If you have not seen this fantastic series (way to short), PBS is re-broadcasting season 1 (Season 2, which just ended to other day on the BBC, airs on PBS this May 6th). They played A Study in Pink” last Sunday, this Sunday (Jan 22) is The Blind Banker”, and the following Sunday (Jan 29) is “The Great Game”.
Whether or not you like Sherlock Holmes, crime/mystery genre, or British tv, but you like storytelling at it’s finest with a great cast and production, then check this show out.
IT will remain online on their site until Mar 1 (unless they extend it, like they did the first time).
I had written a review for the first season, I just haven’t posted it here yet. I have parts of a review in my head for the second season, but have not yet written it down.
Note: For some reason, they show a cut episode, about 5 minutes total less than the original airing. Nothing crucial, but it’s not like they had to make room for commercial time. (What’s the deal?) I had started making a list of the differences between the original BBC cut and the PBS re-edit.
Ok, I’ll have to admit I’m just a wee bit bias on this one, but figured “Hey! This is my blog. I can share my own fan video, I can!”
So I shall.
It’s nothing like “Wow! That’s amazing!”. It’s just something I did for fun using Google’s Search Stories. It’s an interesting way of telling a story. You may have seen Google’s Super Bowl 2010 adorable “Parisian Love” ad.
BTW, I had no control over what the results would be, I only picked the kind of results (regular web results, maps, images, etc).
It’s fun, so go try it out for yourself!
I’ll add that my favorite fan Search Story was made by Hank Green (DFTBA NERFFIGHTERS!). It’s not Sherlock Holmes, but about another literary character, a certain boy wizard, who I feel has the same crazy fame that Holmes had it his heyday (including crazy but fervently loyal, devout fans!)
The Reenactments
It is fun to see how people re-enact scenes from a Holmes production. Below are live and animated re-enacted scenes both from the Granada series and BBC’s Sherlock. I include the original scene and same scene, redone:
The Dancing Men
Sherlock Holmes – The Dancing Men 1/6
Skip to 2:53 in the video to watch Watson’s astonishment as Holmes makes an “absurdly simple” deduction about him. Ends at 5:47. Or you can watch the whole episode if you wish (I recommend that! One of the best episodes of the series!)
Sherlock Holmes The Dancing Men (Jeremy Brett) Cartoon
An adorable cartoon version, using the audio from the above episode. Animation has a nice folkart quality to it. I posted in the comments section that it reminded me of the 1990s cartoon, Dr. Katz (without the shaking). And I always laugh at Watson’s confused face.
The Resident Patient
The Resident Patient part 6
You only need to skip to :19 to get to the scene. If you watch from the beginning, you’d be spoiled somewhat since this segment is near the end and Watson narrates what happened to the villains after the mystery had been solved. The scene in the sitting room is not in the original story, but incredibly charming and, as far as character goes, it’s very canonical. The song Holmes is playing on his violin is Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, 3rd movement.
The Resident Patient
Take one YouTuber (in this case, dalek42), have him play both Watson and Holmes well, and you have a great little tribute to the show! While the Watson angle is a bit dark, his timing is very good. I love how his Holmes rolls the “r” in “What’s wrong?”. And the smily face on the bedroom door! Just thinking of Holmes having a smily face on his door is hilarious…..
The Great Game
….Which brings me to Sherlock shooting a smiley face into his wall. This is from BBC’s Sherlock, the third episode “The Great Game”. The argument that Sherlock and John have here (in the show, they call each other by there first name rather than their last) is from the canon: Holmes not liking what Watson had published about their first case is from the second story, “Sign of Four”, and the solar system is from the very first story, “A Study in Scarlet”. Along with Holmes shooting into the wall, from The Musgrave Ritual, though in the story he shoots nota smiley face, but the letters V R, standing for Victoria Regina (another name for Queen Victoria).
Although I was not able to find the whole scene in one video, I found three short ones that has almost the whole thing (minus a second or two):
Sherlock “Bored” Scene Recreation
These guys usually do videos based on Doctor Who (both original stories and also hilarious impersonations), but after a number of requests, they redid the above scene (minus the head-in-the-fridge bit):
For those curious, below is the original solar system argument:
My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
“You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”
“To forget it!”
“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System!” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
Since restarting this blog, there has been a new Sherlock Holmes series, called, simply. Sherlock (Original, right? LOL!). I will post my review of it here (I have it posted somewhere else at the moment). But I wanted to show some brilliant fanvids here.
A Study in Time
Oh My Gosh! This video just blew me away. It’s done like a BBC trailer for a show (even has the BBC One logo on the bottom), combining Sherlock and Doctor Who (BTW, both shows are written and (in the case of Sherlock) created by (Steven Moffat (head DW writer) and Mark Gatiss). Unfortunately, Moffat has said that he will never combine the two on one show though I think he should for charity like Big Nose Day or Children in Need. Anyway….
