Voucherboy – The Sherlock Holmes story
The Sherlock Holmes story came to a close with the third part in this short series last night, with typical energetic performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Starting with a more than normally bored and irritable Sherlock, who we find in his first scene unloading a shotgun into his wall, is blown into life as a bomb explodes in the building across the road on Baker Street.
The chasing game begins as Sherlock receives numerous calls from his arch enemy Moriarty who has taken people hostage and rigged them with explosives. They are all in aim of a sniper and have to relay Moriarty’s messages by picture and phone to Sherlock. Sherlock has to solve a series of acts to save the hostages with the smallest of clues. Each case gets harder and harder for Holmes to solve as he is truly tested by Moriarty. Andrew Scott who plays Moriarty portrays a man who relishes the confrontation with Holmes and being as icy and as chilling as Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
The last episode is however a bit of a letdown considering the first one was an excellent portray of Conan Doyle’s stories and lives up to previous performances of Jeremy Brett in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The storyline fails to grip the viewer and the portrayal of Moriarty lacks in true criminal mastermind for me as he gives Holmes all the clues one by one, where as in the books Holmes has to piece it all tighter bit after bit and Moriarty is too young to have built up a vast network of criminal activity.
They will have to do a lot better if they are to release a follow up series, which is likely to happen after the ‘thrilling cliff-hanger’ ending. So expect to see a second short series of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in modern day, most likely to be released around Christmas and if it is as good as the first episode, then the Sherlock Holmes story will be a welcome addition to my Sunday night viewing again.
