User Reviews

Jonathan Creek - The Clue of the Savant's Thumb (DVD) 2013 -

It was a great pleasure that Rik Mayall is back as good old "Gideon Pryke", but it was completely impossible for "Gideon Pryke" to get to the upstairs crime scene.

Jonathan Creek last seen in 2010, finally returns in April 2013, to investigate an terrible crime committed inside a locked room, but when the police arrive the body has vanished.

With the disappearance of the dead body from the sealed room, no crime appears to have been committed, but there is photographic evidence of the terrible crime.

Exciting Jonathan Creek episode with a great cast, moved forward with a steady pace, with no dull moments. First watched on television, and more carefully when recently issued on BBC DVD bought from www.amazon.co.uk.

The quick and clever explanation near the end is not too complicated, but there is much more to come after the locked room mystery is solved, that make this whole new episode a very satisfying experience.

Looking forward to the Jonathan Creek cast with Alan Davies, Rik Mayall, Sheridan Smith, Sarah Alexander all returning again each year, in more brand new Jonathan Creek episodes.

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Three years have past since Jonathon Creek's last case; he is no longer designing magic tricks instead he is working for a London advertising agency. In the opening scenes we see flashbacks to the school days of Rosalind Tartikoff where one of her class mates is found dead one morning with a strange circular mark on her forehead. In the present Rosalind returns home to her husband and adoptive daughter locked in a room; she sees that he is dead through the keyhole and even thinks to take a picture but when the door is forced open there is no sign of the body! Paranormal investigator Joey Ross is soon taking an interest in the supposedly impossible mystery and it isn't long before she gets Jonathon to join the investigation. Inevitably the case is quite contorted, has plenty of twists and even a false finale before the case is finally solved.

This was a welcome return for 'Jonathon Creek'; a series I'd assumed was long over. Thankfully Alan Davies slips back into the role as if he hadn't been away and Sheridan Smith is good as his sidekick Joey. The rest of the quality cast includes the likes of Joanna Lumney, Nigel Planer and Rik Mayall; who played a paraplegic detective who could only move one finger. The story was delightfully far-fetched with more twists than anybody could guess. When we do learn what happened it was enjoyably macabre. Some parts were a bit too far-fetched; in one scene the bad guys cover Jonathon and Joey in petrol and threaten to light it only to have another character say he switched the containers for apple juice… are we meant to believe that nobody there could smell the difference! A minor niggle perhaps but as it happened at the end it stood out somewhat. Overall this was a fun story and I hope we haven't seen the last of Jonathon Creek.

Jonathan Creek always had cringey moments and cheesy jokes, but they were forgivable. The mystery was always interesting and they were enjoyable to watch. This episode is really absurd, and not in a good way.

A daughter takes the severed head of her father and plays a trick on her mother to make her think he's been murdered and then mysteriously vanished. And this is supposed to bring some meaning to the mother's life? It's creepy and stupid. It makes no sense that on seeing your father has died in an accident you would think to take his head and do some convoluted scheme as sick as that! And that you would think it'd make your mother spiritual and a happier person? Maybe if you hated them, but even then it's extreme.

The ending was cringey with the secret agents also. It was just stupid.

The great beauty of the first four series of Jonathan Creek was not only trying to guess how they did it before Jonathan did but observing the relationship between the two main characters, Jonathan and Maddie (and later Carla). While I like Sheridan Smith and her character I feel that the spark is missing here. If the tale of ghostly deeds they were trying to solve had some credibility it might not matter. Sadly it does matter here because the story is a mess.

Rosalind Tartikoff's tale of satanic goings on at the Catholic school were unfathomable. There is also something wrong with the timescale. The text message mentioned the Circles of 1968 but Rosalind referred to it being exactly 50 years ago which would have been 1963. Also it was never explained who sent the photo and the code note to her. But even if you accepted all this confusing nonsense why the hell would Rosalind now live just a few minutes from the school that haunted her so much? As Victor Meldrew would say I Just Don't Believe It.

I still can't fathom why Fariba felt the need to move her father's body (or at least his head) from the barn to the study. Why was it necessary to hide the fact that he was into magic? He was performing a magic trick with Brad not having S&M sex with him! But even if you go along with this ridiculous premise then there are a few questions that even the newly brainwashed Jonathan would be compelled to ask in the circumstances: How did she know that Rosalind would peer through the keyhole? When it came to remove the body why didn't she just chuck the head out of the window with the clothes and shoes? And when she found a few minutes to retrieve these items before the police turned up how come she didn't leave telltale footprints alongside the two prints of the boots? Added to this why didn't Brad remove these items having helped her dispose of the rest of her father's remains?

And the magic act that Jonathan and Joey witnessed through the barn window was a bit pathetic. I know one of the magicians was dressed as a tribute to David Renwick's friend Ali Bongo but I can't believe that Brad would carry on doing shows like this so soon after the chain saw accident. Also wouldn't the tricks be more daring/dangerous than a pumpkin head floating in the air?

And finally the embracing plot of the conspiracy theory-proving film on the DVD. Wouldn't it have been simpler for the agents to remove this from Franklin's study rather than leaving it for Jonathan to find? Also why risk killing Franklin via the accident with the chainsaw when it may not have proved fatal? And I knew as soon as I saw that statue of the angel at the school that it would land on someone's head.

