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Feature on the 4th Annual Sherlock Awards, 2002

The Sherlocks at the NFT

The Sherlock Awards took place during the Crime Scene festival held at the National Film Theatre in July. The awards, now in their fourth year, are presented for excellence in crime writing. After a drinks reception for the winners and guests, the ceremony took place on the stage of NFT2. Mike Ripley, our chief columnist and respected crime writer, conducted the ceremony with a fine balance of wit, irreverence and praise.

The winners were:

Denise Danks for Best Detective created by a British author (Georgina Powers, Baby Love). John Connolly for Best Detective by an American author (Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, White Road). The rules had been manipulated a little for this award as John is Irish rather than American, but he does spend much of his time in the States and his detective is a brilliant American gumshoe. Malcolm Pryce for Best Comic Detective (Louie Knight, Aberystwyth Mon Amour). The Special Sherlock went to Tony Earnshaw for An Actor and a Rare One – Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. And the award for Best Television Detective went jointly to the writer David Pirie and the actor Ian Richardson for Murder Rooms.

All recipients expressed their delight on receiving the awards. Denise had an Oscar ceremony moment when she made a tearful thank you to all those who had supported her through a previous, rather difficult year. John Connolly thought receiving the Sherlock would make him a kinder and more humble individual. Tony Earnshaw claimed it was the proudest day of his life and thanked veteran director, Roy Ward Baker – who was in the audience – for contributing the foreword to the book. David Pirie was thrilled that his concept of Murder Rooms had received so much acceptance and recognition which was epitomised by the Sherlock award. Ian Richardson, taking time off from a busy rehearsal schedule, was equally thrilled by the award and the success of Murder Rooms: ‘When an actor reaches my time of life, there is little to look forward to but playing grandfathers and other old men roles. And then I get this new lease of life with Joe Bell – a marvellous part. I’m very grateful to David for that. And this award puts the icing on the cake’.

One winner was noticeable by his absence: Malcolm Pryce. Now Malcolm lives in Bangkok so we didn’t expect him to fly out just for this event, but we assumed that a representative from his publishers, Bloomsbury, would step up and accept it for him. Unfortunately, a blockage of information at the publishers meant that neither Malcolm nor his editor knew of the event. Since then both men have been in touch with the magazine offering their apologies.

Here’s to next year’s Sherlocks.

• This is an edited version of an article by David Stuart Davies that originally appeared in issue #50 of Sherlock magazine (September 2002). (© Sherlock/David Stuart Davies, 2002)