I Grok Sherlock

Until you hear us again for Hound of the Baskervilles, Happy Listening, Grokkers! The post The Final Problem Part 3 – Season 2 Finale appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

We pick up where Part 1 left off. Now we dive into pastiches and adaptations (and you all know what a difficult time Mike and Geordie have coming up with anything to say about film and TV!) More great stuff from our guests Peggy Perdue and Matt Burke. With a musical finale! The post The Final Problem Part 2 (Still not so final) appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Here we go! Part 1 of what will surely a very long Reichenbach fall indeed! Thanks to our special guests Peggy Perdue and Matt Burke who bring welcome new voices to this, part one of the final episode of Season 2. Happy listening! The post Ep. 26 – The Final Problem Pt. 1 – with Guests Peggy Perdue and Matt Burke appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Mike presents his awesome “Sherlock Noir” pastiche to the Bootmakers of Toronto at their Feb. 24, 2018 meeting. Hear Holmes as you’ve never heard him before in this wonderful re-imagining complete with stoic self-sacrifice and peppery jive. Play it again, Sarasate. The post Footnote 21: Sherlock Noir – The Big Scandal appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

It’s our first social distancing episode, recorded with Zoom so’s we don’t infect each other with the Tapanuli Fever. Is Percy Phelps worthy of the position he’s been given? Does Holmes believe in God? Geordie and Mike debate these and other burning questions. Quarantine has certainly made us no less prolix. The post Ep. 25 – The Naval Treaty appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

So much Sherlockian lore in such a short story! Mycroft, the Diogenes Club, and more – all get introduced in what must surely rank as the shortest real-time adventure in the Canon (though we’re willing to be wrong about that) clocking in at around six hours from start to finish. Consider yourselves lucky we didn’t […] The post Ep. 24 – The Greek Interpreter appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

This month’s footnote is an early 2019 presentation to the Bootmakers of Toronto by Mimi Okabe, a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta, where in 2017 she designed and taught her dream course, “Sherlock Holmes and the Transcultural Imagination.” The full title of Dr. Okabe’s paper is “From Wiggins and Beyond: Representations […] The post Footnote 20 – From Wiggins and Beyond: Mimi Okabe appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Once more the game is a footnote. Hartley Nathan presents his paper – Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper – to the Bootmakers of Toronto at their April 13, 2019 meeting. The talk speaks for itself! Happy Grokking. The post Footnote 19 – Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Whew! That’s a lotta grokking. Mike and Geordie hold forth on The Resident Patient. AND we edited out the parts that seemed to go long. Discussions of: The Who (in 2019), Nosferatu (1922), and Sir William Osler (1849-1919) are entirely optional, but you won’t know they’ve started until after it’s too late. You have been […] The post Ep. 23 – The Resident Patient appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Let the video load. Click the play button. Pause it AS SOON AS the title screen appears. Turn down the YouTube volume. Wait for the “3-2-1-Go” in the podcast file and start the video on “Go!”   The post The Copper Beeches – 1912 Silent Film to Play With Commentary appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Possibly our most diffuse and free-ranging (like chickens) episode yet. Geordie continues down his pet rabbit-hole of origins of everyday objects and industrial materials. Mike champions expanded limits to Victorian scripture knowledge. Nothing says Sherlock like linoleum and the Kings of Judea (We’re not even kidding).   The post Ep. 22 – The Crooked Man appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Mike’s excellent adaptation of Sherlock Holmes as written by Neil Simon (in The Odd Couple vein rather than Same Time Next Year). Voiced by your two co-hosts. Back in August with The Crooked Man. Until then … the game’s a footnote. Wish we were as dapper as Martin and Benedict. The post Footnote 18 – If Sherlock Holmes had been written by Neil Simon appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Michael Robertson, author of the Baker Street Letters series, addressed the Bootmakers of Toronto on March 13, 2019. As always many thanks to Mike for producing this segment. The post Footnote 17- Michael Robertson, “The Baker Street Letters” appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Watson vainly plays nursemaid to Holmes when the Great Detective falls prey to exhaustion following his stunning defeat of Baron Maupertuis. The preceding sentence outlines the more interesting story hidden in the real one. The Reigate Squires is not a favourite of Geordie’s though he does concede that it has some admirable points. As usual, […] The post Ep. 21 – The Reigate Squires appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Mattias Boström, author of the excellent From Holmes to Sherlock, talks to the Bootmakers of Toronto. From Holmes to Sherlock is a wonderful achievement in scholarship – it starts with Conan Doyle’s creation of Holmes, the advent of his immense popularity, and takes us through the cultural impact of Holmes. If you’re listening to this […] The post Footnote 16 – Mattias Boström author of From Holmes to Sherlock appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Hogtown Empire is Geordie’s true crime podcast. In Episode 3 we look past the chummy portrait of Ambrose Small painted in Episode 2. It will emerge that he was NOT a nice man and there were plenty of people who would have nursed grudges against him – with good reason. Hogtown Empire is a true […] The post Crossover – Hogtown Empire Eps. 3 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Whose is it? It is Mike and Geordie’s discussion of the cinema, radio, and TV adaptations of the Musgrave Ritual with a surprisingly in-depth digression on children’s television that reached Toronto from Buffalo in the 1970s. You have been warned.   The post Ep. 20a – The Musgrave Ritual Pt. 2 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

