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Jonathan Creek: Fantom of the Acropolis
Ten years after he escaped death at Daemons' Roost, Jonathan Creek has returned to his roots as a creative consultant to the stage magician, Adam Klaus.
Joining them on tour is a Czech illusionist called Jana Kablitsky. But someone – or something – else has come with her to London's Acropolis theatre. One of Jana's jaded former lovers is stalking her, while the haunting figure of a Hell Hag is prowling the West End stage and threatening to bring the production to its knees.
Meanwhile, Jonathan is reunited with his former sparring partner, Maddy Magellan, the one-time investigative journalist who's back from America.
Together, Jonathan and Maddy must expose the identity of the vicious killer and deduce how an assassin can disappear through an open window without being seen by a guard on the other side, or leaving a single foot print in the freshly laid snow.
The Fantom of the Acropolis is a theatrical script from the macabre and masterful mind of David Renwick. Set a decade after the last onscreen Jonathan Creek adventure, it was written for a stage show to complement the television series incorporating some of its funniest moments. Expect monsters, sirens, vampires and mind-boggling howdunnits.
Joining them on tour is a Czech illusionist called Jana Kablitsky. But someone – or something – else has come with her to London's Acropolis theatre. One of Jana's jaded former lovers is stalking her, while the haunting figure of a Hell Hag is prowling the West End stage and threatening to bring the production to its knees.
Meanwhile, Jonathan is reunited with his former sparring partner, Maddy Magellan, the one-time investigative journalist who's back from America.
Together, Jonathan and Maddy must expose the identity of the vicious killer and deduce how an assassin can disappear through an open window without being seen by a guard on the other side, or leaving a single foot print in the freshly laid snow.
The Fantom of the Acropolis is a theatrical script from the macabre and masterful mind of David Renwick. Set a decade after the last onscreen Jonathan Creek adventure, it was written for a stage show to complement the television series incorporating some of its funniest moments. Expect monsters, sirens, vampires and mind-boggling howdunnits.
Paperback
Published April 1, 2026
About the author
David Renwick
17 books5 followersDavid Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek.
On beginning his comedy career, he initially worked in a team with writing partner Andrew Marshall, the pair of them providing material to popular sketch shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News during the late 1970s and early 80s. One of the most celebrated sketches he wrote for the former was a parody of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind, where a "Charlie Smithers" chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last", adapted from his "Answering one question behind all the time" sketch from their The Burkiss Way for BBC Radio 4. Their short-lived LWT series for ITV, End of Part One, was an attempt to transfer Burkiss-style humour to television. Later in the 1980s they also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.
In 1982 they penned the comedy drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons, and four years later they adapted the screenplay (changing most of the characters and situations completely) into a feature film version. In 1983 they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels. This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Gordon Sinclair. The show was a critical success and returned for a further six episodes in 1988 with a revised cast of Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and Caroline Milmoe.
Renwick began writing solo in 1990 when he created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and went on to be a popular hit for the following decade. It also ran for four seasons as an American re-make entitled Cosby, starring Bill Cosby, although this is generally regarded as a poor adaptation of the original.
In 1997, Renwick devised the comedy-drama Jonathan Creek, based around the crime-solving abilities of the eponymous designer of magic tricks, played by comedian Alan Davies. As of 2009, twenty-seven episodes have been produced across four short-run series and four specials. The slow rate of production is partly due to Renwick's writing of the episodes, which he describes as being a painstaking process in which the intricacies of the plots take several months to work out.
He has also written for 'straight' television drama, contributing episodes to ITV's famous adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring David Suchet. Renwick's fondness for rationalist murder mysteries with supernatural overtones, later developed fully in Jonathan Creek is evident in elements he added to the Poirot adaptations. In 1992, Renwick and co-writer Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Poirot episode "The Lost Mine", which aired in the U.S. as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery!.
Most recently, another comedy-drama Renwick has penned, entitled Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and Michael Landes, premiered on BBC One on 27 September 2005. Renwick, and his ex writing partner Marshall, had cameo roles in an episode of the series as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team.
He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the British Comedy Awards 2008.
On beginning his comedy career, he initially worked in a team with writing partner Andrew Marshall, the pair of them providing material to popular sketch shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News during the late 1970s and early 80s. One of the most celebrated sketches he wrote for the former was a parody of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind, where a "Charlie Smithers" chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last", adapted from his "Answering one question behind all the time" sketch from their The Burkiss Way for BBC Radio 4. Their short-lived LWT series for ITV, End of Part One, was an attempt to transfer Burkiss-style humour to television. Later in the 1980s they also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.
In 1982 they penned the comedy drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons, and four years later they adapted the screenplay (changing most of the characters and situations completely) into a feature film version. In 1983 they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels. This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Gordon Sinclair. The show was a critical success and returned for a further six episodes in 1988 with a revised cast of Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and Caroline Milmoe.
Renwick began writing solo in 1990 when he created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and went on to be a popular hit for the following decade. It also ran for four seasons as an American re-make entitled Cosby, starring Bill Cosby, although this is generally regarded as a poor adaptation of the original.
In 1997, Renwick devised the comedy-drama Jonathan Creek, based around the crime-solving abilities of the eponymous designer of magic tricks, played by comedian Alan Davies. As of 2009, twenty-seven episodes have been produced across four short-run series and four specials. The slow rate of production is partly due to Renwick's writing of the episodes, which he describes as being a painstaking process in which the intricacies of the plots take several months to work out.
He has also written for 'straight' television drama, contributing episodes to ITV's famous adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring David Suchet. Renwick's fondness for rationalist murder mysteries with supernatural overtones, later developed fully in Jonathan Creek is evident in elements he added to the Poirot adaptations. In 1992, Renwick and co-writer Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Poirot episode "The Lost Mine", which aired in the U.S. as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery!.
Most recently, another comedy-drama Renwick has penned, entitled Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and Michael Landes, premiered on BBC One on 27 September 2005. Renwick, and his ex writing partner Marshall, had cameo roles in an episode of the series as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team.
He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the British Comedy Awards 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 8, 2026
Renners delivers a classic Creek episode that would sit comfortably in S2. Retconning his move to the suburbs, marriage, and career as a high-flying executive, we instead get the tropes of creepy-Klaus as Creek returns to his magician roots. It's a comfortable plot which seems to borrow from other episodes, but it's also nostalgic with the reintroduction of Maddy Magellan. I can only hope there is an RKG podcast episode for this!
June 21, 2026
If you loved Jonathan Creek then this script will be a fun read. Set about 20 years after Maddy moved to America she is back in London and J.C is working with Adam Klaus on a new show with a guest illusionist from Czechia. Of course the show cannot go smoothly, a scorned ex is after Jana. Lots of parts of episodes of the show are used making this like a best of with a new mystery. It was written as a stage show and really would be great to see!
June 21, 2026
Good for a fan of Jonathan Creek, and enjoyable. Some scenes, however, are completely recreated from the show almost word for word and some characters have appeared in the show but are reworked for this version. Always happy to have more Creek.
June 26, 2026
A little bittersweet as I’d hyped this up in my mind. Imagine your favorite band is putting out a new album but it’s really a greatest hits album albeit with a few new tracks. Still, though it ignored the show’s continuity, Fantom was a nice revisit with these characters in this world.
July 9, 2026
A script for an unperformed play featuring Jonathan Creek. A nice mystery, and a tone that (as far as I remember) fit well with the series. It is not really fair to hold what it is against it, but I think that I would have enjoyed it more as either as a performance I could watch or rewritten into a novel.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews