Colonel Warburton's Madness & Other Mysteries : The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volumes 7-12

Rating:
Summary: Not even Basil can save this
Review: As a piece of history this CD set is of some interest, the ads are amusing, as are the informal chats with Nigel Bruce as well as some of the trivia about the production of the shows, but that's it.

J S Thompson who wrote a customer review of this audio series, you should be ashamed of yourself - you never mentioned that the scripts were unmitigated rubbish. Conan Doyle would have been grateful that due to his dying in 1930, he never had the misfortune to hear such tripe. The mysteries are so pathetic it's as though a retarded monkey, trying for Shakespeare, totally failed and spewed this out instead.

Please lovers of literature - avoid this pap, it is truly excruciating, the only mystery is that someone had the gall to present this to the listening public.

The title of the set is Colonel Warburton's Madness. This story is so weak it made me want to puke. My wife couldn't bring herself to continue listening to it and read a magazine instead. Give this set to someone you hate, as long as you can work out a way to force them to listen to it.

Rating:
Summary: Colonel Warburton's Madness & Other Mysteries
Review: This is the second eagerly awaited installment of the new-to-CD series presenting volumes 7 - 12 of the Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce radio plays in their immortal roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.

In this 6-CD set, the titles are as follows:

1 - Case of the Out-of-Date Murder & Waltz of Death
2 - Colonel Warburton's Madness & the Iron Box
3 - Scandal in Bohemia & the Second Generation
4 - In Flanders Fields & the Eyes of Mr. Leyton
5 - The Tell-Tale Pigeon Feathers & Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards
6 - Problem of Thor Bridge & Double Zero

Lovingly restored (including commercials from its sole sponsor, Petri Wine), Rathbone and Bruce will take you on a nostalgic time warp back to the era of classic 1940's radio mysteries. In our estimation, it is an excellent follow-up well worth waiting a year for since the first installment, "The Unfortunate Tobacconist," was released in 2003.

Although most of the stories aren't movie-caliber material, all of the mysteries are relatively easy to follow and are of excellent storytelling quality. Further, Rathbone and Bruce gave wonderfully energetic performances that can make you easily visualize the action as it progresses, especially if you are readily familiar with the classic film series they appeared in as the same beloved characters.

An added bonus is some behind-the-mike-info about how the Sherlock Holmes radio shows were produced.

Side notes:

1. The packaging this time is less elaborate: it is lightweight cardboard instead of plastic CD cases.

2. Some of the Petri commercials get to be rather tedious (if not,overbearing) -- you may want to fast-forward through some or even most of them.

3. According to the packaging, there were 213 episodes over the course of eight years featuring Rathbone and Bruce. Hopefully, that means there will be several more CD compliations to come!

Overall, we heartily recommend "Colonel Warburton's Madness & Other Mysteries" to mystery fans of all ages.