Please don't be as bad you sound...

Only five posts in 2023 (excluding this one). I must do better.


You would be forgiven for thinking I was not up to any Sherlockian activity. You would be wide of the mark though. I've been up to all sorts - reading, writing, and reviewing.

My "to read" pile continues to hold up the ceiling. I hope, in the New Year, to get some more reviews out.

The one thing I am waiting for (or dreading) is Lucy Worsley's three-part documentary on Doyle and Holmes. It begins on Sunday December 10th on BBC Two.

My concern, based on some reporting, is that this documentary is promising to reveal things that have not been unearthed before. As a three-time biographer of Conan Doyle, I say this is highly doubtful. I have no doubt it will be educational for those with only a passing interest in Arthur Conan Doyle and his famous creation. But, for anyone with a modicum of knowledge, I suspect it is going to reveal precisely nothing.

I have enormous respect for Lucy Worsley and I sincerely hope this documentary does not dent it. I said, on social media, that I was going to judge it on how she treats the Cottingley Fairies episode. But, based on what I've read about it, I fear I will have a lot more than that to judge it on. Has Lucy Worsley strayed too far from her lane? There is a tendency to have her front anything historic in much the same way as Brian Cox is shoehorned into anything scientific. 

We will all soon know. I hope it is not the missed opportunity it is being made out to be. My sliver of hope is that Andrew Lycett was a consultant for the series. Did they listen to him or did the producers set out with an anti-Doyle agenda that they stuck to irrespective of the facts?

Watch this space.

Written by Alistair Duncan Buy my books here
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