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Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia (2012)Review by Sam Wollaston
OK, so we begin where we left off with Moriarty at a London swimming pool which is kind of the Reichenbach Falls. Well, it's wet and it's where the big showdown with Moriarty happens. But he doesn't kill Sherlock, because he gets a phone call from a lady, who turns out to be Irene Adler. Ah yes, the woman, the only one who ever meant anything to Holmes, from Conan Doyle's A Scandal in Bohemia. This story is called A Scandal in Belgravia. Stephen Moffat seems to be moving stuff from Europe to London, as well as shunting everything 120 or so years forward in time. In Sir ACD's story, a European royal house is threatened with ruin through blackmail. There are compromising photographs. Here it's our monarchy, and the pictures are on an iPhone. Same idea though. And Sherlock uses the same trick to find where the phone is – smoke, a fake fire, the alarm goes off. In a fire a person's first thought is their most treasured possession – obviously a child, if there is one. Miss Adler doesn't have one, but she does have pictures of royals doing things they shouldn't. So she looks to where the photos/iPhone are/is hidden. Gotcha. Except that Adler is a bit smarter than that. Her battle of wits with Holmes isn't over yet. Hence his uncharacteristic respect. So hang on, is this simply an updated version of the Conan Doyle story? Don't be daft, it's been Moffatised as well as modernised. He starts off parallel but then wanders off left and right, into... |