THE SPECKLED BAND

Working through my collection of Big Finish audio dramas, I’ve been listening to The Speckled Band starring Nicholas Briggs as Sherlock Holmes, and Richard Earl as Dr Watson.

My only previous experience of this pairing was a 10-minute Christmas freebie given away in the past and, to be honest, it didn’t impress me much.  This is probably why I’ve hesitated getting into this range.  I’m quite a follower of the various Sherlock Holmes incarnations, and I’m very intolerant of any that play fast and loose with the original source material.

The Speckled Band is one of my favourite Conan Doyle stories of Sherlock Holmes.  It’s quite understated, relatively straightforward, and fairly predictable – which means that it’s easy to compare different productions, and so be quite critical of them if they deviate too far from source.  Despite some relatively minor deviations from source, one of my favourite productions of The Speckled Band is the Raymond Massey version from 1931 – prior to the time when Holmes got typecast in the Basil Rathbone style.

It’s with some relief that I can report that the Big Finish version is a worthy instalment in the chronicles of the great detective.  The narrative is pretty faithful, and the production is akin to a “talking book” (with the way Conan Doyle wrote the stories, using Dr Watson’s “stories” as a bridge between Holmes and the reader, the adventures lend themselves to this method of story-telling).

Richard Earl makes for a very listenable Dr Watson as he retells the tale of The Speckled Band, and Nicholas Briggs is a very accessible Sherlock Holmes – neither too arrogant, nor too friendly.  Briggs delivers just what the character requires and no more.  There’s no attempt to reinterpret the character for a modern audience, no attempt to “pop culture” it with mobile phones and such nonsense.  It’s just very sensible (and, therefore, pretty good) retelling of the story that Conan Doyle wrote.

The only downside to this approach, of course, is that if you’ve either read the story or listened to any source-faithful audio version, or watched any source-faithful live action version, then you’re not going to learn much here.  This is one for those who are unfamiliar with the story or a Holmes completist.  I’d fall into the latter category.

But the good news is that the pairing of Briggs and Earl works well enough that I’m pretty keen to check out some of the other Sherlock Holmes offerings from Big Finish.  The only question is – do I go for another Conan Doyle retelling, a new Big Finish story, or one in which Holmes enjoys a crossover with Doctor Who?