QUESTION Were any of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films made in the UK?
No, all 14 Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone were made in Hollywood.
Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to British parents. Returning to the UK, he attended Repton School and started his acting career in 1911. He was a lieutenant in World War I, serving with distinction as an intelligence officer with the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion.
He starred in the hit play The Swan in New York in 1923. In November of that year, Rathbone met his second wife Ouida Bergère, a scriptwriter, and remained in the U.S. The couple moved to Hollywood, where he made some fine films including The Adventures Of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, with his friend Errol Flynn.
In 1939, England declared war on Germany. Rathbone offered to serve his country but the War Office in London turned him down on grounds of age. He was 47.
Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to British parents. Rathbone pictured in Hound of the Baskervilles 1939
1939 was also the year that Basil Rathbone made his first two Sherlock Holmes films: The Hound Of The Baskervilles and The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes. Co-starring Nigel Bruce as Dr Watson, these were big-budget affairs made for 20th Century Fox.
Despite their success, Fox dropped the franchise, feeling it was inappropriate subject matter during wartime. But Universal Pictures picked it up and made 12 low-budget films at their own studios. The Universal versions played fast and loose with the Holmes stories and even featured Holmes battling Nazis.
A fun parlour game when watching these films is to spot the Americanisms. For example, Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard taking charge of a Scottish murder investigation, and a corpse being found 'in the rumble seat of that roadster'.
Richard Thomas, Sheffield.
QUESTION Sir Martin Rees once catalogued all the ways that scientists might destroy mankind. What were they?
Sir Martin Rees (pictured) contended that our enhanced technological capacity places enormous power in the hands of a select few people
Tomorrow's Questions
Q: Who invented the first karaoke machine?
Ryan Hughes, Durham.
Q: Was coal ever foolhardily sold to Newcastle?
Patricia Marler, Darwen, Lancs.
Q: What is the slowest official marathon time?
Chris Wright, Wetherby, West Yorks.
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Sir Martin Rees is a cosmologist and astrophysicist, a professor at the University of Cambridge and the current Astronomer Royal.
In his 2003 book Our Final Hour, he assessed that humanity had a 50 per cent chance of surviving the 21st century. He outlined all the ways humanity could destroy itself.
Rees contended that our enhanced technological capacity places enormous power in the hands of a select few people. For example, a tech-savvy terrorist could launch a malicious cyber-attack that could destroy major computer networks with a simple piece of code.
Alternatively, bio-terrorists or unconscientious scientists could unleash a deadly virus that quickly becomes a global pandemic; or overeager physicists could unwittingly spawn a black hole by smashing protons together.
Advances in microbiology may prove to be a double-edged sword. While improved vaccines and antibiotics can combat disease, this very progress has sparked a dangerous evolutionary counter-attack by the pathogens themselves, with bacteria becoming immune to the antibiotics used to suppress them.
In 2017 Rees made 'the bet of the century' with Harvard professor Steven Pinker that 'a bio-terror or bio-error will lead to one million casualties in a single event within a six-month period starting no later than Dec 31, 2020.' (It has not yet been resolved, owing to a lack of proof as to whether Covid-19 was a lab leak or a natural phenomenon.)
Ian Scott, Sittingbourne, Kent.
QUESTION Between 1901 and 1910, Australia had five different prime ministers. What caused this instability?
In Australia, there has always been a quick turnover of PMs. The Prime Minister is not elected directly by the voters but by the Members of Parliament the voters elect.
The role of PM is not even mentioned in the Australian Constitution. It is in effect an informal title for the most senior of the ministers who have the authority to advise the monarch or the monarch's representative, the Governor-General.
Australia only became a nation on January 1, 1901, when six British colonies — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania —united to form the Commonwealth of Australia.
Australian politics has always been a bit topsy turvy in regard to PMs. Pictured: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
During this period, political parties were still in the process of solidifying and defining their ideologies and structures. Furthermore, the vote was evenly split between three parties, with the Liberal Protectionist Party occupying a middle ground between the Free Traders and the Australian Labor Party.
Australian politics has always been a bit topsy turvy in regard to PMs. Frank Forde lasted just seven days in 1945, whereas Robert Menzies was in the post for 18 years over two non-consecutive periods.
Tom Davies, Gerringong, Australia
