‘I even took a pencil and jotted them down.’

Alex Kane’s Viewing & Listening Guide {22 – 28 October 2011}.

Hands of a Murderer (TV Movie, 1990) is on again on ITV3 on Saturday 22 October at 11.20pm. It’s an oddity in many respects, not least because it wastes a good cast with a terrible script/plot. That in itself is odd, because the script is by Charles Edward Pogue, who wrote TV movies Sign and Houn (both 1983) with Ian Richardson as Holmes. But there is just no logic to this one and Woodward is just far too old to be a convincing Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (Universal, 1943) is on TCM on Monday 24 October at 7.40pm. This is the one based loosely (actually, very loosely!) on Musg, but it remains one of the best of the Rathbone/Bruce series.

Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros, 2009) usually pops-up twice weekly on Sky Crime/Thriller. The latest screenings are on Tuesday 25 October at 1.05pm and later the same day at 9pm. ‘Robert Downey Jr gives a charismatic portrayal as Baker Street’s finest,’ says this week’s Radio Times (w/c 22 October). http://movies.sky.com/sherlock-holmes/review

Mark Gatiss is the castaway on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 23 October at 11.15am (repeated Friday 28 October at 9am). I’m sure there will be something about Sherlock and his own role as Mycroft. Gatiss is the co-creator of BBC 1’s hit drama Sherlock, a second series of which is due in the new year.

The second episode of The Rivals (2/4) airs on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 26 October at 11.30am. ‘The Problem of Cell 13’ again features Inspector Lestrade, who introduces the story of Professor SFX Van Dusen.

And finally, there’s Second Holmes, the 1983 comedy (starring Peter Egan as Stamford Holmes, grandson of the great man himself) which continues its rerun on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Episode 5/6, ‘The Case of the Neglected Farm’ is scheduled for Friday 28 October at 9am with a repeat the following morning at 2am.