The Hound of the Baskervilles (1999) starring Clive Merrison
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2023
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Clive Merrison and Michael Williams are, so far, the only pair of actors to star as Holmes and Watson in adaptations of every single one of Conan Doyle's original stories. This 1999 adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles was the closing chapter in this epic, which had begun eleven years earlier with a different production of the same story. That first play had starred Roger Rees and Crawford Logan, and the series had followed from it - though Rees and Logan did not reprise their roles. In stepped Merrison and Williams and the rest is history.
(That 1988 adaptation is also available on the channel, along with a couple of other really good ones that are worth checking out)
Clive Merrison remains my favourite Holmes - his voice lends the character a quality of particularly vulpine cunning, and Williams is excellent as the steadfast Watson. Sadly Michael Williams died fairly soon after his partnership with Merrison had reached this point of completion. He would, no doubt, have returned though - because Merrison's Holmes returned for further series of brand new adventures based on references to 'unseen' cases in the original stories. Andrew Sachs stepped in, making an excellent Watson - but Michael Williams can never be forgotten.
Williams had a small surprise during the making of this play because when they came to record a scene featuring Mrs Hudson, it was only then that he discovered they had cast his wife in the role. His wife, for those who don't know, was Dame Judi Dench - listen out for her brief cameo appearance!
MYSTERIOUS MAGPIE is a channel devoted to ghost and horror stories on British radio, and to dark tales of every kind. I have another channel, MYSTICAL MAGPIE, which is all about stories of fantasy, mythology, and adventure: / @mysticalmagpie-wo5fn
If you're interested to know more about the century-long history of ghost and horror stories broadcast at Christmas on British television and radio, you might like to check out HOLLY WRAITHS (and its companion volume HOLLY TERRORS), an A-Z guide available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Lulu.com.
Holly Wraiths on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Holly-Wraith...
My favourite radio version with a great cast, liked Michael Williams as Dr Watson.
The best version hands down
My favourite, to be sure, and the only one with Judi Dench - but the recent adaptation by Neil Brand is great fun too...
Easily the best version on the Internet
Glad you like it - it's my favourite; Clive Merrison appeared with Michael Williams in adaptations of every single Conan Doyle Holmes story, and it's well worth trying other examples of his series...
I missed this version. Thanks for uploading it.
I don’t think I knew it was based in fact until this second time round. Crazy. Thanks!
It's certainly based on real geography (eg the prison at Princetown) and real folklore. I had several holidays on Dartmoor as a kid, and it's an extraordinary place (Steven Spielberg filmed some of War Horse there and by all accounts he was amazed by the landscape). They have a myth of 'the Wisht Hounds', ghost-dogs that chase damned souls across the moor at night - clearly this inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But in fact ghost hounds are fairly common in Britain and the biggest baddest of them is called 'Old Shuck' or 'Black Shuck'. He's popular in parts of England settled by Scandinavians so it's often suggested that this myth is based on Fenris the wolf from Viking lore... But it's also been suggested that Conan Doyle may have borrowed Black Shuck and combined him with the story of the Wisht Hounds to create the hound of the Baskervilles...
It isn't.
it is based on the fact that there is a myth@@cacambo589