We strongly recommend you visit iGrokSherlcok.com to watch the video while you listen. It’ll be fun! Find the blog entry for ‘Musgrave Ritual – 1912 Silent Film Commentary.’ Just wait til you hear us do the countdown – ‘3-2-1- Go!’   The post Musgrave Ritual – 1912 Silent Film Commentary appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Hogtown Empire is Geordie’s (non-Holmes) true crime podcast (though ACD does tangentially appear a bit later.) In Episode 2 we jump right into Ambrose Small’s last movements on December 1st and 2nd, 1919. Are there any clues to what happened to Ambrose buried in his last movements? He was with someone nearly every minute of […] The post Cross Over – Hogtown Empire Eps. 2 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

The Musgrave Ritual has it all – a creaky ancient estate, a mysterious old document, a dual disappearance, and …  a treasure hunt! Mike and Geordie are so excited to be back that his must surely count as our most prolix episode ever, so we’ve split it into two parts. Happy listening!   The post Ep. 20 – The Musgrave Ritual • Part 1 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

After Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger, Conan Doyle’s other best-known recurring character is Brigadier Gerard, a French hussar during the Napoleonic Wars. In this wonderful footnote, Bootmaker Cliff Goldfarb presents his paper, The Brigadier in Switzerland: Travels with Arthur and Napoleon. Happy listening and thanks to Mike (from me, Geordie) for recording and producing these […] The post Footnote 15 – Brigadier Gerard Paper by Cliff Goldfarb appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

On October 13 , 2018 an intrepid contingent of Bootmakers journeyed to Niagara on the Lake to see the Shaw Festival’s production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. This footnote records a preshow chat with Shaw’s planning director, Jeff Cummings, as well as Damian Atkins, who plays Holmes himself. Big thanks to Mike for recording […] The post Footnote 14 – Hound at Shaw appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Hogtown Empire is Geordie’s new true crime podcast. Canadian theatre tycoon Ambrose Small disappeared on December 2, 1919. This new true crime podcast from Geordie Telfer sets the stage for Hogtown Empire, the book, coming in 2019. Premiering on the 99th anniversary of Ambrose Small’s disappearance, Season 1 looks forward to the 100th anniversary next […] The post Cross Over Special – Hogtown Empire Episode 1 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

The Adventure of the Gloria Scott takes us back to the case that started it all, a flashback within a flashback (very Inception, Doyle). Holmes recounts the story to Watson; it’s an early case that takes place during Holmes’ varsity days. When he’s not recovering from keggers and swallowing live goldfish (kidding, kidding) Holmes takes […] The post Ep. 19 – The Gloria Scott appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

