Endeavour

Endeavour ****

I had never watched Endeavour, the Morse prequel, until last December, when I was on holiday and decided to try an episode. I was hooked. I've now - thanks to the benevolence of ITV - managed to watch the entirety of the series so far, although this has taken some persistence, and a willingness to watch them in completely the wrong order. 
As in, simultaneously watch parts of series 2 and 4, or find I didn't catch the end of a series in time and have to wait months to finish it. For this reason, I can't account in what follows for the larger plot developments. That means there won't be any spoilers here!

I should explain that having watched all of Morse again, (also in the wrong order, but never mind) I was essentially in mourning for the loss of John Thaw and, indeed, Colin Dexter. There was something strangely nostalgic and comforting about the Morse series, which is completely at odds with the mysogyny, lack of political correctness, and the fact that the 1980s and early 1990s wasn't actually a good time for anyone really!
(I insert a brief note here to add that I recently heard a top notch radio adaptation of The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, and thought that John Shrapnel made a very nice Morse. Also, the attitude towards disabilities displayed in this is extremely old-fashioned, and therefore rather awkward. But I digress....)
I have watched Lewis, for many years, and I'm afraid to say that for me, Endeavour is much better. I think there are several reasons. In my view, the fact Endeavour is set in the 1960s means that it more closely follows the social commentary of Colin Dexter's Morse. The series is beautifully shot, very possibly influenced by Mad Men or Life on Mars.
Attitudes towards women, issues of race, homosexuality, all the themes of the day are carefully contextualised and commented on but in a way which doesn't leave the viewer feeling preached at. The sense of Morse's moral battle with the establishment at its worst and with evil in all its forms is a perfect echo of the original series. At the same time some storylines seem remarkably relevant to our own era. I think Lewis was a little guilty of creating a picture postcard Oxford, where Endeavour has more of a focus on the reality of Oxford, and its underworld, and its all the better for that. There's a bit less 'town and gown' and more 'town'.
I think Kevin Whately in Lewis is superb, but have reservations about Lawrence Fox, his side kick. He's just a little too dry. Whereas the combination of Inspector Thursday, played by the wonderful Roger Allam and Endeavour, played by Shaun Evans works much better. There's also much better use of long running characters, such as Anton Lesser (another brilliant actor), Dakota Blue Richards, Abigail Thaw and Sean Rigby (as Jim Strange).
One of the shortcomings of the series is that of course, there's no room for Endeavour to have a genuinely happy romantic relationship, unlike Lewis, whose able to walk into the sunset having found a second love after his wife dies. We know what happens to Morse. However, that doesn't mean that his love affairs don't add some value to the series. But unlike Morse, many of Endeavour's love interests have a bit more depth to their characters.
A great aspect of the series is the care and attention paid towards keeping the character true to form, and the links with Morse are clever, rather than overly obvious. Freemasonry links series 2 and 'Masonic Mysteries' in Series 4 of Morse, for example. In fact it took me a while to work out why young Strange says 'Matey' so much, until I made the connection with Strange in Morse. Much less time to recognise the young Max.

Picture credit 

There have been a couple of rather barmy episodes, which riffed off Spooks, James Bond or John Le Carre, but seemed in keeping with the times. One episode in particular seems a little bit over the top, involving a tiger in a maze, but on the whole the episodes tend to make sense, and don't leave you too confused or disappointed by sudden denouements.
For me the twist in these particular murders is that the star of the show is so much the setting (much like Life on Mars in that respect), except on the whole, lacking the schmaltz or overt nostalgia of many shows set in that period.
All in all I really enjoy watching this series, and look forward to another. Even though I know it can't last forever...

Classic Morse

I have a confession to make... I don't have Netflix. In fact, I don't have any pay to view or subscription television watching options, and don't have a television license. I refuse to download or stream illegally, so I am left completely to the mercy of the old-fashioned channels' scheduling gods. No binge watching for me! Actually I don't watch television that often, or as often as I'd like, but there is something for me about watching a feature-length murder mystery which is very enjoyable and relaxing. Even though, as is often the case with Morse, the body count is through the roof (or on the roof, in the case of The Service of All the Dead) and the murders often grisly (more below).

