Sherlock's Last Case (BBC)

[Riklaa]

Sherlock's Last Case by Charles Marowitz featuring Dinsdale Lansden as Holmes and John Moffatt as Watson directed by Walter Acosts 90 minutes Broadcast 6 May 1989 (Saturday Night Theatre) (earlier WS broadcast ran only 55 minutes) The play, written in 1984 and produced on Broadway in 1987 by Charles Marowitz, has the Arthur Conan Doyle’s style, language, complicated plotting and clever devices down pat. He added humor with biting sardonic quips and juicy personas that becomes a thoroughly engaging comic thriller. This is a smart play that makes you listen closely as it produces laughs and tickles our curiosity. This show delivers. Full of surprises, twists and pure Holmesian reasoning, Sherlock’s Last Case is based on the idea that someone is trying to kill the sleuth. When the daughter of his late nemesis, Professor Moriarty, Liza arrives to warn Holmes of the revenge planned by her brother, Holmes becomes smitten with the red-haired beauty. The plot takes many twists, turns and spins that engage Holmes and Doctor Watson in a most fully ranged performance) as they try to discover who is after Sherlock before they kill the detective. The mixture of humor, quick retorts, zany characters, especially from the quirky housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson and the droll Inspector Lestrade, gave the show some fine moments. But the ‘whodunit’ elements will stun you as we see Holmes as an arrogant, narcissistic, vane fellow who insults his housekeeper and often bullies his associate, Doctor Watson. This broad spoof turns the Holmes legend upside down and shakes it around a bit.