Posted by Peter H on 01/23/00 from host213-1-16-126.host.btclick.com:
In Reply to: Re: Sequels posted by Dave Thewlis on January 22, 2000 at 18:01:48:
Well, I couldn't, Dave, and I don't think anyone else can, either - recreate a convincing Ransome style, that is. You make an interesting point about Sherlock Holmes. I count myself as a Sherlockian, and of course for me the originals, when read from the book, are as powerful as ever. The problems occur when you are faced with an attempted recreation. Because of all the caricatures over the years, film and TV programme makers have got a fixed idea that Sherlock wandered round in a deerstalker hat holding a magnifying glass and saying 'Elementary my dear Watson' etc. The result is that you get ludicrous distortions as in the old black and white film series with Basil Rathbone. TV has been the same, until the Granada series (UK) with Jeremy Brett which was for the most part brilliant but even this occasionally went over the top. Even if you don't watch the bad recreations, they are a chance lost, which is frustrating. Some of us feel this over the S&A film with Ronald Fraser as Capn Flint. The Holmes stories are about crime and hard facts and are more robust than Ransome's delicate reconstructions of childhood, with imagination and role play. I shudder to think what the 'caricaturists' will make of them. One of the few consolations of growing old is that I won't be around when AR comes out of copyright. And on that cheerful note, I'll close.