Summary for episode 3 of Cult Holmes:

When Holmes is shot at by a rifle from the future it's clear that something is very wrong with reality.

How right you are, BBC7.

I just listened to the last Sherlock Holmes story on BBC7 -- The Retired Colourman. In print, it hasn't that much to recommend it, but the Coules adaptation was one of the best episodes; funny, interesting, and incredibly poignant. If you care at all about Sherlock Holmes then you must listen to this episode!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/thursday

It seemed as if The Lion's Mane, which aired a few days before, was just as good, but I haven't got the chance to listen to it properly as yet.

Also: I now have ALL 56 short story episodes RECORDED. Oh yes!! Now for the BBC to air the two hour novel adaptations... and of course Coules' own original Further Adventures (oh please do it BBC you know you want to).

I'm listening to The Reigate Squires.

I am so in love with Clive Merrison.

But I might be even more in love with Michael Williams.

*loves them both*


ETA: Have finished listening. *dies*

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

Watson: The strains of such an existence had not escaped the attention of Mary, my wife, whose habit of drawing conclusions from small details was sometimes disconcertingly familiar.

Mary: Well, John, what does Mr. Holmes have to say?
Watson: How on earth did you know this was from Holmes?
Mary: A telegram from a patient would have had you rushing from the room at once -- and there's a distinctly nostalgic look in your eyes... shall you go?
Watson: Good lord, you're doing it again!
Mary: Oh, John, stop it, you're sounding like one of your own stories.

Holmes: I see you're blending into the country setting Lestrade -- those leather leggings are extremely fetching.

Watson: [incredulous] You got him bail.
Holmes: It was the logical thing to do.
Watson: You weren't, of course, motivated by their feelings for each other.
Holmes: Oh really, doctor.

Watson: Holmes and Lestrade, at each other's throats. I don't know which one is the worst.
Mary: I think I could probably guess.
Watson: [laughs] I think you probably could.
Mary: Come along now, or your homecoming meal will be spoiled. ...John?
Watson: Oh, I'm sorry. I was just thinking about Holmes... buried away on his own. Do you think we should invite him to dinner sometime?
Mary: Would he come?
Watson: No... probably not. [sighs] Oh well.

Watson: It was with some relief, therefore, that I found Holmes in when I called at his Baker Street lodgings, and an even greater relief to sit in front of a cheerful fire, and discuss the world in general, and crime in particular.

That, of course, is when the arguments started.



Watson: Well done, Holmes.
Holmes: My dear fellow, I can hardly claim credit for predicting the predictable.
Watson: Oh really, why not?

Red-Headed League... ah...

Watson has an absolutely beautiful monologue about half-way through the episode, when he and Holmes go to the Sarasate concert. It starts off with the actual text from the story (already good) and then branches off to musings about Holmes' character... Michael Williams' delivery, his voice, his kindness... gah.

( Watson! )

And the end scene...

Wednesday night Tim and I watched the Granada adaptation of Shoscombe Old Place which I had SOMEHOW managed to never see (picked it up at the library, oh yeah), and then watched Easy Rider, while I made homework type things.

Easy Rider: Way, WAY overrated. Yikes.

Shoscombe Old Place: Holy crap!!!! I will cut this for spoilers, in case anyone actually cares (for all puzzled parties this is an episode of Sherlock Holmes, I'm talking about). Also included under cut: wittering about the BBC episode of SCAN.

( Weirdness! )

Ah, can't wait for The Red-Headed League.

THANK YOU BBC7.

BBC7, you know I've always loved you; since the moment I first set eyes upon you, in fact. Though your colour sense is atrocious, I can put up with it because you are so good at heart, and because you are always trying to think of ways to help people. When you came out with that Listen Again feature I knew I was with the right radio station. And now you have reaffirmed my faith in you.

Because you have started playing The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes again. Oh, the terrible beauty.

People on my friends-list may now be groaning slightly, as they know this means that there shall be many entries about scenes, dialogue and the perfectness of Merrison, Williams and Coules, but let them groan! They don't understand what we have together! They don't understand how much I am looking forward to listening to A Scandal in Bohemia tomorrow at lunch. I don't even think I understand how much I'm looking forward to it!

In any case, thanks for starting at the beginning, thanks for starting today (even though I won't be able to listen until tomorrow), and thanks for just being the coolest, BBC7. You are a many splendoured thing.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/
Adventures is starts today (Thursday), and will be playing weekdays at 1.00 pm GMT (this means 8.00 am EST), repeated at 5.00 am the next morning (that means midnight EST). But that doesn't matter with Listen Again! cesario, I am pointing at YOU, to make sure that you make a note of this!


