Continuing The Guttering Candle from The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes with Nicholas Briggs as Sherlock Holmes, Richard Earl as Dr Watson, and John Banks as Inspector Lestrade, Holmes uses his flair with disguises to infiltrate a circus troupe as a ringmaster.  He ingratiates himself with a friend of the dead man, and learns that he’d develop a friendship with a wealthy man.

THE GUTTERING CANDLE

In Afghanistan, Dr Watson tries his best to save the Englishman, but his tireless efforts eventually prove to be to no avail.  Prior to his death, the man gives Watson a package that he promises to deliver back in London.

The angle of the stab wounds on the body had given Holmes cause to doubt the murder and his interview with the wealthy man proves his conclusions.

After being wounded himself, and suffering a bout of fever that sees him invalided back to Blighty, Watson delivers his parcel some several months after the incident with the Englishman and on his immediate return to London.  There’s something odd about the address and the woman he meets inside, but there’s little he can do to investigate further.

Although we’re yet to have Holmes & Watson work together, this first story of four in The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes is quite delightful in that we get what is a familiar Holmesian story with a Watson narration that allows both characters the opportunity to explore themselves without their partner in deduction.

This works particularly well for Dr Watson given that, in most Sherlock Holmes adaptations, we’re told that he served in the war but rarely do we get any hint of what he did.  Indeed, there are a number of interpretations of Watson over the years in which you wonder if he had the ability of serve at all.  In the films of the 1920s-1930s, it’s fairly easy to believe that the Dr Watsons of Ian Hunter or Ian Fleming were the kind of traditional British chap that would have served, but it’s much more difficult to believe that many of the Watsons created in the shadow of Nigel Bruce had served in the capacity we’re supposed to believe.   Right up to the current modern popular series of Sherlock, it’s difficult on most occasions to believe that even Martin Freeman’s Watson had done so given that he’s so easily bullied into his box by everyone from Sherlock to his wife.  That’s the trouble with making a Watson so far hidden in Holmes’ shadow that he has no real personality of his own.

Prior to this adventure, Richard Earl’s Dr Watson had been more into the former category than the latter and The Guttering Candle reinforces that impression.  It’s very welcome to see him having his own “solo” adventure and I, for one, would welcome more of the same.

For Holmes, I was initially sceptical that Nicholas Briggs would deliver a younger Holmes as effectively as he does the more retiring Holmes, but I need not have been worried.  This, pre-Watson, younger Holmes is a delight with his enthusiastic brashness – even if I’m not entirely convinced that his OTT “Ringmaster” disguise would have fooled anyone, least of all those who are in the business.  That said, without a visual cue for the disguise, it’s important that the voice is as far removed from the familiar Holmes voice as is possible and, in that, Briggs excels.

In comparative terms, Briggs’ younger Holmes here is reminiscent of Ronald Howard’s Sherlock Holmes from the 1950s Sheldon Reynolds TV series.  In that series, it was Reynold’s and Howard’s intention to present a more confident, albeit vulnerable, version of Holmes in preference to the arrogant near-invulnerable version we see in other adventures of the more established Holmes.  Briggs’ “young Holmes” here would fit in right before the Ronald Howard version, admirably filling in a gap in Holmes’ life.

The story itself poses many questions, and I’m not sure all of them were answered.  The actual death is resolved satisfactorily, but I’m not sure I heard any explanation of why the dead man was naked.  And, given that the intent was to point the guilty finger at the man’s wealthy friend, I don’t see how he achieved that aim for, without Holmes, the link would surely not have been made (and I’m not entirely sure how Holmes made that link in any case).  Perhaps that’s my own fault for listening to these adventures last thing at night and, perhaps, I missed something crucial.

Nevertheless, The Guttering Candle succeeds thanks to the main characters of Holmes & Watson.  It succeeds in presenting earlier versions of characters we know so well already.  And it succeeds in setting up a couple of pointers for the following stories in The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes.

The Guttering Candle concludes with about ten minutes of interviews with the principle cast, with some thought put in to how to pronounce “Lestrade” – with “Lestrard” and “Lestraid” both being considered.  It doesn’t sound like anyone considered the Arthur Wontner pronunciation of “Less – straid”, which is rather a pity (or, perhaps, a relief).