BARNARD Castle amateurs The Castle Players made a brave move in choosing one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous detective stories, coherently abridged by one of their members, Jill Cole.

It’s a tricky job to turn a murder into comedy, which requires a little more parody than was evident in this production.

The opening narrative, thoughtfully delivered by Andy Moorhouse, was too long.

When the action finally began, it moved at a cracking pace, only to be stopped in its tracks so many times by the constant and unnecessary moving of stage furniture, which became increasingly annoying.

There were, however, some fabulous performances from this talented group. Steven Bainbridge’s Sherlock was straight out of the book – an intelligent conundrum of a man who smoked an authentic meerschaum pipe.

The initial death scene was nicely directed and Martin Foran as the doomed Sir Charles Baskerville was excellent, as was his performance as Perkins the coach driver.

I really warmed to Harry French’s tweed performance as the Canadian Sir Henry Baskerville.

The best of the rest were Rupert Philbrick’s delightful interpretation of Mr Stapleton, his so-called sister Beryl, a lovely performance from Ella Blackburn, and Oliver Smith’s wild Mr Frankland – although Smith did get rather carried away in the second half.

  • Performances will take place on Friday in Whorlton Village Hall (01833-627419) and on Saturday in Ingleton Village Hall (01325-730250).