Jonathan Creek

Saturday and Sunday at 9pm

Brimming with weird plots and featuring a shy, shaggy-haired hero in a duffel coat, Jonathan Creek is one of the quirkiest TV hits of recent years.

Starring Alan Davies as Jonathan and Caroline Quentin as Maddy, Jonathan Creek features the adventures of a man who makes a living inventing magic tricks for magicians and a female investigative journalist. Both with enquiring minds, Jonathan and Maddy come across unusual crimes that are tinged with paranormal activity and murderous intent.

Jonathan Creek was the brainchild of David Renwick, the writer behind One Foot in the Grave. Keen to move away from sitcoms, Renwick wanted to create a British version of Columbo: a detective series with a quirky hero. Then, as he started writing it, he hit upon the central conceit: what if the hero investigated impossible crimes? The series was actually created by the BBC comedy department rather than the drama department because Renwick didn’t want to hand the project over to people who specialised in crime serials. "We didn’t want them to turn it into the next Cracker or Prime Suspect", Renwick later explained. "The quirkiness was essential to it, so we let the comedy guys handle it."