I mention this because I've recently been watching some of the first two series of Morse. ITV have kindly decided to put them on (various time slots) and not (as far as I can tell) in any particular order, although this isn't a massive problem with Morse as the episodes are encapsulated and I've already watched them, though mostly not for years.

One long hot summer in, I think, the early 2000s, ITV put all of Morse on, one per week, at some reasonable time, and we all watched them as a family (this is the sort of thing my family do!). There was one episode, The Dead of Jericho, which annoyed me for years afterwards, because the VCR (for those of you born in the 1990s, this was how we preserved programmes, by taping them!) had chopped off the end, and I never saw the rest, until the other week, when I finally saw the ending.

Kevin Whately and John Thaw, looking dapper and young.

I read some Morse novels in my teens as well, but not all of them - maybe 4 or 5 which were available from our local library. (This was after I ran out of Brother Cadfael to read.) I was interested to know that Morse and Lewis are slightly different in the early novels than in the television series. It's fairly well known that after John Thaw was cast, and Colin Dexter saw his performance, he adapted his character to suit Thaw's interpretation. Most of the essential character traits are the same though. For example, Colin Dexter's detective has necrophobia, which means that when he sees a dead body he feels physically sick. True to form, Morse will always turn away, looking sickened, from the body, while Lewis appears more indifferent.
To add confusion, they weren't filmed in the same order. I was also surprised to discover that the first episode of Morse was adapted for the screen by Anthony Minghella, who was later made famous for The English Patient.

When I was younger I'd find that watching an episode of a detective series or reading a book would mean the plot and 'whodunnit' was forever inscribed in my mind, so I'd pay little interest to re-watching. As I've got older (I'm only 32!) I've found that I don't always remember - certainly not episodes from years ago - so over the years I've happily re-watched episodes of Morse here and there on a Sunday afternoon/evening.

I don't know if its because I watched and read Morse when I was quite young but there's something very reassuring about watching it. If I'm quite honest, I prefer some of the episodes of Morse even to Agatha Christie's Poirot (another favourite of mine), I think because there's a peculiar vestige of realism in them, even if they aren't genuinely realistic. Of course, they can be quite formulaic, but I think a lot of whodunnits are. In the first series and beyond, for example, Morse keeps on falling for, or being interested in, rather fragile, moping, vulnerable or occasionally criminal women, who let him down in various ways - sometimes by being implicated in the crime. In one of the episodes I watched, for example, he repeatedly offers the woman a cup of tea, which for some reason she refuses to drink throughout the episode. She keeps clinging to his arm. No wonder when they decided to write Lewis, they strengthened the female characters considerably, including the wonderful Rebecca Front and Claire Holman, whose character, Dr Laura Hobson, replaces Max as the pathologist. I think Morse gets referred to as a dinosaur, and perhaps rightly so.

Kevin Whately,  Claire Holman, Lawrence Fox, and Rebecca Front

On the other hand, this hankering for women he can't have, along with his unhealthy liking for beer, is part of his own vulnerability, and it is very important for detectives to have vulnerability. Speaking of beer, his pathologist friend tells him, even in series 1, that he drinks too much, and as we know, Morse eventually dies of a heart attack. Let that be a lesson to us all! Although he pays less for beer than we do - £1.98 for two pints in Series 1. Those were the days. There's no such thing as craft beer, either! Morse loved Real Ale. Morse and Lewis sit down for a pint at least once in every episode, I'm sure, and Lewis and Hathaway continue the tradition in Lewis.

We all love Morse's genius ability to solve crimes, crosswords, and the other human puzzles he encounters, and his ascerbic wit. He's actually rather mean to Lewis though, and others. He is brusque in a way that would not be allowed these days. But his witty one liners and put downs, often revealing a deep pedantry, lighten an otherwise serious series. Some examples:

"Light beer is an invention of the Prince of Darkness." 

