Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes Radio Mysteries

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sherlock Holmes has been done and redone in print, on the stage, on screen, and on the radio. The first Holmes pastiche was done by William Gillette as a stage play around the turn of the century. Orson Welles redid Gillette's play on his Mercury Theater. Edith Meiser dramatized almost every one of Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes stories (and a few hundred Holmes stories of her own invention) for American radio, and a few of them survive to this day. Meiser could never bring herself to dramatize "The Final Problem." The classic radio Holmes, against which all other radio Holmes must be measured, is the Green/Boucher series of pastiches starring Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone. Radio drama died in America during the late `50's and early `60's, but it is still a staple of British radio over the BBC. Holmes has had a long and varied career on BBC radio, being done and redone with various actors.

The present series of stories represents one of the two latest Holmes attempts on BBC. The other is the Bert Coules series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams. Coules' series reprises the entire corpus of Doyle's work (most of which is available from Amazon.com), including "The Final Problem." "Sherlock Holmes: Radio Mysteries" consists of pastiches. The present work suffers in comparison with Coules'dramatizations, but compares very favorably with all other surviving radio renditions of Holmes. It has just the right Victorian flavor, and the stories are just as good as the Green/Boucher stories. Holmes-a-holics will have to add this work to their collection.

After Coules finished the original Doyle stories, he dramatized a few pastiches himself under the title "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," and they are very good. They are not available in America, but can be ordered from Amazon.co.uk.

This is a great dramatization of Sherlock Holmes stories. If you like a presentation that makes you feel as if you can touch the actors and actresses, this is it. The way it is done makes you live and breath the whole atmosphere in the particular story. You can almost see the characters from the vivid descriptions and voices. The presenters are British and just have a style that is so unique that it is by far the best I have heard second only to Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. I would recommend this cassette to any Sherlock Holmes fan, and you will enjoy it over and over again as I have done.

These stories are produced by Jim French Productions and I cannot stress how excellent they are! Jim French has an incredible facile mind and knowledge of the Holmes canon and he uses that writing talent to the fullest. The actors playing Holmes and Watson are respectfully John Gilbert & Lawrence Albert and they are quite brilliant in their roles. John Gilbert, unfortunately he has passed away, had one of the most fascinating voices for Holmes I have ever heard. I should mention that both actors are NOT British! These shows are exciting, well written, and wonderfully acted and if you are a Holmesian at all and /or love audio drama or even just a radio show buff buy these and treat yourself to some of the best radio shows in America.

From a Sherlock fan, these live renditions of new stories are excellent. Didn't expect such production quality (better than the Rathbone-Bruce stuff although I love those as well) and interesting stories (better than some of the newer R-B stuff). Highly recommended. Get them while you can. Gave them to my kids as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed these series of stories. I love the radio plays style of "old time radio". It brings the story to life. I strongly recommend this to anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes. In addition, the manufacturer, TOPICS Entertainment, fully stands behind their products. Furthermore, they are one of the few responsible companies that I've run across. They donate 5% of their pre-tax profits to educational and environmental groups. That alone should encourage everyone to do business with this fine outfit. Buy this and you'll not regret it.

Doyle's Holmes and Watson remain the best loved characters in detective fiction. The highlight of this effort is these new pastiches are very well plotted and rendered. Unlike the Green/Boucher pastiches performed by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in the 1940s, the plots here sound plausible-not departing in the supernatural or the world of science fiction. Holmes and Watson are more Doylian too. Watson is not comic relief as in the Rathbone/Bruce series. The production values are a little below the mark for the BBC. These have a very 1950s flavor and the performances seem to be given live without the benefit of editing minor flubs. One would think modern digital editing would have permitted a more flawless product. The music is a disappointment too. Given the attempt to recreate a 1950s radio drama, they would have been better off to use vintage production music in place of the dull synthetic bridges that appear here. The use of sounds effects is also pedestiran. Anyone who has heard the old Dragnet radio series or any of the better Jack Benny sketches understands the potential of sound in a good radio drama. Here, sound effects add little more than atmosphere. I've heard better on other BBC dramas. Each episode is split into 3 tracks which makes it challenging to import into an mp3 player. For non-broadcast release, each 22-minute show should have been re-edited and mixed into a seamless program without the commercial transitions. If you are importing these into an mp3 player, you'll want to use the "Join CD Track" feature (as it is called in iTunes) before importing. Otherwise you could be hearing a different episode at the track break.