Sherlock

[Paul faplad Finch]

Is this on anyones radar? Apparently it's due to start a week on Sunday.

I sort of heard about this a while back, heard it was a modern update and shrugged it off. Sounded a bit meh! Then when I read that Steven Moffat had a hand in it my interest was peaked but I heard nothing more for ages.

Now I find out that Mark Gatiss is Co-Exec and wrote one of the episodes. I have to say that the idea is definitely growing on me.

[radiator]

ISTR seeing in the paper a while back that after making the pilot, the BBC declared it a failure and pulled the plug on the series.

May have been a different series, I'm not sure.

[James Stacey]

A lot of it was filmed around Cardiff certainly. I had trouble getting into work one day as they were filming in the lobby. It's bad enough tripping over cybermen all the time.

[Paul faplad Finch]

Thats bad news if it has been scrapped already ,without waiting for the figures, but there is definitely more than just the pilot to air. 3x90min films, 1 by Moffat, 1 by Gatiss, one by some other bloke whose name I can't recall.

Or at least, thats what I've taken from Gatiss and Moffats comments. Maybe I should have looked it up to be sure before I posted on here? What the hell, I'm far to lazy for that.

[radiator]

Having done a little research, it seems that the pilot won't be broadcast, but a three part series was commissioned off the back of it.

It was The Sun that the article appeared in, so it was typically reported with an anti-BBC spin which made things sound a lot worse than they actually are.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Money well spent by the bloated BBC, still I'm sure the pilot will appear on a special DVD 

By the way on the BBC site it says this :-

Co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, Sherlock stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the new Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as his loyal friend, Doctor John Watson. Rupert Graves plays Inspector Lestrade.

The iconic details from Conan Doyle's original books remain – they live at the same address of 221b Baker Street, have the same names and, somewhere out there, Moriarty is waiting for them.

Steven Moffat says: "Conan Doyle's stories were never about frock coats and gas light; they're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes – and frankly, to hell with the crinoline. Other detectives have cases, Sherlock Holmes has adventures, and that's what matters."

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Mark Gatiss out of the extraordinary LOTG series/film and Lucifer Box novels - Steve Moffatt out of the triumphantly good new Who series...

What could go wrong?!

Well - you could make it shite. Then it would go wrong. You could make it painfully modern and awfully wordy. You could make it awkwardly scripted like a British CSI or House - ticking all the boxes in terms of ratings but losing several million boxes in terms of actual content.

This is what it was. I hated every second of it. Did you? Did you not? Opinions and disagreements below, because every sod on twitter seems to think it's the most inventive drama since someone went

"I HURD OV DIS BUK"
"WOT BUK?"
"BOUT DICKTECTIVS"
"HOW OL?"
"MOR DAN WUN HUNNERD YERS"
"REMAK IT BUT NOW"
"OKA"

and then vomited for several hours onto their laptop and gave it to their influential producerwife.

[Jim_Campbell]

What could go wrong?!

Well, you could read anything that anyone involved in the project had said about it and understand right off the bat this is going to fuck off anyone over the age of 25 who has ever read a Sherlock Holmes novel.

Cheers

Jim

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I quite enjoyed it but it's not a scratch on Basil Rathbone

[The Doctor Alt 8]

It's entertaining nonsense and I am surpried that I am liking Micheal Freeman as Watson.

Much better than his Arthur Dent...


And you know something else... I think Sir Arthur Colyn Doyal would be OK with it.

[Paul faplad Finch]

I am over the age of 25 and I have read a lot of Sherlock Holmes, both Doyle and pastiche, although admittedly it's been a while.

I'm also a bit of a Brett fan.  All that said, I should probably have been pissed off by this.

I wasn't though. It was great. It's just a shame there are only 3 films. I'm already praying the beeb greenlight another series.

[TordelBack]

My wife must never be allowed to know this programme exists.  Bloodshed and wailing in a dark place of sharp stones would ensue. Only Jeremy Brett adaptations of Conan Doyle stories are permitted in our house.  

I had a hard enough time persuading her to read the Michael Chabon Holmes story The Final Solution, and that was about as faithful a non-ACD tale as you could wish for.  

[Mardroid]

I wasn't keen on the idea of a modern adaptation liking the Victorian setting so much. Don't get me wrong, I get what Moffatt says about the original books being about detective crime-solving not fog and gas-lights... but you have to admit, it creates a great spooky atmosphere doesn't it?

However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It worked very well in the modern setting, while still retaining a slight Victorian flavour ... (Probably mainly due to the architecture in Central London hasn't changed all that much, but there was something in the tone too.)

[Al_Ewing]

Over 25, devoured the Conan Doyle Holmes as a kid.

I loved it. Absolutely masterful stuff, although turning an engraved pocket watch into an engraved iPhone felt slightly cheeky. Still, looking forward to next week already.

Also good to see Martin Freeman bringing his A-game to it - I was a bit worried Micro Men was a fluke.

[Emperor]

I have to say I'd read a few things about this (the text messages on screen, the insights into the deductive process, etc.) and I was quite prepared to be annoyed by it and general want to punch the telly. So I surprised myself when I not only didn't mind them but also really enjoyed everything else - the dialogue was tight and funny, it was well plotted and I didn't want to reach into the TV and strangle Holmes (which I was fully expecting). I thought it was a nice touch with the character Mark Gatiss was playing. I was expecting to be won round by his episode but he and Moffett got me early. The Beeb should be throwing as much work Gatiss' way as he can cope with (and then some more too).

I was also intrigued by the Who parallels - we actually got a glimpse of the Doctor's deductive processes in the first episode of the new season along with near obsession with phones mobile phones and Holmes had a similar manic energy the to the two most recent doctors. However, that all worked and made sense too.

I thought it was interesting the modern parallels that work without being unforced - like Watson coming back from a war in Afghanistan (which makes me wonder if we've learned our lesson yet).