*does a happy dance*

Muhahaha. This is where I blather on about the new Cult Holmes series from the BBC and say, Yay for the BBC! There are five stories, all of which are "alternative" in some way or another. Four of them are read by Andrew Sachs, who played Watson in the Further Adventures series by Bert Coules (and who is better known as Manuel from Fawlty Towers. Amusingly, John Cleese has also played Holmes in the past). The other story, since it is narrated by Mrs. Hudson, is read by Hannah Gordon, and she is also wonderful. Sachs gets to play with a lot of range in the stories, which was very fun to listen to. You can also read the stories if you want, but then you'd miss out on the fine performances -- but you should check out the words, since each story is accompanies by several illustrations.

The Spy's Retirement
So much good Watson, so little time!!

There are advantages in my world to being seen as a cold blooded killer, and to admit to saving as many as I had killed. Such admissions can do harm. Although the truth is far stranger, because I have killed fewer people than most believe and saved many more than I am prepared to admit.

Close examination of human blood has taught me three things. It is as thick as paint, it is surprisingly nutritious and, finally, like excreta, we do not find that our own excites a reflex of disgust.

The Lady Downstairs
Mrs. Hudson, we love you so much. I wish more people would give you your due. Including Holmes.

I shouldn't complain, for a landlady's life is rarely interesting, and the comings and goings are a small price to pay for housing such a famous London figure. There are annoyances, of course; the infernal scratching of that violin, the muffled explosions from unstable compounds in the laboratory he has rigged up in my back room (without my permission), the immovable stains that appear on the carpets, the ghastly burning-cat smells that waft down from the landing, invariably at tea-time when I am about to tuck into a kipper, the unsocial hours kept by a man who finds sleep a stranger. Yet I am fond of him because his enthusiasm leaves him so unprotected. He knows the doctor is concerned for his well-being. But he never notices me.

And, dare I say it, Mr Holmes is so convinced of his abilities he sometimes takes the long route to solve a simple puzzle. The disguises, for instance. I have seen him enter this house as a tramp, a blind man, a war veteran, on sticks, with a funny walk, first hopping, then dragging, in hats, in beards, in rags and on one occasion with a wooden leg, and frankly I have seen better impersonations at the Alhambra. I wonder that his suspects are not put off by laughing too hard. What is wrong with simply keeping out of sight?

The Deer Stalker
It tries very hard. Starts out very interestingly, but the disparate elements never quite come together. Still, interesting.

Once more, I leapt back from a sight. "Holmes, this must be a misdirection, a mirage designed to throw off your aim. It makes me think of –"
"Myself also, Watson, but he is dead. And even he could not alter the world to his whim. That date is real." He walked back to the sideboard, and began to stuff his pipe.

"Watson is intelligent."
"Sure, sometimes that's fashionable. Then it's gone again. Sometimes you'll be queer, because being a bachelor is kind of odd."
Holmes' face was a picture.

A Shambles in Belgravia
Seriously, this is hilarious. Moriarty, Moran, a certain opera singer. Need I saw more?

To Professor Moriarty, she is always that bitch.

Even Moriarty was impressed, and he could keep up a lecture on the grades of paper used in the forgery of high-denomination Venezualan bank-notes while walking down the secret corridor with the row of one-way mirror windows into the private rooms where Mrs H's girls conducted spectacularly indecent business day and night.

The Lost World
What can I say to a story that combines Sherlock Holmes and dinosaurs? Except, perhaps, AWESOME. I laughed quite a bit, and I wish that I could quote you just about every line. Also, the plot is priceless.

"Though I had thought you might have remarked on my trombone."
I remarked on his trombone. "Good lord, Holmes! You have a trombone. Are you mad?"

December 1, 1916. The egg is ovoid - as is only to be expected - about the size of a large coconut, porous skinned, and a bright saffron yellow in colour. I have been incubating it by stealing into the cargo hold and covering it with rotting kitchen waste, and in addition, whenever possible, sit on the egg personally. When questioned why I was sitting in rotting kitchen waste in the cargo hold by the ship's purser, I simply replied that I was incubating an egg which, when it hatched out, would develop into a twenty foot long maneating lizard, whereupon he simply grinned, tapped his cap in a friendly way, and left me to my own devices.

Holmes: "Here I am! I am a trombone-crested hadrosaur, and other trombone-crested hadrosaurs may profitably choose to mate with me."


Interested?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/

I just posted this at 221b_bakerst, but I want to keep it here to remind myself. For I must listen, even if it is not the genius of Bert Coules.

Starting Monday, 17 of January BBC7 will be playing series called Cult Holmes; it bills itself as "five alternative looks at Sherlock Holmes". The first episode focuses on Watson, the second on Mrs. Hudson. It airs at 1:30 pm and 8:30 pm GMT (for Americans, this would be 8:30 am and 3:30 pm EST), but you can choose the Listen Again feature to hear it any time you like for a week after broadcast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listings/weektoview.shtml