Do I have to add that David Rintoul does a masterly job? He has a great script here and he simply makes the most of it. Just as with Holmes’ “death” at the Reichenbach Falls, the story doesn’t end there. Sadly, in the last story of this volume an arrest is made. Watson often opines that if Holmes ever turned to crime he would be uncatchable. I suppose one could explore the inner meaning of our delight how we all yearn to be the bad guy, revel in the thrill of flouting authority, need to unchain the old Id once in a while. Raffles and Bunny play fair they eschew violence and, in spite of Bunny’s regular attacks of nerves, go about their larcenous activities lightheartedly, as if it were just another match on the playing fields of Eton. One critic has called them, "dark, morally uncertain, yet convincingly, reassuringly English." It’s that last part that makes them so palatable. The Raffles-Bunny stories would still be delightful well-crafted, well-written and, in this instance, superbly read. Say there was no Arthur Conan Doyle, no Holmes-Watson stories-no model for the author of Raffles to stand on its head for his own purposes. Ok, say these stories weren’t penned by Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law.
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