One of the most satisfying and heartwarming, yet least eventful stories in the Canon, The Yellow Face holds a sinister sort of macabre promise at the outset, but rewards first-time readers with an unexpectedly touching dénouement. Of course, if Effie Munro had just come clean with her husband from the beginning, a horse-and-cartload of misunderstanding […] The post Ep. 17 – The Yellow Face appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

  The post Footnote 13 – Interview with Rob Nunn, author of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

The Cardboard Box is absolutely one of the grimmest stories in the Canon, lacking many of the cozy familiars we have come to suspect. Nonetheless Holmes is in fine form, even though Watson has a bad case of the Summer Time Blues. Conan Doyle was so uncomfortable with The Cardboard Box that he opted not […] The post Ep. 16 – The Cardboard Box appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

  And we’re back! Season 2 starts as it ought to with Silver Blaze. A fan favourite despite problems of logic and accuracy, Silver Blaze was one of Conan Doyle’s faves though not in his top 10 or even his top 12. Holmes is in fine form even though the villain considerately if unnecessarily takes […] The post Ep. 15 – Silver Blaze appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Tracy L. Ward writes the best-selling Marshall Hall mystery series about Victorian morgue surgeon, Peter Ainsley. This is her talk from the April 7, 2018 meeting of The Bootmakers of Toronto. Tracy talks about the joys of remote and on-site research as well as the adventure of her first trip to England after she’d already […] The post Footnote 12 – Tracy L. Ward at the Bootmakers of Toronto appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Here’s a talk that best-selling Canadian mystery writer Ian Hamilton gave at The Bootmakers of Toronto April 7, 2018 meeting. Ian is the author of the Ava Lee mysteries, going into production soon as international co-productions for TV! Here, he gives an entertaining and informative talk about becoming a writer and his experiences over 11 […] The post Footnote 11 – Author Ian Hamilton at The Bootmakers of Toronto appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

A Pastiche. In which Geordie presents his Holmes / Bertie & Jeeves mash-up with apologies to (and admiration for) PG Wodehouse. Before we embark on Season 2: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, we’re giving you a month or two of bonus content while we regroup. As Mike says, ‘The Game’s a Footnote.’   The post Footnote 9 – The Adventure of the Bigamist Biographer appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Our first live show from The Bootmakers of Toronto story meeting for The Stockbroker’s Clerk which took place on Saturday, February 24, 2018 at the Toronto Central Reference Library’s Beeton Auditorium. Sorry but no custom cover this month, for those of you who follow that kind of thing. The post Ep. 18 – The Stockbroker’s Clerk appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Has Holmes’ practice really degenerated into a agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding schools? Holmes seems to think so, but Mike and Geordie disagree. The Copper Beeches marks the end of Season 1 of iGrokSherlock. We’ll still bring  you new content each month, but it’ll be a […] The post Ep. 14 – The Copper Beeches appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Our first live show! It’s the Bootmakers of Toronto story meeting for The Stockbroker’s Clerk. Saturday February 24th 2018 at the Toronto Reference Library (Beeton Auditorium), 1pm. And a fascinating footnote from listener Wally Conger.   The post Footnote 9 – Live Show Feb 24 2018 and Listener E-mail appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Geordie contends that, except for Holmes, all the key players in The Beryl Coronet are complete morons. Mike is inclined to cut them a bit more slack, but more-or-less concurs with this thesis. Do you agree or disagree? The post Ep. 13 – The Beryl Coronet appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

In many ways, The Noble Bachelor asks, ‘For whom should we feel pity?’ The wronged? The rich? The beautiful? Or the sexy danseuse who gets a little overly attached? Mike and Geordie have no good answers, but they certainly look in some fun places. The post Ep. 12 – The Noble Bachelor appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

A recently mono-thumbed hydraulic engineer named Victor Hatherly shows up early one morning at Watson’s practice. Watson and (later) Holmes believe Hatherly’s strange story, but do we? For CBC listeners of ‘As It Happens’ please note that iGrokSherlock is recorded 5,658 km from Reading. The post Ep. 11 – The Engineer’s Thumb appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Mike recently an overwhelmingly Sherlockian October. Find out why.   The post Footnote 8 – Mike’s Intensely Sherlockian Month appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

