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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 2 |
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On Television |
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BLACK CANARY |
 ALAN DAVIES as JONATHAN CREEK |
That magical sleuth
returns with a new case
By DONNA J. PLESH
of TheColumnists.com
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Vanishing footprints, a suspicious-looking manservant,
a psychic surgeon, and a buzzsaw all play parts in a deliciously
intriguing new "Jonathan Creek" movie special,
"Black Canary," on BBC-America Jan. 4 at 9 p.m. For first time viewers of "Jonathan Creek," a little background: Creek (Alan Davies) is a magician's assistant who dabbles in solving the seemingly unsolvable cases as a sideline with his cohort in crime, tenacious journalist Maddy Magellan (Caroline Quentin). Maddy also has a romantic yen for Jonathan--and there's always that "will they or won't they" get together bubbling on the back burner.) A staple for several years on BBC-America, Creek solves mysteries by focusing on the clues. He is, like Hercule Poirot, a thinking man (or woman's) crime-solver. In "Black Canary," Creek is asked by a former would-be flame (Kate Isitt of the British version of "Coupling") to look into her mother's death, which appears to be a suicide. The dead woman, Marella Carney, known as the Black Canary, and her identical twin sister, Beryl, were successful magicians. Then tragedy struck. Beryl was accidentally killed by a buzzsaw as she and Marella were rehearsing an illusion. After the accident, Marella gave up the business and retired to a country estate with her husband, Jerry, and daughter, Charlotte. Life at the estate is good, though. As the years pass, Jerry has mounting health problems and is confined to a wheelchair. He is cared for by a manservant--formerly involved in the twins' magic act. It is Jerry who, looking out a window one winter day, sees Marella kill herself after a shouting match with a mysterious stranger. But was there really a stranger? No footprints are found in the snow--though Jerry swears what he saw the man run toward the woods. Was Jerry seeing things? And, Jerry and Charlotte wonder why in the world the seemingly happy Marella would take her own life. CoulÂd it have something to do with the unexpected return of her long-lost niece, Beryl's daughter? And what about the niece's companion, an exotic-looking psychic surgeon who claims to cure people of illness--for a price. Lots of potential suspects--but which suspect is real and which are red-herrings? Creek and Maddy's search turns up a few clues--like that drop of blood in the elevator at the house- but they lead nowhere. Then things get interesting when a Detective Inspector Gideon Pryke (Rik Mayall) shows up to conduct his own investigation of the case. Initially, Maddy and Creek don't think much of Pryke, an almost larger-than-life character attired in flashy suits, and his investigative methods. But they soon find out they have underestimated him as he easily matches wits with them--and, sometimes, one-ups them--when it comes to clues and theories about the case. This is a good mystery for armchair detectives to try to solve. A couple of pieces of the puzzle are easy to figure out early on, but only Jonathan Creek can come up with the stunner that solves the case. ©2003 by Donna J. Plesh. The photo is courtesy of the BBC. |
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