The documents revealing the cosy relationship between top British and Libyan intelligence officials are embarrassing not just because they confirm Britain's rendition of Islamist terror suspects, including Abdel Hakim Belhadj, the Transitional National Council's new security commander in Tripoli, but also because they lend credence to Britain's reputation as a slippery operator in the Middle East.
Sherlock Holmes was due a cinematic makeover. Conan Doyle's stories reign supreme but their screen versions have been struggling to throw off a bourgeois tweediness that harks back to Basil Rathbone's portrayal of the detective in the late 1930s.