Fans of the nation’s greatest fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, can not do other than delight at his latest stage outing in the Mill at Sonning’s superb version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Portrayed by James Tucker, the Baker Street sleuth emerges pitch perfect, deerstalker, cape and meerschaum pipe all in place and with a ready line in wit ever playing around his lips.

Just as we would hope, too, is Darrell Brockis’s Dr Watson, a genial cove, who on this occasion gets to do more in the way of detective work than usual by himself.

This is the Holmes adventure in which Watson goes single-handed down to the eerie wilds of Dartmoor.

His purpose is to delve into the mystery surrounding the death of local grandee Sir Charles Baskerville.

The victim , it would seem, of a huge and terrifying dog of dark legend, the magnate has been succeeded by his American nephew, Sir Henry (Tom McCarron), for whom it is feared a similar fate awaits.

Watson’s progress on the case, and Holmes’s tips concerning further action, are conveyed in the 1901 novel though exchanges of letters between the friends.

Conscious, perhaps, that this would hardly make for riveting theatre, the Mill’s adaptor Simon Williams – working to a scheme devised by his actor son Tam Williams – instead adds to Holmes’s formidable array of talents by equipping him with a capacity for thought transference.

The device has the happy result of keeping Homes in our view, before re-emerging to supply an ingenious solution to the case.

By this time, we have already been exposed to the horrors of the legendary hound, the work of puppet maker Susan Dacre.

Performances under director Thomas Daley are all well-judged, with Chris Myles showing marked versatility as the local doctor, Mortimer, and loopy lepidopterist Stapleton. The women’s roles all go to the able Ajjaz Awad.

Dark cowled figures, eerie howls and eldritch music supply a suitably gothic feel.

Until March 17. 0118 969 8000, millatsonning.com

CHRISTOPHER GRAY 4/5