The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Radio Collection) [Audiobook] (Audio Cassette)

Perhaps the stories were a little darker than the originals, but none seemed too far from the Conan Doyle style to my mind. I thought "The Madness of Colonel Warburton" was especially interesting as Conan Doyle himself was so involved in spiritualism.

My favourite of the 5 stories that were part of this set - just broadcast in February on the BBC - (I heard them via the internet) is sadly not on this tape though! I hope the BBC plans to give us another series very soon and will include the 5th one on the next cassettes.

I mourned when the canon was finished and rejoiced when I heard that Coules intended to continue the saga with adventures drawn from the canon's references to apocryphal cases.

I just finished auditing "Further Adventures" for the second time. Entertaining in the extreme. Some random observations: The stories seem more like lateral logic puzzles than mysteries. Holmes is (perhaps a bit too) much more fallible than in the canonical stories. Although I miss Michael Williams as Watson, the Holmes/Watson chemistry is still quite good. The sly references to William Gillette were quite amusing.

Until the coming of Bert Coules, Anthony Boucher and Dennis Greene (who wrote for Rathbone and Bruce) were the best writers of audio Holmes pastiches. Coules has surpassed them. I wish "Further Adventures" a long run on the BBC.

Some suggestions for future episodes: Edith Meiser did the "Giant Rat of Sumatra" back in the 30's in a six part radio serial. That serial is apparently lost to posterity. The "Giant Rat" cries out to be retold. The mentor/student relationship Holmes had with the London librarian in "The Saviour of Cripplegate Square" was quite good and should be revisited. Coules is especially good in characterizing the firm friendship of Holmes and Watson; he brought some of that same charm to Holmes' relationship with the librarian.

After listening to the complete works, as put out by the BBC radio collection, I was overjoyed to hear of this tape. Fantastically elaborate stories in the Holmesian style that have not in anyway deteriorated from the originals.

All four stories are taken from earlier references in the Conan Doyle books and I found myself going back to identify them, with renewed interest.

I was a little unsure as to the atmosphere to begin with, mainly due to the sad loss of Michael Williams as Dr Watson, however, Andrew Sachs is a worthy replacement and I soon found myself well involved in the plots.

I have only given 4 stars due to Michael Williams absence and the nagging doubt in the back of my mind that something just wasn't quite right, but you'll have to listen for yourself to identify with that.

I would like to heartily recommend all the audio books in the Sherlock Holmes series.