"Hanged, Lewis. Meat is hung, people are hanged."

"Death was instant?! Coffee is instant! Death is instantaneous."

"Beer is food."

"Man was born free, but everywhere he's in the property chain."

"Is that a dagger I see before me? I'd rather see a pint."

"Never interrupt me when I'm buying opera tickets Lewis. I might get Madam Butterfly instead of Berlioz. Or get Handel, for God's sake."

The body count in Morse is usually pretty big. I've never worked out the maths, but essentially there's 2/3 bodies per episode, often with a sad kind of inevitability. Sometimes, the endings can be extremely gloomy, but the relationships of the central characters and the beautiful scenery somehow reassure. Most of the truly brilliant episodes revolve around tragedy in the Classical sense. Greek tragedy is sometimes referred to in the series (and in Lewis) and viewers may enjoy picking up on these references if they know their classics. Morse, as we know, read Classics at Oxford himself (and got a Double First).

Morse and Lewis have absolutely stellar casts, with every episode starring either a British television or even someone who would go on to have a Hollywood career, Sean Bean, Simon Callow, Michael Kitchen, Roger Lloyd Pack, Jason Isaacs, Derek Fowlds, Martin Clunes, Christopher Eccleston, Mark Strong, Alun Armstrong, Jim Broadbent, Richard Griffiths, Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson and many many more. Many of the actors would also star as detectives or characters in other series. Of course, without the lead actors this would all be meaningless. Their performances hugely helped the success of the series, beyond doubt.

Of course, Oxford is also the star of the show, and even more so of Lewis. Between scenes in Lewis are regular, postcard perfect shots of the Dreaming Spires. Most, if not all, of the murders occur in Oxford colleges or the homes of professors (if not at the opera...). Morse, the degree-educated and (relatively) 'posh' policeman is also called upon to investigate crimes in the homes of the rich and famous.

The sort of house that people live in in Morse.

I highly recommend re-watching the early series if you get the chance, possibly with a nice cup of tea and a scone (or a pint of ale). Although aspects of these early series now appear dated, this just adds a pleasing retro feel. Some how Morse's high culture rubs off on you, and you feel a little bit more cultured for watching!

Dickensian

I've already written a tiny bit about this BBC series, but having watched the whole series wanted to add some more.

I hardly ever have time for television these days, which is bad news for this blog, but after Christmas, when the weather was cold and the nights still dark, seemed the perfect time to watch three BBC series, War and Peace, Dickensian and also (more recently) The Night Manager. Even at a push I can't call two of those murders with a twist, but Dickensian yes.

I love Dickens for reasons I can't fully articulate. I suppose it is partly because I read him at quite a young age (early teens I think), when reading really gripped me and influenced my thoughts. More recently, after a long break (in order to do my degree and PhD) I returned to him and now read his books as an adult. I am trying to read the ones I haven't already. How rich they are! They lend themselves to slow reading, which is ideal for me as I don't read quickly (or consistently) these days. His language is exquisite and his ability to set the scenes almost bring tears to my eyes. It is Dickens' London that keeps me beguiled. I am always trying to find it, and excited when I do. I'm currently very slowly making my way through Our Mutual Friend, which is truly a novel to savour. Embarrassingly, I read Bleak House many years ago and yet had semi-forgotten the plot to the extent that one of the plot twists in Dickensian completely took me by surprise. I am now thinking that I should re-read it.

Dickens' dream

When I first heard about this programme I assumed it would be a feature length or maybe a three-parter at most, and was therefore bemused to discover it was a twenty-part series in half hour episodes - apart from the last. I had a bad feeling about it, probably that it would be horribly cliched and somehow such a pastiche that it would be comical in a bad way (I am not underestimating the humour in Dickens). After all, many of his plot lines are very serious and often dark too. The theme music is a huge cliche, borrowed from Hans Zimmer's Sherlock Holmes and Ripper Street for that 'Victorian' sound.

