{"id":26401,"date":"2025-02-07T20:38:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T20:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=26401"},"modified":"2025-02-07T21:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:22:08","slug":"media-film-the-private-life-of-sherlock-holmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=26401","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA\/FiLM: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Well, this is a rum old do, and no mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a fan of your more normal or \u2018trad\u2019 Holmes and Watson, as we are, this might take some getting used to, because it certainly ain\u2019t that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Paying Mycroft a visit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For starters, it\u2019s partly played as a comedy. And it is<\/em> funny, in places. But it is<\/em> also a Sherlock Holmes mystery, albeit not an Arthur Conan Doyle one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s also a tragedy. I won\u2019t spoil it for those who haven\u2019t seen it. I started out thinking I wasn\u2019t too keen. But by the end, I loved it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mycroft and Gabrielle Valladon\/Ilse von Hoffmanstal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a thing quite apart from Holmes as he\u2019s usually portrayed. Playing somewhat on the distinction – already mentioned by Holmes\/Conan Doyle in the original canon – between the \u2018real\u2019 Holmes, and the Holmes portrayed to the World via Dr Watson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are various strange strands, and muddling McGuffins, from the Russian Royal Ballet, to disappearing midget acrobats. And all are woven together into what ultimately proves to be quite a lush and lovingly produced homage to the world\u2019s foremost \u2018consulting detective\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Robert Stephen\u2019s Holmes is actually terrific.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I know Robert Stephen\u2019s primarily as Aragorn, in the BBC radio adaptation of TLOTR. And secondarily as a character in Ridley Scott\u2019s sublime Napoleonic debut movie, The Duellists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you love Jeremy Brett, or even Basil Rathbone, such one off Holmes turns can be difficult to digest. But Stephens totally won me round. And (?) Watson is perfect as his sidekick and companion, deftly mixing the earnest with the comic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lee as Mycroft.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some pretty big names add their heft to proceedings, in both major and minor roles: Christopher Lee as Holmes\u2019 brother, Mycroft, and Irene Handl as mrs Hudson both figure quite large, whilst Stanley Holloway (first gravedigger) and Frank Thornton (hotel receptionist) have smaller parts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A nice B&W publicity shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An unusual entry in the Holmes oeuvre, but worth checking out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, this is a rum old do, and no mistake. If you\u2019re a fan of your more normal or \u2018trad\u2019 Holmes and Watson, as we are, this might take some getting used to, because it certainly ain\u2019t that. For starters, it\u2019s partly played as a comedy. And it is funny, in places. But it is … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MEDiA\/FiLM: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-6RP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26401"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26410,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401\/revisions\/26410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}