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.