However, I began to enjoy it as a murder mystery almost straight away. Stephen Rea as "the Detective" Mr Bucket was a sheer joy to watch in the role.  He has a side kick in the person of Omid Djalili, whose understanding of science helps him with forensics.

As the series continued, I increasingly warmed to the characters, and although at first the references to Dickens' novels seemed like in-jokes for the better-read viewers, by the end of the series I realised that a person who really loved Dickens would really love this, because the writers and production team had somehow managed to reach to the heart of what makes Dickens good and re-create it.

I have a no spoilers rule on this blog, and all the more so here since I don't want to include spoilers for Dickens novels too, but the interweaving of the main storyline with the sub-plots was very cleverly done.

There were some great performances. I will mention Tuppence Middleton's brilliant performance in particular. She was playing a morally good, sweet woman in Dickensian alongside an unpleasant and immoral woman in War and Peace and carried it off with great success. One had sympathy for both women.

Some specific points emerged for me in particular. One was the huge difficulties that women experienced in the Victorian era. Some of the scenes (with Nancy and Fagin, Miss Havisham, Honoria etc) brought tears to my eyes. Another point, following on from that, was Dickens' passion for social justice and his keen understanding of what being born to poverty could mean. Another was what a keen observer of human beings he was (something he has in common with Austen and actually, JK Rowling). Psychological portraits were actually right at the centre of Dickensian, despite it also being wonderful family viewing. There is also a great deal of humour in the novels, and so too in the television series. 

I'm sure children of school age as well as adults could enjoy it and learn a great deal about British history from it. 

I am really excited for a second series!

The Curious Case of the Christmas Murders

This blog post is a catch-up on three murder mysteries which were on over Christmas and New Year.

First of all, the one we'd all been looking forward to the most...

Sherlock (**)

Victorian Sherlock - still considering that moustache...

I can offer you two alternative ways of look at this - either it is an artistic failure, or some kind of folly.

Failure:  

I was deeply dismayed when I realised they were making a Victorian Sherlock. The original Sherlock Series (1&2) were interesting, bright, and original precisely because they didn't have the Victorian feel of other versions of Conan Doyle's books. The modernity is the twist, so to remove that simply means it loses its twist! I am a huge fan of everything nineteenth century, especially nineteenth century London, so by all rights I should have been delighted, but I was already worried that the writers were scraping the barrel for ideas. Unfortunately, this was largely correct.

Oh dear. Any of you who are on Twitter will have realised that the vast majority of Sherlock fans were immensely disappointed by this vamped up, yet confused offering from Messrs. Gatiss and Moffat.  I don't have a TV licence so patiently waited until I could legally download the episode, which meant an hour and a half of people live-tweeting their annoyance. One of my friends commented that the writers had lifted lines from the first episode of Sherlock into this one. I was a bit less assiduous when I was watching it but I had a similar sense that I'd already seen it.

There have been a number of more cogent reviews than I can offer, detailing where it is that Moffat is going wrong. It has been suggested that he is playing too much to his fan base. I suspect that the huge pressure on him to produce something brilliant every time is part of the issue (this applies as much to Doctor Who by the way). Perhaps he's exhausted. Perhaps he just needs a really good editor to tell him to work on his plots?  Watching the previous series of Sherlock (3) I concluded that Stephen Moffat just needed a nice cup of tea, a chance to calm down, and maybe a tough editor. He could yet learn a great deal from the classic murder mystery writers such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. Their work is dramatic but doesn't leave the viewer/reader bewildered and exhausted, trying to keep up. (And then there were none is a good case of the slow burn, especially the first episode. See below).

Folly:  

The problem is that at least some of the hardcore fans did love it. I think it is fair to say that it only worked if taken as some sort of fantasy project. In other words, the New Year Special bore approximately the same relationship that nineteenth century follies do to real castles.

