Moss on Motoring

If you were somehow still hungover yesterday evening, you may have missed the return of the BBC’s excellent detective series, Sherlock.

Essentially, the series re-creates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brilliant novels within a modern day setting. The 21st-century Sherlock Holmes uses text messaging and email rather than carrier pidgeons to solve crimes, and instead of rogues on horses he’s chasing down bomb-makers and mass murders.

Not everything’s changed though: The intrepid Dr Watson is still at Sherlock’s side, as the elusive Moriarty threatens to topple the world into chaos.

But there’s one element missing. In the original novels, everyone got around by horse. It was a given that whenever a chase was called for, Sherlock would hail a horse and carriage to catch up.

In the modern adaptation though, there are cars. Lots of them. Yet Sherlock seems to be annoyingly reliant on public transport and taxis in order to get around.

This sparked a bit of a debate on Twitter the other night – what would Sherlock drive?

Suggestions ranged from the BMW 5-series, through the Toyota Prius ending up at the Bristol Blenheim. The Smart ForTwo was also mentioned – but we’ll keep that quiet. My own choice, considering Sherlock is a staunch urbanite, was a Citroen DS3. Although having said that the phrase: “To the Citroen, my dear Watson,” doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

But what do you think? What set of wheels would the world’s greatest detective use in modern day London? Answers on a postcard please, the game’s afoot.

(PS. You can follow Sherlock’s creator, Steven Moffatt on Twitter here.)

~ by darrenmoss on January 2, 2012.

Posted in Motoring Columns