He inspires a discussion between Holmes and Watson about what makes someone turn to a life of crime. Moran also stands out for being a formerly respectable guy turned professional criminal. Interestingly, he's one of the very few criminals who doesn't confess everything to Holmes at the end. Then Moran tried to kill Holmes, but was caught instead.
Moran was the one who was cheating at gambling, which Adair apparently found shocking. He tried to kill Holmes in a mountainside dodgeball tournament, substituting rocks for playground balls, and then he came back to London and assassinated Ronald Adair with an air-rifle contraption. I am anxiously looking forward to seeing the remaining stories published by Cosmic Hobo in the near future.Characters in "Empty House" Colonel Moran
In one case, he even seems to have taken a glimpse into the future and channelled Billy Connolly.Īll in all, this is an excellent audio collection, clocking in at close to four hours. Amazing that he was once asked to get elocution lessons.įor some of the other supporting characters of both sexes, however, he also changes his vocal approach and dialect, displaying his wide and distinct acting range. So, you can bet that he was the right man to narrate those stories.įor his Holmes and Watson, Cushing mainly relied on his own natural speech, as usual, an utter delight to listen to with his rolling Rs, clipped voice and gentlemanly pronunciation. In that TV series, he had also already interpreted some of the stories he would later record for the RNIB.įollowing these audio recordings, he once more played an elderly Holmes in The Masks Of Death (1984), and even played Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself for a US TV movie in 1976 about The Great Houdini. Cosmic Hobo deserves the highest praise, simply for finally making them available to a wider audience 40 years after they were originally recorded.Ĭhoosing Peter Cushing as the narrator was a stroke of genius from RNIB's side, as the actor was not just a genuine Sherlockian, but had also made quite an impact with his portrayal of the detective in Hammer's version of The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1958), followed by 16 episodes of the BBC series, in which he took over from Douglas Wilmer. As such, they have become somewhat of a Holy Grail for Cushing fans and Holmes aficionados. Up till now, they have never been made commercially available in any form and were only made accessible to registered members of the RNIB.
These were originally recorded in 1971 as part of an entire reading of all the 13 stories of this collection for the Royal National Institute of Blind People's (RNIB) Talking Book service. "This CD contains four of Doyle's best loved Holmes stories: The Empty House, The Norwood Builder, The Dancing Men and The Solitary Cyclist.
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