As a child I was always incredibly disappointed when I was promised a castle (Blaise Castle for example, in Bristol) and then discovered that it was 'only a folly'. I always wanted to go to a 'real' castle. (I could have done with a Tardis, in retrospect). However, if you treat the folly for what it is, it is  both an interesting piece of British history and quite a jolly place to visit. As an adult, I'm probably as interested in the strange Gothic fantasies of the nineteenth century as I am in the original medieval castles.

Blaise Castle. Picture from Wikipedia.

As a folly, the Victorian Sherlock almost works. The viewer knows what 'real' Victorian Sherlock was like, and we can laugh at the little in-jokes, and enjoy the Gothic appeal of the New Year Special.

However, even taking this into account, it was hardly the best of episodes... We all hope it will make a little more sense at some point when the next series appears. I hope Stephen Moffat invests in a box of Yorkshire tea and a friendly, but tough, editor.

And then there were none (***)

This was a three-part series just after Christmas. The premise is simple and implied in the title. 10 strangers arrive on a small island, and one by one are killed off.  I won't put any spoilers in this in case you haven't watched it, but it was superbly acted, very dramatic, and scared the living daylights out of me! If you like being scared I highly recommend it. As someone who has watched murder mysteries and read them from the age of 10, I am not normally this scared of a television programme, but this was both a true thriller and a true horror.

Arriving on Soldier Island - all looking smartly dressed and - importantly - still alive here!

A great cast, including Charles Dance.

My main concern (the reason why this has only got 3 stars in my rating) is that it was overly gory for my taste. Do viewers really need to see all the bodies and blood? I am worried that series like Game of Thrones (in which Charles Dance also appears) have rather dulled our senses and now we expect this kind of gore at all times. The storyline is quite sufficiently dramatic as it is without adding to the drama in this way.  

I probably wasn't the only person to find this a bit much for my nerves. Many fans of ITV's versions of Miss Marple and Poirot would have found this very different, even difficult to watch. It is necessary to add the caveat that in Agatha Christie the darkest side of humans is ever present, and occasionally her books can be quite grim. However, to a large degree the presence of the detectives makes them much more 'cosy'. The lack of positive characters in this for me made it a much gloomier affair, but perhaps it struck the right tone for just after Christmas! Overall, very well done though, just don't blame me if you get nightmares.

Dickensian (****)

Unlike the other series in this post, I didn't even know this was going to be on television until the first episode had already aired, and I was initially very cynical about it, thinking that it wouldn't really work. I love Dickens. I read many of his novels as a teenager but in the last two years have decided to plough through the others, after reading Simon Callow's brilliant theatrical biography of him (which I highly recommend.) Since then I am excited by all things Dickens. 

The series is in half-hour episodes, and is, as you'd expect, fairly light-hearted, although there are some serious undertones/themes throughout. The premise is that Bob Marley, Scrooge's partner from A Christmas Carol, has been murdered. The rest of the characters are all derived from either A Christmas Carol or other Dickens novels. This series captures the essence of the Victorian period much better than the Sherlock episode, and is very cleverly done indeed. It features some great performances, including Stephen Rea as the detective (who is also starring in the BBC version of Tolstoi's War and Peace), Omid Djalili and Anton Lesser, who makes a very good Fagin. Perfect winter time viewing. The soundtrack is rather a pastiche (think Hans Zimmer's Sherlock Holmes crossed with David Arnold's Sherlock, the soundtrack to Ripper Street, I'm sure there was some Inspector Montalbano chucked in), but otherwise I don't have a bad word to say about it! I'm not sure what someone who has never read Dickens would make of it, but I think it would still be very enjoyable if you didn't get the references. A bonkers mash-up! 

