2020 Awards: 'Sherlock Holmes'

Films/TV

3) 'Scooby Doo & Guess Who: Elementary, My Dear Shaggy'   (Warner Bros) 

 

[Scooby and the gang link up with a man who claims to be the real Sherlock Holmes in modern-day England]

2) 'The Inbestigators'  (Netflix/Film Victoria)

[An Australian children's mockumentary comedy television series in which four fifth grade kids solve crimes around school or the neighbourhood, with the very Sherlockian Maudie doing much of the 'heavy lifting'].

1) 'Enola Holmes'  (Netflix/Warner Bros)

 

[A very enjoyable adaptation of the first of Nancy Springer's books about Holmes' younger sister. Although I didn't agree with the characterisation of either Holmes brother (click here for my review), I still recommend this]

Live Events   (Pre March 2020)

5) 'Peter Cushing: In His Own Words' (Cinema Museum, Kennington)

4) 'The Missing Company of Sherlock Holmes' (Greenwich Theatre)

3) 'The Sign of Four' (Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham)

2) 'Sherlock Holmes & The Warlock of Whitechapel' (Zinc Arts Centre, Ongar)

1) 'Sherlock: The Game Is Now' (W1 Shopping Centre. Shepherds Bush)

 

 

 Honourable Mention: 'Andrew Lycett: Conan Doyle's Wide World' - Stanfords, Covent Garden.

Online Events  (Post March 2020)

Plays

10) 'The Baker Street Ladies' (Slade Wolfe Enterprises - Zoom)

9) 'Conan Doyle's Edwardian Gothic (Don't Go Into The Cellar – Live Stream via Facebook Live)

8) 'The Extraordinary Escapades of Professor Challenger' (Don't Go Into The Cellar – Live Stream via Facebook Live)

7) 'Holmes for Christmas' (Don't Go Into The Cellar – Live Stream via Facebook Live)

6) 'The Mazarin Malediction' (Don't Go Into The Cellar – Live Stream via Facebook Live)

5) 'Strictly Sherlock' (Don't Go Into The Cellar – Live Stream via Facebook Live)

4) 'The Sign of Four' (Blackeyed Theatre Company – YouTube) [The production I enjoyed in 2018]

3) 'Re. Sherlock Holmes' (Don't Go Into The Cellar – Live Stream via Facebook Live)

2) 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (09 Lives Theatre Company – Download) [An audio version of the production I saw in 2019 in a Victorian graveyard at night]

1) 'Watson: The Final Problem' (Smokescreen Productions – Download) [A new Sherlockian play by Merrison 'showrunner' Bert Coules]

 

Talks

7) 'The Extraordinary Sherlock Holmes' (Nick Dobson, Barbican Library - Zoom)

6) 'Advising Government: Fiction and Fact in United Kingdom History ' (Dr. Andrew Blick, Sherlock Holmes Society of London – Zoom)

5) 'A Case of Identity: How Cinema Helped Create Sherlock Holmes' (Will Bird, Brent Culture Service - Zoom)

4) 'Left Coast Sherlockian Symposium' (LCSS - Zoom)

3) 'British Beginnings' (Nick Utechin, Red Circle of Washington DC – Zoom)

2) 'Three Minute Problems' (Sherlock Holmes Society of London – Zoom)

1) 'A Scintillation of Scions At Home' (Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City, MD - Zoom)

 

2020 Awards: 'Doctor Who'

 TV Episodes

5) 'Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror'

4) 'Ascension of the Cybermen'

3) 'Can You Hear Me ?'

