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Titular Character

Jonathan Creek

Played By: Alan Davies

"Eureka!" Moment: Frequently gets them off of seemingly unrelated objects or statements. Tends to go completely silent and stare into the distance with a look of realisation on his face.
- He is, in fact, so well-known for them that at one point a conspirator in one of the mysteries he's investigating intentionally plants herself in his lap to avert one.
Good with Numbers: Can tell a supermarket checkout is faulty by doing the arithmetic in his head.
Insufferable Genius: He hasn't had a single assistant who he hasn't royally pissed off at least once.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Lives on his own in a windmill in a small town well outside of London.
Magician Detective: Although not technically a magician himself, he's certainly capable of performing many of the less-involved tricks that he designs, and he's certainly a good detective.
The Man Behind the Man: He's the brains behind Adam Klaus's stage show.
Regular Caller: If there is a mystery, fate will conspire to have Jonathan investigate and solve it. Even if he doesn't want to. Even if he tries to get away. Even if he's retired.
Resigned to the Call: Even after he attempts retirement from stage magic and mystery-solving, he still manages to get roped into solving murders. Eventually he just rolls with it.
Stage Magic: Designs illusions for a living, which is where he gets an appreciation for the lengths people will go to to deceive their audience.

Associates

Adam Klaus

Played By: Anthony Head (first episode) & Stuart Milligan (rest of the series)

Bad Boss: His go-to solution to most of his problems is to dump them onto Jonathan.
Butt-Monkey: Nothing ever seems to go right for him; he's successful for certain, but is repeatedly humiliated, ridiculed and disrespected. Granted, he tends to bring it on himself most of the time.
The Casanova: Of the lecherous variety. He has a different Girl of the Week in every episode and there will inevitably be turmoil and drama.
False Rape Accusation: Adam is subjected to this in "The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish".
Stage Magic: The up-front performer who charms the crowds and performs the tricks. Jonathan is the actual brains behind the operation and anytime Adam modifies or tries to create his own tricks it inevitably goes badly.

Maddie Magellan

Played By: Caroline Quentin

Consummate Liar: She's very good at luring Johnathan into helping out on cases when he really doesn't want to get involved. In one specific instance, Johnathan serves her some food he has made, and she convincingly claims it is terrible. It's actually delicious, and she's just trying to knock him down a peg. (See Insufferable Genius above.)
Drives Like Crazy: Almost spends more cumulative time on camera during driving scenes not looking at the road than she does looking at it, much to Jonathan's chagrin.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be selfish, petty, manipulative and downright rude, but she's an investigative journalist who works to clear the names of the wrongly accused, and continues to do it despite it not earning her much money. Exemplified in The Scented Room where she initially ropes Jonathan into solving a mystery to get her hands on a £50,000 reward, but by the end asks instead that the money be put towards giving the clients' neglected son the love and attention he really needs.
Karma Houdini: Repeatedly commits crimes (trespassing, impersonating a police officer, using a mobile phone while driving, wasting police time, etc) but invariably escapes punishment for them.
Put on a Bus: After the end of the third season, she moves to the States for a while. She stays in contact with Jonathan for a while and even provides information relevant to one of his cases, but isn't seen again in person.

Carla Borrego

Played By: Julia Sawalha

Amicable Exes: "Amicable" may be a stretch, but despite a brief relationship and an awkward break-up, she and Jonathan were able to work together reasonably well on her later show.

Joey Ross

Played By: Sheridan Smith

Always Someone Better: Joey has such a reputation as a paranormal investigator that some even considered her superior to Jonathan, although he often had greater technical knowledge of how certain things could be carried out than she did.
Glory Houbd: Will happily claim the credit after Jonathan solves the case.

Polly Creek

Played By: Sarah Alexander

Dark and Troubled Past: In a sense; some of her storylines saw Polly investigate what she thought were buried memories of her mother's affair or some traumatic loss, but it always turned out to be a tamer explanation, such as her burying carrots to feed her dead pet rabbit.