Alan Davies up for new Jonathan Creek episodes

Alan Davies as Jonathan Creek
(Image credit: Photo by Larry Ellis Collection/Getty Images)

Jonathan Creek star Alan Davies has revealed he'd be keen to make further episodes if the creator, David Renwick, wrote a new script.

The 57-year-old actor and comedian made his name playing the crime-solving illusionist in the hit series, which ran from 1997 to 2016.

Alan at first starred alongside Caroline Quentin, who played investigative journalist Maddy Magellan. Speaking to The Guardian, Alan revealed he'd be happy to make more episodes.

"The first series won a Bafta for best TV drama. I didn’t know how awards shows worked, so I went back to my seat while everyone else was swept off backstage for a photocall. People still ask if we’re going to make more. If David wrote another script, I’d do it like a shot. The show changed my life. And it's the only Bafta I’ve ever won."

Nicholas Lyndhurst smiling at awards ceremony

Nicholas Lyndhurst was the original choice for Jonathan Creek (Image credit: Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Meanwhile, David Renwick, who also created One Foot in the Grave, has revealed how he originally imagined Only Fools and Horses legend Nicholas Lyndhurst alongside Caroline.

"I had earmarked Nicholas Lyndhurst and Caroline Quentin as the leads. Caroline had made a big impression in Men Behaving Badly and was born to play the strong but flawed Maddy Magellan. She jumped at it, but Nick was busy with Goodnight Sweetheart and so sadly passed. 

"Rik Mayall and Hugh Laurie were interested for a while. We shot screen tests with Hugh Bonneville, Angus Deayton, Nigel Planer and Alex Jennings too — all great actors but not quite right. Then one day Susie [Belbin, the show's producer] saw Alan Davies rehearsing a sitcom in a church hall. He read with Caroline and it suddenly clicked."

Speaking to us back in 2014, Alan told us that the show had been on so long some of the audience had grown up with it. "The worst thing is when adults tell me they used to watch it when they were children!," he said.

So, hopefully, we haven’t seen the last of Jonathan Creek. The last time we saw the character was in a 2016 Christmas special and hopefully another special will happen one day.

David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.


Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 


David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.


Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!