Jonathan Creek

....and the servants would sit below the salt!

In medieval times the offal ( or umbles) of the deer slaughtered in a hunt would be given to the servants who would eat them in an umble pie. Obviously all the good stuff went to the Lord of the Manor and his friends.

Never knew I mean

Areas called The Shambles in a couple of towns I know, I ever knew that's what happened there

Umbles were innards. A shambles was an area where animals were slaughtered and butchered - where blood guts and dung collected.

which is exactly right for describing the latest offering from Jonathan Creek!

Not sure about that petallus but I know the old name for the entrails and other nasty bits was called shambles.

You learn something new every day on here!

Yes, I think you are right petallus that is ringing a bell.

Actually, does anybody know this, a friend told me it is actually 'umble pie', umble being a kind of offal?

Yes I was wrong Phoenix. I misread something.

Well, I was thinking it was an awful prog anyway, boring, and I imagined Alan, his missus and media friends wondering, over dinner, if they could squeeze another series out of it and someone saying to Alan's wife 'hey why don't you play the wife?'

A terribly overactive imagination I know, all based on a mistake as well.

I eat humble pie

mishap a kind of 'safe ' man then?

He made his name in the abbey national adverts. Have never found him either funny or appealing in any way.

It wasn't the most fascinating of episodes, but it passed a pleasant hour - and with the present state of television programming that is a big success!

A review I saw described Alan Davies as "a man without a penis." - how does he know I wonder?

petallus I think you may have got confuddled with the last Sherlock Holmes doo dah, where Watsons wife in the series was also his wife in real life?

I don't see that as any reason not to watch a programme though? I don't think producers and directors would give a part to someone just because they were connected with someone else in the programme.

Is it supposed to be 'riveting' Anno I thought it was supposed to be light relief. Certainly no more boring than Sherlock Holmes, though I enjoyed the ridiculous take of him!

I think I fell asleep watching it. So it can't have been so very riveting.

Thanks feetlebaum.

Sorry Jonathan Creek and Alan Davies.

I suppose you are an avid watcher then feetle!

petallus - Sarah Alexander plays Creek's wife... I find her extremely attractive - always have! Alan Davies is married to Katie Maskell.

No nepotism there...

I always enjoyed the original series but this was awful. Why did they show how it was done at the beginning? Part of the enjoyment is trying to work out the solution before the unveiling at the end.

I think I read somewhere that Creek's wife is also Alan Davies' wife.

Such nepotism! So I decided not to watch it.

I felt a bit "so what?" after it, but we are currently enjoying some of the repeat episodes on Drama.

I must say I too liked the interaction between Alan and Caroline in the original.

I loved it. A big improvement on previous, rather tedious, Jonathan Creek series.

Deedaa I agree I also saw a critic saying how good the programme was and I thought that it was bordering on dire. I continued to watch it as I thought that it must improve but no. I did not realise that there are to be only 3 episodes- perhaps 3 too many if that was a sample.