2) 'Spyfall – Part 2'

1) 'Fugitive of the Judoon'

 

['Revolution of the Daleks' will be part of 2021's awards]

Big Finish Boxsets/Specials

5) 'The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 3'

4) 'Shadow of the Sun'

3) 'The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 4'

2) 'Out of Time'

1) 'The Sixth Doctor and Peri – Volume 1'      [No surprises here ;)]

 

Big Finish Monthly Range

5) 'The Psychic Circus'

4) 'Thin Time/Madquake'

3) 'Time Apart'

2) 'Plight of the Pimpernel'

1) 'Scorched Earth'

 

Live Events

7) 'Sophie Aldred – 'At Childhood's End Signing'' (Forbidden Planet, London)

6) 'February Signing Spectacular' (Fantom Films - Chiswick)

5) 'January Signing Spectacular' (Fantom Films - Chiswick)

4) 'London Film Fair' (Showmasters – Russell Square)

3) 'September Signing Spectacular' (Fantom Films - Chiswick)     [A lockdown signing session with a Sixth Doctor Theatre companion]

2) 'BFI 'Talons of Weng-Chiang' Screening' (National Film Theatre, South Bank)

1) 'London Film and Comic Con Spring' (Kensington Olympia)   [Just squeezed in prior to lockdown]

 

 

Online Events

3) 'Time Space Visualiser IV' (Fantom Films - YouTube)

2) 'Time Space Visualiser' (Fantom Films - YouTube)

1) 'DW: Worlds Collide – Escape Room' (Escape Hunt - Zoom)

 

Merchandise

5) 'Lytton #1' comic

4) 'Friends and Foes of the Thirteenth Doctor' B&M Action Figure Set

3) 'The Daleks' DWM Bookazine

2) 'Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown' Book

1) 'Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 14' Blu-Ray Boxset

 

2020 Awards: Theatre

My favourite theatre shows seen both in person (up to mid-March 2020) and then online: 

Live

10) 'The Navy Lark' (Epsom Playhouse)

9) 'Come From Away' (Phoenix Theatre)

8) 'The Cat & The Canary' (Richmond Theatre)

7) '& Juliet' (Shaftesbury Theatre)

6) 'Ben Hart: Wonder' (Wiltons Music Hall)

5) '9 to 5 – The Musical' (Savoy Theatre)

4) 'Eric & Ern' (Duke of York Theatre) [with musical guest Ruthie Henshall]

3) 'Soapdish – Act 1' (Turbine Theatre) [A work-in-progress concert version of a new Stiles & Drewe Musical based on the film]

2) 'I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, Again' (Bristol Slapstick Festival – Theatre Royal, Bristol)

1) 'Magic Goes Wrong' (Vaudeville Theatre)

 

 

 

Online

10) '42nd Street' ('The Shows Must Go On' - YouTube)

9) 'The Wiz LIVE' ('The Shows Must Go On' - YouTube)

8) 'Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds' ('The Shows Must Go On' - YouTube)

7) 'This House' (NT Live - YouTube)

6) 'Small Island' (NT Live - YouTube)

5) 'By Jeeves' ('The Shows Must Go On' - YouTube)

4) 'The Madness of George III' (NT Live - YouTube)

3) 'Frankenstein' (NT Live - YouTube)

2) 'One Man, Two Guvnors' (NT Live - YouTube)     [I enjoyed this more online than when I saw it live]

1) 'Mischief Movie Night In: Who-Bunn-It?'  (Livestream: 29/12/20)   [A very late winner - an hour long live improvised movie by Mischief Theatre Company ('...Goes Wrong' plays) based on audience suggestions, making up for the cancellation of the Edinburgh Fringe earlier in the year]
 

(Honourable Mentions: 'Dick Whittington'/'Aladdin' - The Roses Theatre Tewkesbury [You Tube]; 'Dick Whittington' - National Theatre [YouTube])

 

2020 Awards: Introduction

In line with the very different year that 2020 has been, my annual awards will also be very different this year. Although I continued seeing shows and going to events at my usual rate through January and February, the lockdown from mid-March 2020 meant that at a stroke sixteen live events (theatre, music, conventions/signings)  that I was booked for were either cancelled, or posponed several times (before in many cases being cancelled entirely). I have also managed only one 'Sherlockian Sojourn' which was only a few miles from home [but have loads planned for the next few years], and one signing event since March.   [Not going to Liverpool Comic Con in early March to meet Frank Welker, voice of Toby and Felicia in 'The Great Mouse Detective', on financial grounds, remains my main regret, as with all the cancelled events I could have afforded to do so several times over]

However, I have attended a large number of online events, including several Sherlockian meetings/conferences in the United States that would previously have been beyond my reach. 'National Theatre Live' and 'The Shows Must Go On' on YouTube have allowed me to revisit some favourite live performances, as well as allowing me to see productions that I previously missed. I have also seen a variety of online Sherlockian performances, including a large number featuring the amazing Jonathan Goodwin as Holmes.

