Another villain in the future for Sherlock’s Andrew Scott in ‘Swallows and Amazons’
When we last saw Andrew Scott, his character of Moriarty had ‘left the building’ at the end of series two of Sherlock. He returned a year later and uttered those now unforgettable words “Miss me?” as his final phrase in the last episode of series three of Sherlock.
While it’s impossible to go inside the mind palaces of Sherlock co-creators/writers, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and venture a guess as to whether or not Moriarty will return, no one expected to see him at the end of “His Last Vow” appearing on all media outlets throughout London so, who knows what lies ahead when the series returns in 2016. While we may have seen the last of his absolutely brilliant portrayal of Holmes’ arch nemesis, thankfully, we will be treated to the greatness that is Andrew Scott in an upcoming BBC film.
Scott has just signed on to star in Swallows and Amazons, which is adapted from the 1930 Arthur Ransome novel of the same name, which follows the Blackett and Walker children and their outdoor adventures as they dream of escaping a summer holiday with their parents by sailing, camping, fishing, exploration and, of course, piracy. They set off on a boat to camp on a remote island in the middle of a lake, but when they get there they soon discover they are not alone on the island. The children, in the book, imagine a pirate villain out of Jim Turner, the Blackett’s unfriendly uncle who Ransome based on himself.
The book was inspired by a summer spent by Ransome teaching the children of his friends, the Altounyans, to sail. For the adaptation, however, the filmmakers have drawn upon Ransome’s own life as an MI5 spy code named S.76, who operated in Russia between 1914 and 1937 and have added in the element of Scott’s character, an agent in pursuit of the reclusive and enigmatic ‘Uncle Jim’.
The BBC film will be directed by Philippa Lowthorpe (Call the Midwife) and, in addition to Scott, will star Rafe Spall (Black Mirror), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), Jessica Hynes (Spaced, Twenty Twelve, W1A) and comedian Harry Enfield.
In: Drama
