Nikki Stafford

A companion to the BBC show. Examines each episode, exploring the character development and cataloging every reference to the original stories. With biographies of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, as well as Arthur Conan Doyle.

An Unofficial Guide

Investigating Sherlock

Cath

First of all, a huge shoutout to Sam over at ECW Press for sending over this book! She knows how obsessed I am over Sherlock and offered to send me this book to add in to my collection. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!❤

“He’s been depicted as a serious thinker, a master of deduction, a hopeless addict, a bare-knuckle fighter. His companion is a bumbler, a sympathetic equal, someone helpless in the face of his friend’s social inadequacies“… that’s all you have to know about Sherlock and John, really. The perfect combo, these two lads. And just like the cover, Stafford’s narration was a piece of art!

The guide starts off with an introduction of the genius producers behind the show, the iconic author Arthur Conan Doyle, and even the brilliant casts who starred in the series. It’s a thrill to read about behind the scene auditions these celebrities went through and how they were carefully picked to play the characters of the set, what the directors had to say, and the story that contrasts the victorian and modern era!

I love how the author compares Doyle’s Sherlock to BBC’s. ACD to BBC, as she’d put it. She points out little easter eggs that appeared in BBC’s Sherlock that were supposedly references to ACD’s Holmes which, to me (having to only read a few of the original Sherlock Holmes), were really interesting. It literally made me go ‘oh right, that happened! I didn’t notice!’and it’s just so nice to get to know the film a little better each time I flip the page.

I’ve read Guy Adam’s Sherlock: The Casebook and adored it. However, Stafford’s guide had me look at Sherlock in a completely different way. Both guides differ in a way in which Adam constructs the story through illustrations whereas Stafford through sections such as: highlights (something funny that happened), interesting facts (behind the scenes info), did you notice?‘s (,little easter eggs as I mentioned), and oops‘ (bloopers). A completely different outtake, but equally as fascinating!

Calling out all my fellow Sherlockians to pick up this book – it’s a true masterpiece! If you would like a more in-depth analyzation of this hit TV series, you know what to get the next time you step foot in a bookstore.

Investigating Sherlock An Unofficial Guide

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