TALKING SHERLOCK HOLMES WITH ALISTAIR DUNCAN

In 2010 when the BBC asked the Sherlock Holmes Society of London to review the first episode of the new BBC One three part series ‘Sherlock’ on the day of broadcast, they chose Alistair Duncan as their leading expert for interview on BBC Radio 5 Live. Several million listeners tuned in to hear Alistair give the modern day reimagining of Sherlock Holmes the thumbs up.

As an award winning author on the subject of Sherlock Holmes, Alistair’s published material include ‘Eliminate The Impossible’, a book that rocked the Holmes world as it was the first 'honest and frank’ review of Holmes on stage and screen, ‘Close to Holmes’, and 'The Norwood Author’ which won the 2011 Howlett Literary Award (Sherlock Holmes Book Of The Year). He is an active supporter of the ‘Save Undershaw’ campaign, and his new book 'An Entirely New Country’, due for release on December 5th 2011, will look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s years at Undershaw.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Alistair in the lead up to ‘The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate’ which he will also be taking part in on behalf of the ‘Traditionalist’ side, and asked him a few questions about ‘Sherlock’, the original canon, and did Sherlock really fall for Irene Adler?

Alistair, many thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions we know are of particular interest to our readers, followers and fans of BBC ‘Sherlock’.

Q. Firstly, what was it that first drew you to the Sherlock Holmes stories?

A. My first experience of Holmes was The Scarlet Claw with Basil Rathbone. I was eight and had been suffering from either chickenpox or flu. I had ventured out of my room for the first time in a week and this was what my parents were watching. I was captivated and asked questions. However, when I first picked up the books I struggled to reconcile the Nazi fighting Holmes of the films with the Holmes of the books. It was not until Jeremy Brett came along that I truly got to grips with the canon. Mr. Brett unlocked the stories for me.

Q. Which adaptation or portrayal of the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson characters do you feel are most faithful to the canon?

A. That’s difficult. Jeremy Brett and David Burke were probably best in every respect other than their ages. I would then follow them with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. This is based purely on characterisation and takes no account of period.

Q. In ‘A Study in Scarlet’ Watson writes that Holmes does not know that the earth goes around the sun, yet in later stories he is clearly represented a polymath. With this in mind, do you think any adaptation can capture the character of Holmes as a whole or is he simply too complex to be represented in a film, radio broadcast or single television episode?

A. I don’t think any actor can capture Holmes 100% but this is due to Conan Doyle’s lack of consistency in describing his character. For example, Holmes tells us that he only stores the knowledge that is useful in his day-to-day crime fighting life but then in The Lion’s Mane we find that he has an up-to-date knowledge of Jellyfish.

Q. Although the Sherlock Holmes stories have never been out of print, why is now the right time for a revival with both Guy Richie’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and BBC ‘Sherlock’ both proving so successful?

A. It is tempting to say that the 150th anniversary of Conan Doyle’s birth in 2009 had something to do with it but I recognise that many people love Holmes whilst having next to no knowledge of his creator. I don’t think timing has all that much to do with it. I think with the right amount of hype the level of interest Holmes is enjoying now could have been created at any time. It just so happens that the right people have sat around the right tables in the last few years.

Q. When Peter Cushing starred in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (1959) it was only the third time it had been played in period, yet today, unlike Ian Fleming’s James Bond who is thought of as contemporary figure, Holmes is identified mainly in his original era. How important to the stories is it to keep him as a Victorian character?

A. I don’t consider it vital but I do consider it important. Whilst I don’t have anything against a modern Holmes (I enjoy the BBC series immensely) I look upon the Victorian setting as another character – and very much a supporting one. I read a very good opinion on this elsewhere (I cannot recall where) where it was pointed out that Holmes as a pioneer of forensics and a man needed by the police makes sense in Victorian times when forensics was in its infancy and Scotland Yard itself was similar (being only about sixty years old). It makes slightly less sense for a modern established force that has embraced forensics to be so reliant on an outsider. The excellent writing on the modern Sherlock makes you overlook this but if you stop and think about it Holmes’s importance to the police makes more sense in a Victorian setting.

Q. Clearly the friendship between Holmes and Watson is part of the reason why so many people read the stories over and over again despite knowing ‘who done it’. What do you think makes this relationship so special and why did Holmes choose Watson as his one companion above any other?

