Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes in the Case of the Derailed Shipment: A Sherlock Holmes Radio Play

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This is the script for a radio play from the apparently prolific pen of Stanley S. Reyburn - I haven't seen, read or heard any others.

I found it rather unsatisfying. The plot is fairly thin (it relates to a train shipment of gold that has gone missing without any obvious places it could be hidden), and I didn't find the deductive abilities of Sherlock Holmes well-portrayed.

I also wasn't pleased by the depiction of Holmes, Watson, Mrs. Hudson and most especially Mycroft Holmes. Holmes himself seemed too supercilious and Watson, supposedly his perfect foil, seemed particularly dim. But Mycroft... Sherlock's brother is meant to be at least his equal in deductive abilities, but this Mycroft must have slipped out for a quick lobotomy before the performance.

Had the play been either a good demonstration of Holmes' deductive powers, or portrayed the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters in a truer form, it would have been fine by me. But to fail on both counts is a very sad thing.

It might be more enjoyable to hear in performance rather than simple reading, where the work of the actors might overcome my misgivings to one degree or another.