Words At Large

One of the most enduring and beloved literary characters in the world is an anti-social, cocaine-taking eccentric who’s also a genius at deduction: Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective has long been a favourite with filmmakers, too. Many distinguished actors, including John Barrymore, Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer, have donned the famous deerstalker hat. Now Robert Downey Jr. is set to join that list, as the star of Sherlock Holmes, a Guy Ritchie project that’s currently in production and is slated for release in 2010.

In honour of the peerless sleuth whose appeal never seems to wear thin, Words At Large did some investigating of its own, dipping into the CBC archives to unearth two lively conversations about Holmes conducted by experts in all things Sherlockian. As Holmes himself might say, "Good show!"

This first clip comes from Morningside. In 1987, to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Sherlock Holmes story, the late Peter Gzowski assembled a trio of Holmes enthusiasts (Thelma Beam in Toronto, Mark Hacksley in Winnipeg and Wilfred de Freitas in Montreal) to discuss the character’s enduring appeal. Test your expertise and play along with the short quiz Gzowski springs on his guests to see how much you know about the books.

The second clip aired October 22, 2006 on The Sunday Edition. That month, fans of Sherlock Holmes gathered in Toronto to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Arthur Conan Doyle collection housed in the Toronto Reference Library. The Sunday Edition brought together Peggy Perdue, the curator of the collection, Charles Prepolec of Calgary’s Sherlock Holmes Society and Peter Calamai, a Toronto Star writer and a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the leading Sherlockian organization in North America. They talked to host Christopher Thomas about Holmes’s relationship with Watson and the film adaptations of the books.

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