Career of Evil

Career of Evil

(and a note on The Silkworm)

Since the last time I reviewed one of Robert Galbraith's novels, a couple of things have happened. I've now been working in publishing for a year, so I've had an insight into the other perspective, how books get made. Also, I started following J K Rowling on Twitter...  https://twitter.com/jk_rowling
Some of what follows may relate to that. By the way you can read my review of The Cuckoo's Calling here: http://murderwithatwist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-cuckoos-calling-j-k-rowling-strikes.html  By the way, the 'twist' in this one is probably the way that the writer outlines who the suspects are very clearly at the beginning, and another 'twist' is the way the novel uses the perspective of the murderer (see below).

It amazes me how few people have read them

Each of these books have arrived just in time for various reasons. The first book arrived  in the middle of a strange and emotionally tough time in my life, when I was just about to finish my PhD thesis and need a distraction. The second arrived just in time for me to take on the first holiday I'd had for 4 years, a trip to Moscow in summer 2014. Unfortunately, this meant that as it was such a heavy book I actually left it in the flat in Moscow I was staying in. This makes me feel a bit guilty, since I ended up lending my copy of The Cuckoo's Calling to lots of people. I was happy to spread the love of this book (it amazes me how few people read the novel when it came out, especially Harry Potter fans, who I've had to win over to the detective genre) and also made me feel less guilty about buying it since I rarely buy new books these days. The third one arrived as the nights were drawing in and I'd been feeling rather glum and stressed out.

The Silk Worm 

I apologise profusely for not reviewing The Silk Worm, the previous offering in this series. It was a brilliant read. Ghoulish in places. For me the most interesting thing was how the writing was more confident than the first series, and the setting of the book (again in London) struck me, as I have been to so many of the places mentioned, including Smithfield's (the London meat market pictured on the cover).

(By the way, the idea of a butcher is by no means irrelevant to the storyline). The other thing I enjoyed was the fact it was set in the literary/publishing world, which must be one the author is familiar with.

A real masterpiece with some serious themes

This third volume, Career of Evil, is, in many ways, a real masterpiece, cleverly interweaving the relationships of the main characters and their character development (in some ways the main plot of the book) with the story of the hunt for a terrible criminal, and the narrative partially written from his point of view. For me, J K Rowling was always best as when her books were adventures and thrillers. Readers of the Harry Potter series will recognise parts of the narrative arc of this book quite well, whilst admitting that the use of the murderer's point of view is very different than any of her previous series.

Rowling said both on Twitter and in interviews that researching/writing this book gave her nightmares.  I found it very chilling. The author has has really delved into the psyche of not one, but several criminals in order to write this, and respect is owing for the amount of hard graft she must have done to achieve this.
She also said that this was the book she enjoyed writing the most in her whole career. I can't say for certain if this was the book I've most enjoyed reading (It has been some time since I read the Harry Potter series) but it is an incredibly good book. My only tiny complaint is that she's a bit over obsessed with epigraphs, but I suppose she can get away with that!

There's a lot I could add here about the role of women and in her writing - which has really come out strongly in these novels in a way it doesn't in the Harry Potter series, but I'll leave that to other critics. I also don't want to spoil the novel for those who haven't yet read it, but there's a lot in it about violence and abusive behaviour towards women and vulnerable people which I think she handles with incredible tact.

Some points of interest

On a note more related to the theme of detective fiction, Rowling noted in an interview in 2014 how much she liked the work of Margery Allingham (who inspired the name of this blog and the pseudonym I write under), it seems likely that The Tiger in the Smoke (also a crime thriller partially written from the murderer's point of view) may have influenced Career of Evil. It's also worth noting that Allingham's Hide My Eyes also features this perspective. (If you haven't read these books, do!) For more of this interview, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28381658

From the point of view of J K Rowling's biographer, its worth noting that this book is the first time she describes her beloved Edinburgh in fictional writing, and very beautifully, I might add. One wonders if she considered setting the novels in Scotland. J K Rowling's Twitter appearances, apart from addressing the subject of Harry Potter spin-offs and rugby, relate to the question of Scotland's independence. There's no doubt from reading this novel that she is very fond of Scotland.

Having said that, I love the use of London settings, of the use of small details which remind me of familiar places, like Denmark Street, or Sloane Square.