Short explanation of the Sherlock show. Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman) are brought up in present day instead of Victorian England. If you haven’t seen it, please do yourself a favor and watch it! Acting, writing, sets, etc., top notch! The song is Cracking the Code by PostHaste Music.
Sherlock Holmes: The Boys Are Back
I found out about this video from the Baker Street Blog (a great blog to find out news from the world of Holmes and Watson) a while back. This includes 5 different sets of Holmes-Watson teams: Rathbone-Bruce, Brett-Burke, Basil-Dawson (from Disney’s Great Mouse Detective movie), Downey-Law, and Cumberbatch-Freeman. Note that in different clips Holmes is playing the violin during the guitar solo…. nice touch!
Sherlock – ‘tick, Tick BOOM’
A short one. And loud music. Probably will attract attention if you play it with people around. Tick Tick Boom by The Hives.
Sherlock – Life in Technicolour
Life in Tecnicolour ii is one of the best songs by Coldplay, so put together with one of the beat teams of Holmes & Watson, it’s hard to not like it :). But it’s a short video :(, still brilliant though.
To continue where I left off before being so rudely interrupted….
Jeremy Brett is too sexy!
A video that always makes me smile, if not laugh, is this one, done to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy”
Jeremy Brett and Rowan Atkinson
On the theme of funny videos, there’s this one that is short clips of the Granada series with Jeremy Brett doing something, and then a clip of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean character doing something similar. When I first saw the title of this video, I thought it was both of them performing together (that would have been a hoot!).
Sherlock Holmes- Stagnation
We now go to the darker side. This video is made by givemeanimeanyday, the same person who made the excellent “Fix You” video that I posted before. The song is The Precipice by Mogwai. Deals with Holmes’ darker moods and habits.
Holmes and Watson at Reichenbach Falls
A great edited video using just two episodes: The Final Problem and Empty House. I’ll quote creator lyerlyreddwarf:
“My goal was to show in real time Watson rushing back to Holmes, after he has realized he has been tricked into leaving him to battle Professor Moriarty — only to find that he is too late. I also wanted to exemplify the emotions of Holmes and Watson — Watson’s sadness at the (erroneous) realization that his friend has died, and Holmes’ difficulty at not reveling himself when he sees his companion’s distress.”
Unless you have seen both episodes, it’s hard to notice which clips are from which episode. Wonderfully done, both editing and choice of music! Song is the Violin Concerto, 2nd movement by Philip Glass. After hearing this song, I became a fan of Mr. Glass 🙂
No, not a wedding anniversary (won’t have another one of those for a long time yet). But today is the anniversary of me starting to use the name Calvero.
Ah, I remember like it was yesterday…
Well, no, not yesterday…. some things have happened since which makes it seem longer than 15 years…
I had signed up for a BBS (bulletin board system… very popular in the early days of the internet boom). I had been on the internet since January of ’95. And to signup for this BBS (ah, the days of Dynasty BBS of Orlando!) you had to create a username. Being a Chaplin fan, I tried using “Charlie”.
Drat, already taken.
So I tried a couple others. None took.
So I sat and thought. It should be a good name. One that sticks out somewhat but not to odd or too difficult for me to remember how to spell it.
What about Hynkel? The name Chaplin used for The Great Dictator? No, don’t think so. While it was a great movie, Hynkel being a wonderful parody of Adolf Hitler, I wasn’t to keen on using a mass muderer related name. Verdoux from Monsieur Verdoux, but that’s about another mass murderer.
What about Calvero from Limelight? Sounds cool, Chaplin related, and as I thought about it later, it also has a link to a couple other interests. Buster Keaton (he makes a brilliant appearance in it) and also Nigel Bruce who plays Mr. Postant. Bruce is most famous for playing Dr. Watson opposite Basil Rathbone in the popular 1940s Sherlock Holmes films (Chaplin hired Bruce for that reason, since Chaplin has a part in Holmes history.
I soon “met” many people in that BBS’s chatroom, though only one person I have stayed in contact with since those days. Others changed their name a couple times but I kept mine. I liked it, it sounded cool, and it sounded like I was a guy, so I wouldn’t be hounded by guys.
That year would bring other things, good and bad, but I just wanted to note the beginning of a beautiful, and sometimes rough, relationship (of sorts).
Wouldn’t you know it? The next day after my post about my favorite Holmes fanvids, I found another really good one…
Holmes & Watson- Fix You
I got a little choked up when I watched the Read My Mind fanvid, but this one really got me choked up. The below one is done to ColdPlay’s “Fix You”, also featuring clips from the Granada series. As with Read My Mind, the editing done in time with the song is top notch.