I noticed some continuity errors/goofs: - How did Pryke see the photos on the stairs when he is confined to a wheelchair? - The globe still shows Africa after Rosalind and the doctor break down the door but it shows South America in the photo Jonathan has of the same scene has at the end. Considering this was the way in which he uncovered the truth it was vitally important to get it right. - Why did the doctor take a crowbar into the house when he turned up? He didn't know anyone was locked in a room, all Rosalind said to him was "get over here now"? - Also Joanna Lumley clearly doesn't know if her daughter's character is called Fabria or Fariba as she uses both at different times (I'm sure at one point she called her Fabreeze). - Why would the male secret agent have a comb when he has cropped hair? Jonathan would usually have spotted that straight away. - After Joey is grabbed round the neck in the Quiet Room she doesn't bother to tell Jonathan what has happened when he gets there, she just points at the picture and he somehow guesses what has occurred.

There were a few moments of the old magic such as Joey and Jonathan's meeting and the scene in the theatre foyer but even these were flawed. Eg the misunderstanding regarding Jack/Jacqueline's gender. This would have been perfect for Maddie but coming out of Jonathan's lips sounds wrong as he's not that insensitive. Plus a lot of the comedy in the old shows came from Jonathan's dislike of 'other people' Here he has become one of those people so he has no one to kick against.

All-in-all a mildly entertaining but seriously flawed show. Perhaps David Renwick has been taking the same de-talent pills that Caroline Aherne took when she returned to write new episodes of The Royle Family and managed to ruin all the things that made it so much fun. Let's hope he stops taking them before the next series comes along.

I used to watch Jonathan Creek for the, if slightly unbelievable, complex and convoluted ways in which the murder had been done. This was quite the opposite. I'd say it was like an episode of Scooby Doo but that would be giving it too much credit. 3 story arcs that were in no way relevant to each other and entirely unnecessary to say the least, I was left wide eyed with disbelief at the big reveal at the end to tell us all what had happened.

Pretty much everything do to with the reveal was ludicrous to the point of frustration, and then to top it all off there was a totally unnecessary last 10 minutes which was even worse. The only part I liked was the reveal for the 'supernatural' element, which unfortunately had no relevance to the death or the main part of the story.

I remember looking forward to this eagerly, a new Jonathan Creek mystery has got to be good, right? Well, no actually. This was a complete mess and I was sorely disappointed. Three stories which never really coalesced, two of them going nowhere. I agree with other reviewers about the numerous holes, but most of all Fariba's curious covering up of her father's death - I mean why? It just made no real sense. The highlight was the return of Gideon Pryke.

Like another reviewer, I missed the links to the past, the windmill, the magic shows, Adam Klaus. I think it was a mistake to ditch that and give Jonathan a boring office job, but at least that provided a couple of comic moments when he was reacquainted with Joey.

I was also really sad that this was Sheridan Smith's last appearance as Joey, being replaced by the dull as ditchwater Sarah Alexander's Polly. Now I don't know if that's the fault of the actress or it was the way she was written, but at least Joey provided some energy and life to the show.

I have enjoyed The Creek mysteries thru season 3. Beginning in season 4, production values started to go down even though they weren't all that great to begin with. Still, the show was entertainingly weird. But, after watching The Clue of the Savant's Thumb(Apr 1, 2013), my only thought is the entire company of this episode owes the viewing public a very big apology. Acting, directing, writing (ESPECIALLY writing), continuity, etc. were just horrible. And, while the idea of logic is not universally employed in murder mysteries, there is barely a passing nod to it in this episode. Really? The retaining nut on the chain blade of the chain saw just comes spinning off like a top? And then slices cleanly through a man's neck thus severing his head completely? Oh my. And what of the daughter's explanation of why she created the diversion of moving her father's body from one place to another? Nevertheless, I will continue to watch until and unless I run into another episode that insults my intelligence like this one.

Parka-man is his usual boring born-again self, again assisted by famous celebs, like Purdey from the New Avengers (who manages to make a conscious emotional statement just before she dies in a hospital bed after having been crushed by a large concrete statue) and Neil & (P)Rick from the Young Ones: ''Mmmmmmmm, something isn't right, but what?'' What amazed me, was the fact that his sidekick almost got strangled at the abandoned old school and the two of them weren't even remotely interested in who just tried to kill her. ''Let's get out of here, Jonathan!, this place gives me the creeps!'' . Then we have a Young One, who allegedly is paralysed, but looks remarkably fit in his suit and on his wheelchair. He even disables a super-crook and his non-speaking black female accomplice with his integrated laptop. Don't get me started on a loose bolt on a chainsaw leading to an accidental decapitation of the other Young One (''Rick's head! Yeah, ugh ugh, Neil's head! Cliff's head! NO NO!'' was what I started to sing). The neck/head would probably be partially severed, but would never roll off ''guillotine''-fresh. Anyway out of this head they apparently made a ''Non-Living Doll''. Replace petrol with diluted apple-juice and hey presto!, a totally incoherent ridiculous Creek episode is born.