Jonathan Creek (spoiler alert)

[DoJo]

AIBU or was tonight's episode the most convoluted piece of crap ever? I was reallfy excited about its return to our screens, and was all ready for a good old intrigue only to be presented with a pile of utter nonsense with what appeared to be a series of plot holes loosely strung together with really unlikely (even for TV) coincidences. Will never get that 90 minutes back...

[WillowJoinInOurCrufae]

I was so excited when he got his old coat out of his wardrobe (embarrassingly excited). But I agree, it generally didn't live up to how it used to be.

It did lose something when Caroline Quentin left.

[DeskPlanner]

There making 3 more episodes in the Autumn for broadcast next year. SS said on Twitter that she's doing a play at the same time, but if there filming in London she would love to still be in them. Hope so. Love SS and JC. Though the last 20 minutes of last night was crap.

[Wellthen]

Other new ones? Excited despite how bad it was.

[Bobyan]

The only thing worse than the plot was the hairstyles! What on earth?!?

[poozlepants]

It was embarrassingly bad. Even if it was an April Fools joke episode it would've been bad as that as well. Who the hell is writing for the BBC? It was a good premise - the head in the globe thing - but just so badly done and ill thought out that it didn't make any sense.

[DoJo]

I think that's what annoyed me most - the whole premise of the 'mystery' was based on the fact that the daughter was trying to protect her mother from seeing her husband decapitated, but in doing so she created a much more horrifying scenario whereby her mother believed that her husband's body went missing and eventually learned that her daughter had been running around with his head in a bag for no particular reason. The whole think about the police conspiracy to suppress the DVD was just farcical and appeared to have been jammed in at the last minute to explain all the red herring clues about the missing body.
Had it actually been funny as a spoof, I wouldn't have minded - I love a lighthearted comedy detective drama as much as (or possibly more than) the next person, but this was just dross and lacked all the cleverness and wit of the original episodes. I really hope that the other new ones are better as I will no doubt feel obliged to watch them just to see if they are.

[Wellthen]

Whats particularly ridiculous is that whenever Maddy or Clara suggest stupid posibilities Johnanthon would always say 'Why? What's their motive?' so it isnt so far fetched that some of the writers have similar minds! Surely someone must have said 'why would they fake a mystery death, much more likely to be investigated and found out?'

I also just dont think any normal person who has just seen their decapitated father could possibly handle that head. Suely the pair of them would be completely hysterical!

The corrupt police officers were completely unnecessary although I agree with the poster who said it seemed like a spoof...why was an almost bald man combing his hair? That actor was very funny, he didnt have nearly a big enough part.

Nigel Planner and Joanna Lumley's wigs were just awful. The photoshopping of Nigel onto pictures of famous people was equally awful. Don't the BBC have more high-tec stuff than your average PC owner?

But I have say the actual getting the body out wasnt that far fetched, it was as least possible as was the thing with the bee and the quiet room. I seem to remember the last easter special episode was more classic JC but the death was completely unbelievable. I liked it more than the last one.

[fluffiphlox]

Dire. Beyond Midsomer Murders-type dire.

[archibaldmonkeyface]

Am glad it wasn't just me then! DH and I sat down to watch and he fell asleep within the first few mins (as normal, but the right move in this instance!)

JC plots are always far fetched but very clever normally but this just made absolutely no sense at all!

[thebody]

Thank god for this thread or I thought I had mapped and missed something.

Dh said it was a total pile of shit, as if some was missing.

No sense at all.

[Pandemoniaa]

I use to love Jonathan Creek. However, last night's programme looked as if it had been written by the more hopeless entrants in an amateur scriptwriting competition.

Was there no editor on board? Did nobody clutter their heads with the basic rules of plot development? Only there were far too many elements that went nowhere but were not worthy of being classed as "red herrings" either. One of the feeblest of these being the introduction of the African god. Of the many improbabilities, I can only assume that the decision to include the acid-doping nuns was made by someone who'd also had more hallucinatory drugs than was helpful.

I got the distinct impression that at about 86 minutes into the production someone realised that the whole sorry shebang needed to be concluded and in the absence of a decent ending, it was decided to hang it all on the entirely unbelievable introduction of a threat to national security.

I don't expect harmless entertainment like Jonathan Creek to be overly credible, let alone realistic but it didn't ought to leave you thinking that you'd just been the victim of a 90-minute long piss-take either.

[SirBoobAlot]

Yeah the ending made no sense. Shame.

[steppemum]

or even

[DontmindifIdo]

I was disappointed too - to me it seemed like the writers worked out the trick/puzzle (which was clever) and then tried to find a story to fit it, without putting anywhere near as much effort in the "why did they do that" to the effort in plotting the "what did they do" IYSWIM.

Not a classic JC at all. Although I liked that he was now married to someone who basically bossed him about. And Rik Mayall was fabulous in it.

[Sugarice]

BBC drama has been rubbish lately.

Thank God Scott and Bailey are back on ITV this Wednesday!

[OhMerGerd]

It was a spoof/ p'take wasn't it? I didn't read up on it before but when I saw it had Lumley, Planer and Mayall in it I said to DH was it a comedy version? I wonder if someone wrote it as a comic relief skit and it was just too long to play on the night so they dished it up as an episode? I mean come on...It was all hammed up right from the start with Lumley looking up at the Stone Angel - mock creepiness evoking that ep of Dr Who. Then the french farce comedy kissing as hubby walked past door as Dr Affair-guy was giving her the prescription. That whole ridiculous death scene......I said to DH when Lumley looked through the keyhole... It looks like the test card girl is stitching the head back on her raggedy clown! ...turns out not far from the truth ...but when comedy Ironside/ Mayall called the black lady cop- pc Blackykins or Blackbitty or something so spoofy with that very quick sideways twitch of the face that he does when he says a gag in what is ostensibly a straight moment ... I laughed out loud ... It was obvious from then on it was a joke episode. Clue after clue that it was a spoof.

When are they going to make the big reveal? Will we be asked to donate to comic relief or was it a bonus thankyou sketch for the millions raised?

I hope I'm right because otherwise we're in more trouble as a nation than we can imagine ... Seriously think about it ... with Ant and Dec at number 1 in the music charts and out performing everything else in the TV ratings with every show they do (apart from the Cowell one but he really is the kiss of death these days) - our cultural development is in a terminal regression and our civilisation is finished!

[Sugarice]

My favourite JC's were the episodes where the girl was tied up when her older lover was shot [she was the shooter] and the one where the bloke pretended to kill himself by throwing himself off the balcony and the blind soul singer who wasn't really blind! the housemate mate did it!

[steppemum]

well, I liked it - always a sucker for Jonathan Creek, and the plots are always ridiculous, so I don't mind [blush}

[Chrysanthemum5]

It was completely rubbish. I love Jonathan Creek, but last night's episode didn't even make sense. How did the baddie police know about the secret room behind the picture? And why did the daughter fake the whole thing with the body rather than just calling the police when her father's death was obviously an accident?

Really poor quality compared to the old episodes.

[K8Middleton]

Yes it was rather dire. Lumley's bad wig was a particular low point.

[CocacolaMum]

DH and I were really looking forward to it but it was just terrible! (don't get me started on labyrinth..)

[wheresthecat]

I was so disappointed too. The plot was awful, didn't seem to pull together at all. What a shame, was so looking forward to it.

[FourEyesGood]

I thought Rik Mayall's performance was dire! The whole thing was massively disappointing, but he was a low point.