…And so it was, Team Sherlockology gathered for their first
official engagement: a viewing of The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes [Billy Wilder, 1970] in
the company of Mark Gatiss, at the Lexi Cinema, Greater London. At
least, that's what was advertised. In the end, we got more than we
bargained for….In a good way.
After an entertaining drive through baking sun and pouring rain
around the M25 to avoid the congestion charge zone, we arrived at
the spacious free car park around the back of the cinema, collected
our tickets, picked our seating and admired the superb overhead
lighting that reminded us tremendously of the staging for
Frankenstein at the National Theatre. Two of our number then
decided it was time for a brief smoking intermission outside before
the set 8:30 start time.
It was at this point, outside, smoking and fiddling with her
iPhone, one of the team completely missed Steven Moffat entering
the premises, while the other stood in stereotypically slack jawed
surprise - it was after all unexpected that he'd just casually
stroll up the road and use the front entrance.
Once inside, he bounded up the short flight of steps to the left
of the cinema screen, to the bar, and collected a well-deserved
glass of red wine after a hard day spent scripting the first
adventure in the second series of Sherlock, A Scandal in Belgravia.
After which he stood nonchantly in the side aisle, studiously
reading on his phone, while all the patrons already inside, the
writer included, sat in hushed awe of his presence. Or maybe they
just ignored him, as they didn't have the faintest idea who he was,
having not spent their Saturday nights watching Doctor Who
Confidential.
The film was introduced by the billed host, Mark Gatiss,
appearing suitably 'Mycroftian' after the last time we saw him
bearded and check shirted at the Kapow! Comic Con in mid
April.
Having never seen The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
before, we weren't sure exactly what we were in for at first. The
film carries a large element of humour, misunderstanding and farce
in the first twenty minutes, with Holmes berating Watson for
forcing him to walk around in a deerstalker before causing a huge
misunderstanding about the pair's sexuality. The film felt as if it
slightly lacked direction in those early stages, before settling
down to a mystery not based upon any Conan Doyle text, but still
true to the occasional brilliant absurdity of Sir Arthur's
originals. And yes, if you read a synopsis of the film, it does
indeed feature the duo taking on The Loch Ness Monster. We may as
well get that out of the way as its important later.
After the screening, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat took their
places in front of the audience for a question and answer
session.
They discussed the inherent absurdity of the film, and how
'nowadays' you simply couldn't get away with such a narrative.
However, Gatiss stated "We're often talking about having a
'Loch Ness Monster' moment, a big setpiece", something so
outrageous the audience cannot quite believe what they are seeing.
Steven Moffat recalled his first viewing of the film, being
initially horrified at what he perceived to be "a comedy
Sherlock Holmes film", before realising how astute the
representation of the relationship between Holmes and Watson
actually was. He has since seen it "between thirty and forty
times!". The notion of the absurd led into talk of some of the
stranger tales by Conan Doyle, particularly The Adventure of the
Speckled Band - or "THERES A SNAKE IN THE SAFE!" - as
brilliantly summarised, and indeed bellowed, by Steven Moffat.
Probably the quote of the night.
A clear parallel between Robert Stephens' and Benedict
Cumberbatch's interpretations of the character was noted, which
Mark Gatiss admitted, but claimed that the character that was most
directly inspired by the film was Mycroft Holmes. The fact that
Sherlock Holmes' older brother would act in an antagonistic manner
towards him was lifted wholesale from Christopher Lee's portrayal
and used by Gatiss in his own performance. But when questioned
further, Steven Moffat said that there was nothing to read into the
'Arch Enemy' tag applied to Mycroft in A Study in Pink - it was
written humorously as a throwaway line by Sherlock - and of course
it was designed purely to make the audience believe Gatiss was
playing Moriarty!
Watson came under the microscope, with Steven Moffat noting that
in his eyes "The best Watsons are always very tongue in cheek,
even when played straight", with comparison to the casting of
Martin Freeman in Sherlock - and of course the due round of
applause and laughter for his BAFTA win in the role. It in turn led
to Moffat commenting on Nigel Bruce's portrayal of the character,
with Basil Rathebone as Holmes, as "a very good stupid
Watson", before remarking that Rathebone's version of Holmes
was dislikeable for his treatment of Watson, "treating him like
a stray dog at times", and one that "he probably would
like to put down" - which led to perhaps the biggest laughs of
the night.
There was discussion of the US Region 1 DVD of The Private Life
of Sherlock Holmes, featuring a good deal of deleted extended cut
material. The film was originally a four hour cut, but was taken
away from director Billy Wilder by the producers and refashioned
into the film as it exists. Two whole mystery plotlines were
excised, leaving only the one. Mark Gatiss professed a fondness for
the idea of one of these two stories, The Upside down Room, where a
man is found dead within a room where all the furniture is bolted
to the ceiling. We won't spoil the solution Holmes deduces to this
problem…
Talk turned to childhood discovery of the books. The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes remains Mark Gatiss' favourite collection of
stories. His original copy was published by Penguin with a purple
spine, "as purple as Sherlock's dressing gown", while
Steven Moffat is very pleased he read all the Sherlock Holmes
stories in the correct order as a boy. Then came the revelation
that Moffat and Gatiss are writing introductions for new editions
of the stories. No release date or publisher was given, and we'll
admit the unexpected 'announcement' by Mark Gatiss threw us for a
bit of a loop.
Humour was mined from the short stories by Conan Doyle, with
Steven Moffat commenting on how quickly some cases were resolved in
the text, clearly as someone had walked in the room and asked Conan
Doyle if he fancied going out to play Cricket. Probably. Or maybe
just possibly.
Admittedly, the Q&A didn't feature any new information of
Sherlock Series 2, other than filming was on-going in Cardiff
during the session, with Mark Gatiss making an occasional show of
clock watching at various points. It seems wherever you go though,
whenever either Moffat or Gatiss mention the title of the third
episode in the series, The Reichenbach Fall, it causes a common
reaction from an attentive audience - an overwhelming chorus of
ominous "Oooooooooooooh's".
After the Q&A was finished, we summoned the courage to grab
autographs and photos with the two men who are arguably Britain's
best TV writers, and to put our own question to them about the
cliff-hanger of The Great Game. Steven Moffat admitted that they
had no resolution in mind to the situation that Sherlock and John
find themselves in when they wrote the episode, but finding that
solution without making it absurd was half the fun, which gained a
laugh from his colleague. An interesting comment, when compared to
the film we had seen earlier.
What is hugely clear, having spent only a short time in the
company of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, is the huge sense of
friendship between the two men, and their mutual love and endless
knowledge of the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In
their own summation, the stories of Sherlock Holmes are purely
"all about friendship". Although when asked if they share
a Holmes and Watson dynamic between themselves when writing, Steven
Moffat simply remarked that they were "Watson and
Watson".