My awards will continue to focus on 'Doctor Who', 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'Theatre', but will be broken down into live and online categories, displaying some of the highlights of a difficult year.

REVIEW: 'Enola Holmes' (Netflix)

REVIEW: 'Enola Holmes'   (Netflix)

 

 

Despite owning three of Nancy Springer's 'The Enola Holmes Mysteries' books, I have never read any of them, but was interested in the concept of Sherlock and Mycroft's younger sister. The announcement of a Netflix dramatisation of the first book 'The Case of the Missing Marquess' was therefore met by me with a sense of anticipation. However, due to current circumstances, I was unable to actually watch the resulting film until a month after release (following an hors d'oeuvre of 'Scooby Doo & Guess Who: Elementary My Dear Shaggy!' on ITV), meaning that despite my best endeavours to avoid online reviews, I was aware of both positive and negative reactions from Sherlockians.

The main criticisms seem to focus around the depiction of the two Holmes brothers, in particular showing Sherlock as capable of emotion. This was not problematic for me, as 'The Three Garridebs' shows him as capable of emotion when he believes that his trusty Watson may have been mortally wounded (the argument used by the Conan Doyle Estate in their lawsuit, as this story is one of the ten not yet in the public domain), so why would he not have emotion in relation to his little sister ? (I can attest that older brothers always remain concerned for their little sisters). The main issue for me was that of Mycroft (as usual without a hint of corpulence), played by Sam Clafin, who rather than only ever travelling the small triangle that represented his rooms, the Diogenes Club and the Foreign Office, seemed to travel all around London, and even into the country to briefly return to his family's 'stately pile'. The plot also required him to act as an antagonist to our heroine achieving her full potential, meaning that the teasing relationship with Sherlock seen in 'The Greek Interpreter' is certainly not seen in his relationship with Enola. However, for the reasons of the plot, I was willing to overlook this.

But aside from this anti-Mycroft, what did I think of the film ?  I must confess to thoroughly enjoying it. Two interconnected investigations/adventures focusing on the disappearance of Enola's mother, and threats to the life of her newest friend, a young Marquess on the run. Not having seen 'Stranger Things', Millie Bobby Brown (who also produced) was new to me, but I enjoyed her performance as Enola, particularly her narrated asides to the camera like a Victorian Miranda. Henry Cavill was slightly too attractive to be Holmes, but did the deductive bits well. I also enjoyed the parade of British acting talent, including Helena Bonham Carter (as Enola's mother); Burn Gorman (as a persistent assassin); Fiona Shaw (as the Headmistress of the finishing school that Mycroft wants Enola to attend); Claire Rushbrook (as the Holmes' housekeeper); Frances De La Tour, Hattie Morahan & David Bamber (as the Marquess' family); and Adeel Akhtar (as Inspector Lestrade). [And if you have Sherlock's hawk-like eyesight, you can spot 'The Baker Street Boys' Jay Simpson as a conductor]. I also enjoyed spotting two regular Sherlockian filming locations – Hatfield House and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

I am aware that I may not be the target audience for a film whose main message is that teenage girls can be whatever they want to be, but save occasional scowls when Mycroft came on screen, I was smiling and chuckling throughout, enjoying myself greatly. I hope that this might the the first of a series. But in the meantime, I might try and find where I've put my three 'Enola Holmes' books. 

 

 

 

Rating:    (4/5) 

Sherlockian Sojourns #22: 'I gave it up at last, and off I went to Norwood'

The lockdown has put paid to a number of planned 'Sojourns' (but allowed me to plan even more – look out for ones to the Home Counties, Wales and Devon hopefully in the next year), but following my mention in dispatches (Peter Blau's 'Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press' [June 2020]) for my trip to Dorsington, I decided to undertake one close to home. In June 1891, at the age of 32, Arthur Conan Doyle moved from London to a house in South Norwood, at that time part of Surrey.