A. I think Holmes summed it up quite well in Hound of the Baskervilles - “you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” Holmes needed a dependable companion who was knowledgeable in his own field but who would not compete with him. He also needs Watson to provide the absurdly simple viewpoint that he is often incapable of seeing for himself. If Holmes chose Watson for any one reason I would suspect it was for his medical knowledge. It was after all the one area where Watson knew more than Holmes (at least we assume he did).

Q. Moriarty could not dispose of Sherlock Holmes, even his author Arthur Conan Doyle could not kill him, so therefore can there be any real suspension of disbelief when Holmes is in jeopardy if the man is truly eternally invincible?

A. I don’t think we ever fear for Holmes’s physical safety and it isn’t that which is important. Our greatest fear as readers/viewers is that he will be outwitted (even if only briefly). There were enough examples of Holmes getting either actually or nearly outwitted to keep us on edge. We fear for the health of his reputation rather than his existence itself. That is the jeopardy.

Q. With that in mind, in BBC ‘Sherlock: A Study in Pink’ do you think Sherlock did in fact choose the correct pill or did his addiction to ‘the game’ cloud his judgment making John indispensible for the survival of the character?

A. I’m not sure anyone other than Steven Moffat can answer that one. The way it was portrayed very much points to your latter suggestion.

Q. Both Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes were both drug takers and chain smokers, where Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch’s versions are represented as neither. Has a modern mainstream audience diluted Holmes’ character or is putting such importance on this aspect of his behavior misplaced?

A. I was disappointed that they left it out. I actually think it was a bit cowardly. The BBC had produced Holmes adventures and Conan Doyle adventures where Holmes took cocaine so there was a precedent. Perhaps they feared that a new hip Holmes would be emulated and therefore such habits were undesirable.

Q. Holmes’ sexuality has been a hot topic of discussion again since in BBC ‘Sherlock’, Sherlock replies to John during a scene in ‘A Study in Pink’, “Girlfriend? No. Not really my area.” Some Holmesian scholars have speculated that Holmes was in fact gay (a fact even perhaps unrecognised by Doyle himself at the time) where today asexual is a term commonly used for his character, but interestingly he is rarely thought of as heterosexual. What do we know of the character that would rule that out if at all?

A. Ah – the hot potato. I think some people really want Holmes to be gay but I don’t see any evidence of it. When looking at this question you cannot base the answer purely on the stories themselves or any of the many theories presented from the ‘playing the game’ perspective (which do not assist us in coming to a realistic answer). You have to examine the age they were written in.

Conan Doyle had an extreme fear of poverty which was caused by his experiences as a child. When he became an adult he took it upon himself to support not only his immediate family but his extended family as well. Consequently he had considerable financial outgoings. He took his financial responsibility to his dependents very seriously and would never knowingly place it at risk. It was for this reason that he often wrote Holmes stories despite disliking the character.

If it had been widely believed that Holmes was gay Conan Doyle could potentially have faced serious questions and maybe even legal action. Had this happened his income would have disappeared and his family would have been put at risk of poverty – something he could never permit.

He may have created a character enigmatic enough to encourage speculation but I don’t believe he ever even considered the idea of sexuality. His main reason for giving Holmes/Watson precious little domestic background was a simple desire to give his audience what they wanted which was two heroes fighting for justice with no mundane distractions.

Q. Speaking of attraction, with the upcoming second series of BBC ‘Sherlock’ featuring THE Woman, in your opinion was Sherlock Holmes in love with Irene Adler as many suggest or did he merely respect her for outsmarting him?

A. It is the latter for certain. Watson makes it very clear that Holmes did not love Adler. He respected her as an opponent and as a woman who went against all his expectations. The obsession with trying to turn her into his love interest is something that really irritates me and is one of my principal dislikes of the Warner Bros. film.

Q. And finally, if you could meet Sherlock Holmes, do you have a burning question you would want to ask him?

A. Boring perhaps but I would ask him what his favourite cases were and see how close they came to Conan Doyle’s list of favourite Holmes stories.

If you would like to read more from Alistair, you can find his blog at: http://alistaird221b.blogspot.com/

His published collection can be purchased from Amazon or MX Publishing and you can pre-order his new book for which Mark Gatiss has written the foreword (with 50% of net royalties going towards the Save Undershaw campaign) below here