One thing that puzzles me (and I haven't found any explanation in any interviews she has done), is why Career of Evil is set in 2011, which I presume can't be the year it was written. I'd love to know the answer if anyone knows! One of the attacks by the murderer is set to the backdrop of the Royal Wedding, which is rather cleverly done.

PS. 3 is a lucky number? 

Another thing that struck me was that perhaps for her, 3 is a lucky number. I consider Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to be one of her best novels. The cover for that is also purple I might add!

There's a lot more I could say but I hope you all read them and that she writes another one soon!

And good news! As stated in the edition I bought, there is going to be a television series made soon.

Interviews/reviews

• Radio 2 Book Club - Simon May interviews J K Rowling.

"2002 was the last time we met I think - how's it been in the last fifteen years?"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p036z28f

• Interview with NPR (quoted elsewhere).

"To be honest, it's the guitar hook. I'm a real sucker for guitars," laughs Galbraith — otherwise known as J.K Rowling. "I've had a crush on many, many a guitarist."

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/02/452916567/j-k-rowling-explores-the-perils-of-fame-in-career-of-evil

• Review of Career of Evil in the Guardian. I don't entirely agree but it is more of a traditional review than mine... 

'If Georges Simenon is a simple, perfect kitchen stool and Agatha Christie a sensible wingbacked chair, then Robert Galbraith is a vast, overstuffed sofa, complete with dog hair and something unmentionable behind the cushions.'

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/21/career-of-evil-by-robert-galbraith-review

Sherlock Holmes Prom

Yesterday I went to the enjoyable Sherlock Holmes Prom. As usual I queued for a gallery Promming ticket, which is just £5. I have to say that this is a wonderful way to hear music, since you can stand, wander around, sit or even lie down as you wish, and many people choose to read, draw, or knit. (In previous years I've taken knitting and patchwork).

You can listen to the whole thing on iPlayer here:

Part I:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b065wxfg

Part II:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0663l7z

Mark Gatiss did a lovely job of voicing Conan Doyle and some of his characters. Excerpts were carefully chosen by the organisers, who attempted to provide context and explanations for the pieces chosen. For a Prom, there was quite a bit of talking. A bit more of Gatiss' own ideas might have been interesting, but I suppose they wanted to keep to the music rather than treating it like a convention.

Courtesy of the Telegraph.

Music from Hans Zimmer's soundtracks was used, although I think not to their full effect, as they had been re-arranged. I love Hans Zimmer's soundtrack to both of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films. However, the pieces from the Jeremy Brett series were great. Quite a bit was also made of the fact that Holmes was a violinist, and the Paganini piece was wonderful! The violinist was in an appropriately Victorian costume, as well.

They also made quite a lot of the Irene Adler/opera connection, something passed over in the Sherlock series. The pieces chosen were very beautiful. 

Of course, most of the audience were there to hear pieces from Sherlock, which were a fitting close. David Arnold and Michael Price have done a great job of bringing the new series to life with their themes and soundtrack. When I heard it live, I realised that it has a fairground ride quality, which is quite interesting.

During the performance there were some wonderful archive pictures including stills and film posters. This was interesting because it showed you Sherlock's many incarnations. I'd somehow missed this one:

Overall I'd give this 5* although I wish I'd gone for the arena tickets as it wasn't as busy as I'd thought, as then it would have been easier to hear the talking bits. Either that, or maybe the Proms team could prepare subtitles...

I haven't blogged for ages, and am hugely apologetic for this. I've fallen behind with reading and with watching television. However, I'm hoping to do a blog on the new Robert Galbraith book in November and may well get round to a blog before that. I'm currently reading Boris Akunin so might do a little blog on that.

