‘He was a magic nerd’: the story of the best British crime series ever

Irreverent but incisive, Jonathan Creek’s late-Nineties heyday was brief but influential

Last week, an atrocity was visited upon UK journalism. The Guardian, which is usually above such things, put out a 100-item listicle that couldn’t have been better designed as bait to enrage every person in the United Kingdom. Headlined “The rise of Britishcore: 100 experiences that define and unite modern Britons”, it claimed to summarise the modern-da…