In which your hosts courageously dive into the many, many … MANY adaptions of the The Speckled Band, Mike with more courage than Geordie who didn’t actually watch them all. The post Ep. 10A – The Speckled Band Part 2 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Our first interview! Larry Millett’s books feature Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota. His latest, The Eisendorf Enigma, finds an elderly Holmes trying to capture a killer who eluded him years earlier. Press play to find out more. The post Footnote 7 – Interview with Larry Millett author of The Eisendorf Enigma appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

  The Speckled Band comes first on all sorts of Sherlockian ‘Best Of’ lists. It was Conan Doyle’s favourite Holmes story, even though, by his own admission he couldn’t always remember its name. Julia Stoner has died from something so terrifying she cannot name it, screaming only ‘It was the band, the speckled band!’ Now […] The post Ep. 10 – The Speckled Band Part 1 appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985, Dir. Barry Levinson) is showing at 6pm Thursday, Sept 14 2017 at the Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge St. just north of Bloor). It’s in the Hinton Learning Centre and its FREE as part of the excellent POP Sherlock Exhibit. Mike and Geordie will be there getting streeter-style reactions from viewers […] The post Sept. 14 2017 – Young Sherlock Holmes at Toronto Reference Library appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

The Blue Carbuncle asks how a precious gemstone finds its way into the probably chimerical gullet cavity of a Christmas goose. And in the summary, Geordie completely forgets to explain this. The only Holmes story set at Christmas time, it is much adapted and a great favourite for underlining seasonal sentiments. That’s why we’re presenting […] The post Ep. 9 – The Blue Carbuncle appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

The Man with the Twisted Lip is Geordie’s favourite Holmes story – so here is over 2 hours of why. Was Neville St. Clair murdered in an opium den by the vile beggar Hugh Boone? How do the various TV and film versions stack up? And why does Mrs. Watson refer to her husband as […] The post Ep. 8 – The Man with the Twisted Lip appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

This is really a preface to The Man With the Twisted Lip, coming on July 17. Happy listening! The post Footnote 6 – Types of London Beggar appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

OK, it’s really only one addendum, but I couldn’t resist. Our listener(s) write(s) in to help us remember things we can’t. If I write any more there will be no need to actually listen. The post The Five Orange Addenda appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

The Five Orange Pips is one of a handful of Sherlock Holmes stories in which Holmes completely fails. He sends client John Openshaw out the door at Baker Street only for Openshaw to be murdered minutes later. Indeed, far from seeming to be remorseful about the client’s death, Holmes takes the murder as an affront […] The post Ep. 7 – The Five Orange Pips appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Playwright Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was famous for writing as people really spoke. Or at least how people spoke in the Britain of the 1950s/60s/and ’70s. There is almost no exposition to explain what is happening. Context comes from stage direction and what, inevitably perhaps, became known in the world of theatre as a “Pinter pause”- […] The post Footnote 5 – What if Holmes had been written by Harold Pinter appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

That famous hat that Holmes wears? It’s called a deerstalker cap. Part 2, of The Boscombe Valley Mystery in which we indulge our curiosity about the origins of the deerstalker and do our best to factually verify or debunk different theories about why this type of hat has become so indelibly associated with Sherlock Holmes. […] The post Ep. 6A – The Boscombe Valley Mystery Part 2 – Enter the Deerstalker appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

Today, a chilling story called ‘Nothing of Value’ by Alan Bradley. It’s to be found in the anthology Beyond Baker Street, edited by Michael Harrison. It was the inspiration for a story by Geordie Telfer, To Be Young Again, presented on Feb. 21, or 2/21. Happy Listening! The post Footnote 4 – Nothing of Value by Alan Bradley appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.

This one has everything – a gory murder, a callow youth, a lovely young woman, and mysterious cries of ‘Cooey’ in the woods. As they have in the past, Mike and Geordie have so much to say that they’ve split this one in two – we could say it’s for greater thematic clarity (which it […] The post Ep. 6 – The Boscombe Valley Mystery Pt. 1 – Yellowbacks on the Outback appeared first on I Grok Sherlock.