Jonathan Creek s02e03 The Scented Room (1998) – 8/10 black comedy crime mystery TV review

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Cast / crew Jonathan Creek: Alan Davies Maddy Magellan: Caroline Quentin Writer: David Renwick Bob Monkhouse: Sylvester Le Fley Christine Kavanagh: Lady Theresa Cutler Stuart Milligan: Adam Klaus Producer: Verity Lambert Director: Sandy Johnson Executive Producer: David Renwick

Jonathan Creek s02e03 The Scented Room (1998) Hated theatre critic Sylvester Le Fley is not on Jonathan’s list of favourite people but even he can’t resist a good mystery when a very valuable painting of Le Fley’s is stolen in broad daylight from a sealed room in a matter of seconds. 8/10 There’s just enough to pad out the highly entertaining little mystery but the series’ weak point, Caroline Quentin, gets a backstory sideplot to absolutely no positive effect. She even gets a dreadfully supercilious barb to a rich parent ("maybe you can buy him something he really wants: like a life") which really goes contrary to her dreadfully shallow and unconvincing portrayal of her character. You can see her acting constantly. While we instantly believed Alan Davies to be Jonathan Creek we have never and will never believe Caroline Quentin to be an investigative journalist or, indeed, any of her characters. She always appears to be an actress playing a role. Still, the mystery’s great (if a bit tricky to pull off, surely the painting wouldn’t behave and would just roll up and get stuck) and it finishes with a good gag. This Jonathan Creek episode contains mild swear words, mild adult dialogue and innuendo Classified 12 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 12 years and over. Links Jonathan Creek Screened by Slimm Previous episode: Time Waits for Norman Next episode: The Problem at Gallows Gate