Anthony Head Credits

Jonathan Creek

Television guest star appearance (UK)

Series summary: Crime drama about Jonathan Creek and Maddy Magellan, a journalist. Jonathan creates illusions for magician Adam Klaus when not investigating bizarre or seemingly inexplicable cases.

Role: Adam Klaus
Episode: 1.01 and 1.02 - The Wrestler's Tomb, Parts 1 and 2
Original air date: May 10, 1997 (both parts were shown together when the show debuted but have usually been shown separately since)
Network: BBC1
Note: Was originally intended to be a co-starring role but he had to drop out after the pilot episode due to commitment to Buffy. The role was played by another actor in later episodes.
Availability: Currently available on DVD

Summary of Anthony Head's storyline:  A famous painter, Hedley Shale, is murdered in his bedroom following an apparent break-in. His lover, Francesca, is found bound and gagged. Shale's wife, Serena, is the prime suspect but she has an alibi for the entire morning of the murder.

Jonathan Creek works for magician Adam Klaus, designing his illusions. After a rehearsal, Jonathan criticizes Adam's insistence on including sexual innuendo in the act. Adam points out that sex sells. During this conversation, Adam's assistant emerges from the dressing room shower. Adam tells Jonathan that he is needed to help out with the act that night by escorting volunteers in the illusions.

A man who is arrested as a suspect contacts investigative journalist Madeline "Maddy" Magellan to help clear his name. He is convinced that he is being framed by Serena Shale and Maddy agrees to investigate. She taps into Francesca's voicemail and hears a message for Francesca to meet someone at the theatre. It turns out that she is attending Adam Klaus's show. Adam spots Francesca in the audience and falls in lust. He picks her to be the volunteer to assist with one of his illusions. Jonathan escorts her from underneath the stage to the back of the theatre. He tells her that he creates all of Adam's illusions. The following morning, Adam sends Jonathan over to Francesca's with a gift. Maddy, having met Francesca the night before, is also there. Francesca tells Jonathan to tell Adam that she will have dinner with him that night. After Jonathan leaves, Maddy and Francesca discuss how Serena could have gotten out of her office in order to commit the murder. Maddy thinks that a magician like Adam Klaus would be able to help them. Francesca points out that it's Jonathan who creates the actual illusions. Maddy runs after Jonathan to try and convince him to help her. Jonathan eventually agrees and they start to investigate ways Serena could have murdered her husband and tied up Francesca. While snooping in the bedroom, Jonathan finds a rubber band on the floor.

Jonathan has dinner with Adam and Francesca, who are all over each other, embarrassing Jonathan. Adam talks Francesca into appearing in his show again, in a performance that will be filmed. Adam wants to see a portrait of Francesca painted by Hedley Shale but she refuses. Adam insists and runs down to the cellar only to find that someone has been shooting at the painting. Jonathan finds a rubber band on the floor. Adam insists that Francesca stay with him until this is resolved.

Meanwhile, Maddy realizes that Hedley was having an affair with his maid, Katrina. She tells Jonathan about this and also mentions seeing Adam at the police station demanding protection for Francesca. During their conversation, Jonathan uses his foot on the TV remote and suddenly things fall into place.

At Adam's show, he is irate that the bodyguard he's hired for Francesca has taken a bathroom break. They hear a scream from her dressing room and rush in. Francesca is upset that she has put on 3 pounds. Adam reassures her and then leaves her with Jonathan. Serena Shale calls and tells Jonathan she wants to buy Francesca's story for Serena's magazine. Serena will be attending the show that night.

Jonathan tells Maddy he thinks he knows who killed Hedley. During the show, it appears for a moment that one of Adam's tricks has gone horribly wrong and he has been killed but it turns out he just added extra blood to raise the drama.

During the backstage party after the show, Serena and Francesca meet. Jonathan and Maddy arrive and Jonathan reveals that it was Francesca who killed Hedley. It turns out that they were never lovers and he rejected her advances because he loved Katrina. She had managed to tie herself up with duct tape and then used her foot to shot the gun. She had been using the painting in her cellar for practice. Jonathan had taken Francesca's scale and it turns out that her toe prints were on the gun. Adam arrives in the dressing room just as Francesca is being arrested and, for the first time, is speechless.

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