Friends of mine swear by this old-fashioned spooky Edgar Allen Poe meets Agatha Christie-type suspense show which I finally got to watch for the first time, albeit accidentally, in a festive season re-run by the BBC. Stumbling over it, I was hooked by the intriguing opening scene of the now-you-see-it-now-now-you-don't disappearing house before the real mystery over the death of crime-writer Paul McGann's wife by his new, fetching young housemaid, takes over.
Not being a regular viewer, all the stuff about Alan Davies' title character's magician boss passed me by, but to be fair this just bookended the main story of murder and illusion, which fantastical as it was, still held my attention throughout. Creek's deductions and explanations beggar belief, but in this era of docu-drama police procedurals, I was pleasantly entertained by this throwback to an almost 1960's type 'tec show. In fact it reminded me of nothing so much as an adult, live-action "Scooby Doo" without the dog!
I like Alan Davies anyway and he's good in this as the slightly muddling but more often methodical mystical sleuth. On the strength of this, I'd certainly wouldn't say no to any future gift of the previous series boxed set, if any of my relatives ever read this.