with the above title (minus 'part 2'). Here we are yet again - only this time there are two mansions. We don't expect realism from the series, of course, but I think it used to make sense, more or less, within its own weird universe. That's been ditched here, and it's merely a farrago of tosh.

However, it has its charms. There are lots of clever touches and some good jokes. (For some reason I laughed for ages at 'more Titian'.) If you are watching a recording, pause it so that you can read the book titles when they appear.

This episode also has excellent guest stars, all of whom play up exactly as they should.

All in all, it's nonsense, but lots of fun and worth watching.