Mr Holmes

Off to the Booth's Bookshop Cinema last week to watch Ian McKellan as a 93 year old Sherlock Holmes, keeping bees in his retirement and trying to remember why he retired from detecting. There's also a sub-plot involving a trip to Hiroshima just after the Second World War - which was fascinating to see. I was full of admiration for the way the plot was put together - it's beautifully written and very cleverly done.
The cinema was full (I got the last ticket for the evening), and it was a brilliant evening. Ian McKellan was wonderful, of course, both as 93 year old Holmes and a 60 year old Holmes in flashbacks to his last case, but it wouldn't have worked if the cast surrounding him weren't equally good - particularly the young boy Roger (Milo Parker) and his mother, Holmes' housekeeper, Laura Linney. I was amused to see among the credits that there were two knitters on the production team - presumably one of them knitted the swimsuit that Roger wears in one scene. There were also some rather fine vintage vehicles on show.