This year marks the 200th birthday of British novelist Charles Dickens and even though he’s been dead since 1870 that isn’t stopping the BBC from heartily marking the occasion. And, honestly, that’s OK with me.

The celebrations kicked off after Christmas, just before the dawn of the new year, with a three-part adaptation of one of Dickens’ most celebrated titles Great Expectations.

Now, for those new to the blog, my wife and I love a good mini-series based on a British novel. Dickens’ Little Dorrit, which I reviewed in a roundabout way last year, is simply one of the best mini-series you’ll find. Considering we both love Great Expectations, the novel, we had high hopes. The cast looked promising too with Gillian Anderson, a great actress in her own right, and David Suchet who all fans of British detective dramas will recognize instantly.

Unfortunately, this particular adaptation, has been aptly coined by my wife as “Great Expectations for Dummies.”

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When the Sherlock series first debuted a couple of years ago on the BBC Maria and I almost missed it. Surprising because we’re both huge fans of both Sherlock Holmes and British detective dramas in general. This time around, for the second series of Sherlock, we were on the ball. And waiting.

The first 90-minute installment in the three-episode second series run is called ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’ and like the mysteries from the last season it’s a take off on a familiar Sherlock story with a whole bunch of twists and turns.

Sherlock and Watson find themselves confronted with a number of mysteries from an outdoorsman killed by a backfiring car to a dead man in a trunk to a dominatrix trying to bring down the British monarchy. It’s a bit of an everything goes but, of course, like any good Sherlock story it all works itself out in the end and ties itself together in a neat little package.

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I stumbled across the new BBC series Sherlock by accident. Frankly, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about it earlier. Both Maria and I are huge Sherlock Holmes fans, and huge mystery fans in general, but somehow this slipped passed our radar.

For as long as there have been moving pictures, there have been adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Some have been brilliant. Some have been otherwise. Some have depicted Holmes as rather tame and mild-mannered. Others, like Guy Ritchie’s interpretation, have picked up on Holmes’ lesser savoury habits and tendencies. But the BBC’s Sherlock depicts the famous detective, and his affable partner, in an entirely new way.

Sherlock is an adaptation of the classic Holmes franchise set in modern-day London.

Of course, upon first hearing the premise—a modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes—you might scoff, I know I did, but after giving it a chance I found that I would be more than rebuffed. This series, in fact, is brilliant.

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