Meet Gabriel Book – the eccentric, whip-smart hero who is a worthy successor to Sherlock Holmes
Pat Stacey
It was probably inevitable that the supremely talented and versatile Mark Gatiss, co-creator of the BBC's Sherlock, would one day create an original character who gives Conan Doyle's detective a run for his money.
Meet Gabriel Book: the eccentric, whip-smart hero of the hugely enjoyable six-part series Bookish (U&Alibi, Wednesday, July 16). Played by Gatiss, who shares scriptwriting duties with Matthew Sweet, Book owns an antiquarian bookshop – called Book's, naturally, which gives rise to an amusing exchange about apostrophes – in the immediate post-war London of bombsites, strict rationing and a burgeoning underworld.
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