Sandy Johnson

In Jonathan Creek (1997), the pleasure of a clever explanation has competition from the prickly original partnership. We enjoyed their company because the friction between them gives us a reason to stay interested beyond finding out how the puzzle works. Johnson’s attention to David Renwick’s scripts suits that combination of mystery and comedy. The programme rewards concentration, though the jokes are uneven and later pairings lose some of the appeal.

Johnson has spoken about how easily changes can disturb Renwick’s precisely written scripts. That makes fidelity a more demanding job than it might sound: the director has to keep the humour and the mystery working in the same programme. We should not hand Johnson the credit for Renwick’s puzzles, but neither should we overlook the care involved in getting such writing on screen. His respect for the script is a virtue here, even when the material does not produce a consistent run of laughs.

His career moves between those two kinds of television, rather than leaving comedy behind for supposedly more serious work. Early credits include The Comic Strip Presents... (1982), followed by crime programmes such as Inspector Morse (1987); Jonathan Creek brings the two together. Later comedy work includes Harry & Paul (2008) and a run on Benidorm between 2008 and 2015, directing 29 episodes across series two to seven. Location shooting and ensemble casts are recurring responsibilities, while writers including Derren Litten feature among his collaborators.

In Cradle to Grave (2015), based on Danny Baker’s memoirs and starring Peter Kay, Johnson’s work with the actors included attention to accents and changes of character. That attention matters in comedy, where an actor needs to sound as though they belong among the people around them. It is a practical contribution worth noticing alongside his care with the writing. Begin with Jonathan Creek, provided a few uneven jokes will not spoil a good puzzle for the evening.