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Ah yes, it's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday today....

It's one of those things though - i've never read one of his books. Which i feel slightly uneasy about actually as i love reading and indeed, books in general...

What ones would you recommend i read first (if any)?

I can completely and utterly, nay, order you to buy on dvd - Murder By Decree. The very best Jack the Ripper/Sherlock Holmes film ever...there's been a couple of shabby attempts, but this is a salute to some great actors too...

Christopher Plummer
James Mason
Donald Sutherland (who has always looked like a victorian gentleman)

Plus lots of actors you'll recognise by sight, but never be able to name...genius...

You'll also see alot of images that were kinda pinched and appeared in From Hell too...

And of course, Sir Conan Doyle's friendship with Houdini and the whole psychic thing is rather fascinating too. And let's not forget about the Fairies...

abraxus wrote:What ones would you recommend i read first (if any)?

I've got a copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes somewhere. It was only a few quid from Amazon and it's got all the stories. Some of them look a little bit faded now, but when he's in a gack-fuelled frenzy of detection, he puts today's best mentalists to shame with his powers of observation. This is, after all, a man who can distinguish on sight different types of cigar ash, not just wipe it on your arm...

EDIT: PS love the Grange Hill reference, but what was the name of the girl who only wanted to help Ro-land? It's bugging me now.

The very epitome of the great detective to me is Jeremy Brett from the ITV series. He always had a certain weird (slightly creepy) chic about him, I think it was the piercing eyes.

I had a gig in Regents Park earlier this year and visited the tourist trap that is Baker Street. I dutifully went into the souvenier shops to get a pack of Holmes cards, but they proved more elusive than the red headed league...

Google says "Janet StClair"...

i now cannot get the image out of my head of Houdini being in Grange Hill, probably as a P.E. Teacher...him and Bullet Baxter tying each other up, and Baxter secretly loving it...

abraxus wrote:Google says "Janet StClair"...

i now cannot get the image out of my head of Houdini being in Grange Hill, probably as a P.E. Teacher...him and Bullet Baxter tying each other up, and Baxter secretly loving it...

Ah, dear old Bullet. And Mr Bronson in his wig: "KENDALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!"

Anyway, ITV3 are showing the complete 80s Granada series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes this coming weekend. Got to agree with FLash on this one; he's definitely the best Holmes.

Yeah, Brett was good - bravo to the writers for showing the heroin/opium addiction too...i remember that scene of him burying his needles on a coast-line...nicely on edge wasn't he...

In that film though, James Mason is superb as Watson, slightly outraged and befuddled all the time...great voice...if only Richard Burton had played Holmes though...

There's some fantastic use of words in Murder by Decree too - shame i can't mention them on here though...no effing 'n jeffing, just good old fashioned words...

I was suprised to discover that Brett was in a live version in London, I don't know when it was but I would loved to have seen it.