DVD Corner

Sherlock Chronicles Book Review

“Sherlock Chronicles” is great fun for fans of the series.

With series 4 nearly upon us at long last, it seems only timely to review the Dey St. hardcover release of“Sherlock Chronicles.” The book (which was penned by Steve Tribe) is a rather comprehensive piece that gives readers and fans a behind-the-scenes look at the hit BBC series “Sherlock.”

From page one on, “Sherlock Chornicles” is jam packed with material including (but not limited to) script pages, a Mark Gatiss foreword, some history of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes,” info. about how “Sherlock” came about, interviews/quotes with everyone from Steven Moffat to Benedict Cumberbatch, glossy stills from episodes, casting details, email exchanges between Moffat and Gatiss, deleted scene pages, production design discussions, episode by episode production stories for the first 3 series, a feature on David Arnold and Michael Price’s irresistible score, cast bios, location and set photos, storyboards (including one for the roof jump sequence), visual effects breakdowns, and a wedding album of John and Mary from “The Signs of Three.”

At 320 pages, “Sherlock Chronicles” certainly gives you your money’s worth. Not only will devoted fans get a plethora of juicy behind-the-scenes tidbits about nearly every aspect of the show, but there’s also a ton of near stuff here to boot. For instance, one of my personal favorite bits involved seeing the side by side comparisons of Doyle’s text from his Sherlock Holmes stories with episode script texts from the series. It’s really fascinating to compare and contrast the original material with the adaptations. Equally interesting to see are pages of the series script bible which will certainly be of note to fellow writers.

Overall Thoughts: No matter what aspect of “Sherlock” you like most, something tells me “Sherlock Chronicles” will cover it within these pages. A must have for fans of the great series.

December 13, 2016 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Uncategorized | Arthur Conan Doyle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Gatiss, Sherlock Chronicles Book Review, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock TV Series, Steven Moffat