A Tale of Two Sherlocks

 I confess it, I love Sherlock Holmes! In all his guises. (The same is true, I might add, of Doctor Who and James Bond, two of my other favourite things). I love the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, which I read as a teenager,

(picture taken of the statue in Baker Street by me)

 the bizarre yet endearing Soviet Sherlock Holmes,

(thanks to the Internet for this pic)

the 1980s Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes now oft-repeated on ITV 3 (fans of Sherlock should note mousachio’d Watson – it is tradition!)

(thanks to the Internet for this pic)

the recent adaptation of Sherlock Holmes for the silver screen with Jude Law and Robert Downey Junior and a delectable Hans Zimmer soundtrack (more below)

last but not least, I love the BBC Sherlock. When this first came out I was a little bit annoyed, because I had loved the film version which was released slightly before and thought the BBC had sunk so low as to copy the concept. This was not helped by the fact that David Arnold’s soundtrack (particularly at first) had similar rhythms and sounds to Hans Zimmer’s. But I have warmed to it. 

I even quite like The Mentalist, which has streaks of Sherlock Holmes charm, though it isn’t as good as the above.

I don’t see liking Sherlock Holmes therefore as an either/or thing. I have heard a great deal of indifferent and critical reactions to the Sherlock Holmes films. I enjoy them because, accurate to the books or not, they evoke the nineteenth century charm of the originals, and although Robert Downey Junior’s portrayal is not how I imagined Sherlock Holmes from reading the books (the Brett version is far closer) they are fun. Really fun. I like the rogueish charm of Robert Downey Junior’s Sherlock, the twinkle in his eye, his insouciance, and his bromance with Jude Law’s Watson. (I quite like Jude Law in this role. Partly because he is British). Friends of mine will know that I like the nineteenth century. I enjoy spotting and photographing London’s architecture and although not a diehard Steampunk person, I find these films full of The Smoke for which London was so aptly nicknamed… For similar reasons, I am a fan of BBC’s Ripper Street which, after 2 interesting series, is going to be axed. [ed. it returned to Amazon since this blog was first published]

Also, let's be clear on this point, I am a massive fan of Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack. I listen to it a lot…

As for Sherlock? They are even more different from the books. At first, I did not like the insistence on including contemporary trends, such as hashtags and text messages, mainly because I think they try to hard to keep it hip or cool,  (or whatever the word is these days) and the idea of Sherlock texting his nemesis Moriarty just lacks a certain charm! I don’t swoon when Benedict Cumberbatch shakes his dark locks or swoops around in that coat, but he brings to the role something of the coldness of, say Brett’s portrayal, combined with some of Downey Junior’s charm. I think he and Martin Freeman are brilliant actors without which the drama would not work as well. Again, the dynamic between the two is amazing. Some people might argue that Sherlock is ridiculous (anyone who saw the Doctor Who 50^th Anniversary Special and Christmas Special might see the fingerprints of Moffat here). However, for me this is enjoyable because it is funny and entertaining. Without any spoilers, Sherlock’s meetings with Watson in the episode just aired were extremely funny.

I love the  London setting too. There is some great stuff on the Internet about this, so I won’t repeat it, but for more, see this article on Timeout.

http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2014/01/02/the-london-underground-according-to-sherlock/

What is it that I like about Sherlock/Holmes? What do other people like about him? Like Doctor Who and James Bond, but for slightly different reasons, he is impossible. His survival is pretty unlikely, and he is a genius (in his own way) who fights for good. A real hero. He provides a sense of continuity that we are all looking for. This level of genius and heroism is reassuring to modern audiences, perhaps because so many of our historical heroes have been deconstructed, and so few people believe in saints any more. Perhaps Sherlock reminds us of the ‘impossible’ in other people. After all, we all know people whose habits infuriate us, or people whose intensely rational approach is extremely annoying.

I find it immensely reassuring that Doyle produced this figure of genius, who is irritatingly intelligent and rational, and two teams have recently brought to the screen this character without making him seem smaller or less sharp. But they use this sense of his impossible to humorous and entertaining effect. Isn’t Sherlock/Holmes annoying? Annoying but endearing.

Long live Sherlock Holmes!