Young Sherlock review – the detective in Guy Ritchie’s geezerish caper has the charisma of a naff waiter

Review Young Sherlock review – the detective in Guy Ritchie’s geezerish caper has the charisma of a naff waiter Loud, brash and blokey, it’s not nearly as fresh as the director’s last take on the sleuth 15 years ago. There are flashes of fun, even if Moriarty blows the lead off the screen G uy Ritchie has made a new TV series about Sherlock Holmes and the long and the short of it is … hmm. But first, some questions. Does the eight-part mystery-drama include scenes in which flippant young men in flat caps shout “Oi” while hurtling through the air in slow motion? It does. Are there bare knuckle biff-ups during which bulbous cockneys cheer on other bulbous cockneys and Irish folk music diddles frantically in the background? There are. Might there also be bits where everything suddenly goes really fast for no reason, effortful banter between bruisers in tweed trousers, blundering rozzers and the sense that while female characters are welcome to contribute to the plot, they are very much excluded from being any sort of fun? Well, duh. Or rather, strike a light an’ cor blimey, guv’nor, you’ve got this Guy Ritchie geezer bang to rights. For here is Young Sherlock, a very large and very loud new series for Prime Video that was “executive produced and directed by the man who made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, then that one with Brad Pitt, then some other films that weren’t either of those ones apparently” written through it like a stick of bleedin’ rock. So off we whoosh to Oxford (home to “arguably the greatest university in the world!”), where smirking young pickpocket Sherlock Holmes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) has been forced by sensible older brother Mycroft (Max Irons) to earn his keep as a porter. “I will be keeping an eye on you,” he warns, as Holmes Jr huffs around in his period drama apron. And he does. But not well enough to stop the enormously eyebrowed recidivist from becoming embroiled in his first case: a sprawling, Tintinesque affair involving deadly weaponr...