My starting point was Cross Street, a short walk from East Croydon railway station. It was in a house here that Susan Cushing (and previously her sister Sarah Cushing) lived, where the titular cardboard box containing two severed ears preserved in salt were sent. ['The Adventure of the Cardboard Box'] Finding that #32 claimed to date to c1838, I chose this as the Cushing residence.

From here, it was a half-hour walk to Conan Doyle's former home, passing first the school where my own 'Doctor Watson' met his 'Mary Morstan', then a cul-de-sac named after Holmes' faithful companion.

Following the success of the first five ‘Sherlock Holmes’ short stories in The Strand Magazine, Conan Doyle had abandoned medicine and decided to devote himself entirely to writing. He decided to move to the suburbs, a comfortable red-bricked house at 12 Tennison Road, South Norwood, where he completed ‘The Man With the Twisted Lip’, before renewing his contract for six additional stories at the rate of one per month. Throughout the three years he lived there, he was not only busy with local affairs and with his writing, but also away elsewhere in England and also abroad on business much of the time. It was also a traumatic time for him and his family, for in the same month his alcoholic father died, and his wife Louise was diagnosed with consumption. His wife's declining health appears to have been the main factor in a decision to leave the area, and in September 1894 he left for the United States on a tour of speaking engagements. By this time the house had been put up for sale, and on returning to England he and Louise settled at their purpose-built home, Undershaw in Haslemere, having spent much of the previous year in Switzerland for Touie’s health. The house has a plaque.

A further fifteen minute walk, passing a road with a familiar name, and a housing development named after Mr. Holmes' most famous case, I found myself at Norwood Junction railway station. 

 

 

It would have been from Norwood Junction station that Jonas Oldacre travelled up to London Bridge Station, prior to meeting with (the unhappy) John Hector McFarlane, in 'The Adventure of the Norwood Builder'. During this journey, he drew up the will that he wished McFarlane to 'cast it into proper legal shape'. Holmes later deduced this from the state of the handwriting – the good writing representing stations, the bad writing movement, and the very bad writing passing over points.

A short distance away was 83-84 Norwood High Street, where Norwood Police Station - where Thaddeus Sholto reported the murder of his brother in 'The Sign of Four' - was formerly located. By chance, Scotland Yarder, Inspector Athelney Jones, was at the station investigating another case, and accompanied Sholto and the local force back to Pondicherry Lodge, renewing his acquaintance with Holmes.

I then caught a bus to Upper Norwood where a school with a familiar name was located. This 'Priory School' was not the one attended by Lord Saltire in 'The Adventure of the Priory School', which was located in the North of England (possibly Staffordshire).

A further short bus ride and walk up a very steep hill, and I was at my penultimate stop of the day, ‘Kilravock House’ (101 Ross Road) in South Norwood. It was here, according to noted Sherlockian Roger Johnson, that Pondicherry Lodge - where Holmes, Watson, Mary Morstan and Thaddeus Sholto travelled to meet with Bartholomew Sholto in 'The Sign of Four', only to find that he had been killed and the great Agra Treasure stolen from the attic room – was located.

I then caught a bus back into central Croydon, where due to the pandemic, the Museum of Croydon in the Clocktower, which was supposed to be hosting a 'Storytellers' exhibition, was closed. Luckily I had managed to visit the exhibition, which included a section on Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes and their Croydon connections (including the ear-containing cardboard box), prior to lockdown.

It was then one to my final stop, a Public House also named after Sherlock's most famous case, which I decided not to go into, before catching the bus home.

Postcript: There is another Sherlockian link to Croydon. Peter Cushing who played Holmes on both film and TV lived at 32 St James’ Road in nearby Purley from about 1925 until June 1936, during which time he attended nearby Purley County Secondary School and worked at the local council. In 2018 a plaque was erected to commemorate this, which again I have visited on a previous occasion.