The Grinning Man (Jonathan Creek)

"The Grinning Man"
Jonathan Creek episode
The titular Grinning Man painting
Episode no.	Episode 26
Directed by	David Renwick
Written by	David Renwick
Produced by	Nerys Evans
Original air date	1 January 2009 (2009-01-01)
Guest appearances
Naomi Bentley Ciarán McMenamin Jenna Harrison Nicholas Boulton Judy Parfitt Jemma Walker Katherine Parkinson
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

"The Grinning Man" is a feature-length and the twenty-sixth episode of the BBC crime drama series Jonathan Creek, first broadcast on 1 January 2009. The episode marked the series' return to television following a five-year hiatus and saw the return of Alan Davies as the show's titular sleuth. Stuart Milligan returned to the series as Jonathan's boss, magician Adam Klaus, while the episode also introduced Sheridan Smith as Joey Ross, Jonathan's crime-solving assistant. The episode was written and directed by series creator David Renwick, who chose to revive the show as a means of delaying his retirement.

The central mysteries of the episode focused on an attic room whose occupants disappeared without trace overnight and the kidnapped partner of a stage magician.

The episode was watched by 9.91 million viewers^[1] and attained a 36% audience share. Critical reaction to the episode from The Scotsman's Paul Whitelaw and The Northern Echo's Steve Pratt suggested that, at 120 minutes, the plot was overstretched. The Stage's Mark Wright compared Smith favourably to her predecessor in the assistant role, Julia Sawalha as Carla Borrego, while both Scotland on Sunday's Chitra Ramaswamy and Sian Brewis for the Leicester Mercury discussed the nostalgia invoked by the episode, as a result of the series having been off-air since 2004.