Sherlock Holmes – Safety Dance
This one is a bit repetitive, but fun. Men Without Hats classic 80s song, “Safety Dance”. More Granada clips (are you getting the impression that the Granada series was/is that popular among fans? :D)
Sherlock can do anything
One that made me laugh was this one done to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Sueade Shoes”. And no need to adjust your computer, it is double speed.
I love how Holmes throws paper around the room. Poor Mrs. Hudson!
These (especially “Read My Mind” and “Fix You”) have got me thinking about putting together a fan video of my own. I already have a couple songs in my head, and have been working out what parts could go where. Maybe one day I’ll finally make it 🙂
In my last (regular) post, I talked about the official video for “Discombobulate”, the main theme for the recent Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. (Hans was robbed of an Oscar! Shame on the Academy!!)
One thing I have become a fan of are fan-made music videos. To keep in line with my last couple posts, I list below some of my favorite Holmes related ones:
Sherlock Holmes Symphony
First up is a great medley of Holmes from various films, TV, and animation (even some anime!) done to The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony. Opens with scene from CSI’s “Who Shot Sherlock?” episode (which happened to air on what would have been, if he existed, Sherlock’s 150th birthday), along with scenes (not listed in order) from Jeremy Brett (but of course!), Star Trek: The Next Genereation (loved the “Elementary, My Dear Data” episode!), The Simpsons, Daffy Duck & Porky Pig, Michael Pennington (from the very enjoyable TV movie “Return of Sherlock Holmes” where Holmes wakes up in 1980s England by Watson’s great granddaughter), Peter Cushing, Ronald Howard (an overlooked actor. Played the Great Sleuth back in the 50s on TV. Minus having blond hair, he made a great Holmes!) Basil Rathbone (another “but of course!”), shot of Laurel & Hardy wearing deerstalkers, Buster Keaton (from his masterpiece “Sherlock Jr”), and many others.
Last night I found this great video. From the title I was afraid it was going to be another slash vid, but it turned to be really really good. I watched it numerous times in a row, even getting a little choked up. Stars fast clips from the Granada series with Jeremy Brett, David Burke, and Edward Hardwicke. And with a sweet ending! The song is “Read my Mind” by The Killers. Great video on a greater friendship:
Sherlock Holmes, “Tubthumping”
Next is a very good vid taken from scenes of the Robert Downey Jr. movie. What makes this vid really interesting is that it was made before the DVD/Blu-Ray release. Clips were taken from already released scenes on the ‘net and trailers. Song is the 90s hit “TubThumping” by Chumbawamba:
Sherlock Holmes Featurette (Brett & Downey Jr>
This one combines both Brett’s and Downey’s Holmes with the song “All the Strange Strange Creatures” from the new Doctor Who series (season 3). One of the best songs from the new series (IMHO, of course). Anyway, it’s a very good combination! I’ll later post my favorite Doctor Who fan vids.
Sherlock Holmes video – Rocky Road to Dublin
And in honor of today being St. Patrick’s Day, below is also from the recent Sherlock Holmes movie. “Rocky Road to Dublin” by the Dubliners. While the song was in the movie, it’s not on the soundtrack 🙁 (whose brilliant idea was that?)
As I mentioned in my review for Sherlock Holmes, I loved the soundtrack. LOVED IT! Hans Zimmer is a genius! And a week ago an official music was released:
Starring the composer, Hans Zimmer, along with Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr (doing crazy antics. DANCE!…. but no Jude Law! Bummer!), Davey Johnstone (banjo), Anne-Marie Calhoun (violin), Tina Guo (cello), Lorne Balfe (co-wrote music), Aleksey Igudesman (another violin… the dude on the elephant), Satnam Singh Ramgotra (guy with full beard and the stand up big wide drum) Diego Stacco (crazy but awesome looking & sounding violin/viola/cello instrument), Atli Örvarsson, Bob Badami (don’t know exactly which one they are…maybe on the boat? or drumsticks?).
“Hans asked the musicians who participated on the soundtrack to video themselves, wherever they are in order to make this little video. Aleksey happened to be on an elephant in Thailand…”
What the video also pointed out to me was the different nationalities: British, German, Russian, American, Italian, Canadian…
Another thing I noticed: this is one of the few videos for a soundtrack where there are absolutely no clips of the film, just the cover for the CD.
And this weekend are the Oscars, and I sure hope that the soundtrack wins for best score. It should!
DVD/BluRay to be released….
According to Amazon, the movie is to be released later this month, March 30. The BluRay is where a lot of the extra features are at… bummer. I am hoping to get a digital copy so I can put it on my Creative Zen 🙂