Wonderful character development!

A Masterpiece!

The acting in this movie is really good.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I got hold of this mini series after reading the outstanding novel by Julian Barnes on which it is based. The book is very deep and I didn't expect the series to follow it faithfully. Even so, the series is disappointing. It starts well, cutting quickly to Doyle's involvement in the miscarriage of justice and the way it freed him from the debilitating grief and guilt occasioned by his first wife's death. There was good period atmosphere, and some excellent location filming. But the second and third episodes went adrift. The complexity of the case seemed to defeat the scriptwriter who sought refuge in melodrama and to that end introduced some unhelpful and implausible additional plot lines. These included a murder, which made the case much more serious than the animal mutilations and anonymous letters which comprised the original crimes. The best I can say about it is that it occupies an evening in a reasonably entertaining way. But the novel is infinitely superior.

Martin Clunes is excellent as the eponymous Arthur, sporting a genuine Scots accent and a Victorian gentleman's sensibility. Wonderful writing and period scenery provide a convincing platform for the actors to bring the plot to life. I have no knowledge of the historical reality of the plot but the device of having the real life characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his secretary as the protagonists in a crime drama provides an interest over and above the validity of the story or the sophistication of the plot. The writing is very well done, with the dialogue couched in antique terms and rhythms. The plot is subtly exposed over time through conversation, rather than the trite expositions of modern crime series. This can easily be enjoyed as a period piece or as an excellent crime drama.

How could this be more boring? I'm rating 2 out of 10 for the effort on filming it, but I have to say: in times when the economy is going bad, waisting money trying to make a #historical# series so bad such as this one, it should be considered a crime! Wait... solve this one "sherlock!" The lightning of the movie is awesome... to fall asleep right after the kind of "downtown abbey" title display. I highly recommend anyone to watch this if you want to be filled with the sensation of waisting your time. The theme could also be more original. I honestly don't know if there's already a movie or whatever about Arthur C. Doyle, but I consider reading the wikipedia web page about him so much more thrilling than the series.

Yes,for heaven's sake,he was.We don't need reminding of it every few minutes.By the halfway point of the first episode even the most tolerant Sherlockian will have had their patience and goodwill tried by the incessant references to the good doctor's literary canon. In what might have been called "The Empty Horse",Holmes - sorry - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - investigates some equine disembowelling in the Midlands for which an Anglo - Indian solicitor has been imprisoned apparently on very little evidence. Depressed and suffering from writer's block that is stopping him from completing "Wisteria Lodge" after his wife's recent death,Doyle takes up the case and sets out to prove the wrongly - convicted man's innocence. Presumably somebody thought it might make good television,and to be fair the story could be padded out to fill a sixty minute slot for a Sunday night's soporific viewing.But three one - hour episodes? I don't think I'm going to last the course without my eyelids drooping. Mr M.Clunes looks like Mr Chips and sounds disconcertingly like Mr B. Paterson in a rare venture into dialect. Listening to him is an experience rather like watching Dr Johnson's dog walking on its hind legs. "Arthur and George" is a small delicate bloom that has been forced to flourish and dazzle at the Chelsea Show in a manner completely alien to its very nature. With his fascination for fairies and spiritualism Sir Arthur presents a soft target for desperate TV companies looking for a subject with a pre - sold provenance. If they ever discover he had a predilection for growing cucumbers I can only hope they don't pick Mr A.Titchmarsh to play him.