While rewriting Conan Doyle's script, the American actor William Gillette famously asked, "May I marry Holmes?" The reply was, "You may marry or murder, or do what you like with him!" The resulting play was first staged in 1899 and has lasted for more than a century. Gillette himself recorded an abridged version in 1935, for the Lux Radio Theater. Three years later Orson Welles adapted the play as an hour-long drama for the Mercury Theater on the Air, in which he took the leading role, giving a remarkable impersonation of Gillette.
Gillette's play wasn't heard in Britain until 1953, when the classic partnership of Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley took the roles of Holmes and Watson in a BBC radio adaptation, with Frederick Valk as Professor Moriarty. More recently there were two good audio productions made in California, each with a distinguished British actor in the lead - Martin Jarvis and David Warner - but the play hasn't been heard on British radio since the 1950s.
In our new radio adaptation the cast is as follows:
Sherlock Holmes - JIM CROZIER
Dr Watson - DAVE HAWKES
Professor Moriarty - CYRIL BAGSHAW
Madge Larrabee - BETH WALTERS
James Larrabee - SIMON THOMAS
Alice Faulkner - KATHERINE TOKLEY
Sidney Prince and Billy - MARK PRESTON
John Forman, Thomas Leary and Count von Stalburg - VINCE WEBB
Terèse - LINDSAY LLOYD
Alfred Bassick - IVOR JEVONS
Sir Edward Leighton - JESSE POWIS
Parsons - M J ELLIOTT
Jim Craigin - BRIAN ADRIAN
The recording was made by David Booth at Pigpen Studios for Hosiprog Productions. Technical presentation was by John Rhodes, and the producer was Roger Johnson.
The script is copyright © 2010 by Roger Johnson. The recorded production is copyright © 2010 by the Old Court Radio Theatre Company.
You'll find all the Old Court Radio Theatre Company's recordings on the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's website at https://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/category/podcasts/.
Replies
I hope you enjoy it.
Roger
CB