Watson - The Final Problem, at the Edinburgh Fringe.

 

Rating: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

5 out of 5. The Full bottle!

We all know about Sherlock Holmes and his arch-enemy, Moriarty. And we all know about Holmes' best friend, Watson.

But do we?

Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street is a world-wide Literary Legend. Indeed, I've quite recently interviewed an author who has been commissioned to write new Sherlock stories. Have a fumble through this blog and you'll find it!

But here, at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, Watson is touchingly alone. His beloved wife Mary and the great Sherlock Holmes are both gone. London seethes with false reports and rumours. So it is time to set the record straight.

What the hugely talented Tim Marriott has done, with co-writer and director Bert Coules, is give us a fresh and fantastic take on the whole Sherlock Holmes and Watson story and what really happened with the two friends from Watson's partisan point of view.

You need no previous knowledge of Sherlock Holmes. Tim (forever famous for playing Gavin in the rather brilliant BBC sitcom The Brittas Empire) takes us on an adventure that is both epic, yet strangely emotional. Watson, the now lonely old soldier, is very keen to do the right thing by everyone - especially Holmes. Marriott brings a very relevant characterisation to a fictional conceit and plays the various characters - including of course, Holmes - with a nuanced talent which is both intimate yet expansive.

Watson, the old soldier, has a story to tell. And we get an entertaining Boys-Own romp with an adult and emotional heart.

Elementary, my dear Marriott.