Connie and Victor have spent thousands on doing up their old house in Margate, and they expect to get a very good price for it. A prospective buyer is due in the morning - so why on earth did the burglar have to choose this night to break in, in se
The fishermen of Leigh-on-Sea are famous for their heroic attempts to rescue British soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. A memorial in St Clement's churchyard stands as a reminder of their bravery and sacrifice. A small but active fleet of
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We present the great naval hero - Nelson! No, not Horatio, but his less famous brother, Maurice, a lowly and rather resentful clerk at the Admiralty. Horatio has just walloped the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, but Maurice has an even more
A century and a half ago James Lucas was a celebrity, known throughout the country as the Mad Hermit of Redcoats Green. As his fame grew, people of all sorts came to gaze at him or to talk with him through the barred window of his room. He relished
Back in the golden days of Variety, the Mangle Boys were big - one of the most successful song and dance acts on the halls. When they retired, Eddie Fitlow became an equally successful businessman ("From Mangles to Millions").
His partner Ernie Tu
It’s June 1192 and King Richard is away on the Crusades as usual.
But if you're expecting a story about Robin Hood, well, sorry! Our hero is Ronald of Bexley, not Robin of Loxley.
And his dastardly enemy is actually the Sheriff of Mottingham, w
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If you want to save your marriage it’s essential to talk to each other. Ann and Steve are good at talking, but hopeless at listening. Indeed, Ann has got to the stage where she lets the drink do the talking - and if that doesn’t work, there’s alwa
After his divorce, Lewis is encouraged by his daughter to take up metal detecting again.
It seems that he’s in luck. First he finds a gold ring, and then he meets the charming Judy, who says that the ring was hers.
But Lewis gradual
Read more…Colchester in Essex is Britain’s oldest recorded town. Here the Emperor Claudius was proclaimed a god. It was the city of King Cunobelinos - Shakespeare’s Cymbeline - whose daughter Helena, according to legend, was the mother of Constantine the Gre
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FIVE YEARS AFTER the supposed death of Sherlock Holmes at the hands of his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty, The Strand Magazine published two apparently unrelated mystery stories, each quoting an un-named criminal investigator.
Devotees have long de
AN EARLY STORY and a late one, each in its own way unusual.
Sherlock Holmes told his friend Watson that the case of "The Gloria Scott " was the beginning of his career as a professional detective. It occurred during his student days, and it concer
“The bells gave tongue; Gaude, Sabaoth, John, Jericho, Jubilee, Dimity, Batty Thomas and Tailor Paul, rioting and exulting high up in the dark tower, wide mouths rising and falling, brazen tongues clamouring, huge wheels turning to the dance of the
Read more…For your entertainment and edification, ladies and gentlemen, an eclectic, not to say incongruous, company of artistes, under the benign chairmanship of Mr Les B Fair, presents the story of the British Music Hall, from its origins in street song an
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Ever since the long-gone golden age of railways - whenever that was - stations have needed porters. A special breed of men who, during those long periods between trains, can find endless tasks to perform along the platforms... yet can, with the app
"In recent years, plays about the Master have abounded. Roger Johnson’s “The Great Detective” is, however, far superior to most of these efforts because it is firmly grounded in Canonical and Doylean reality. Instead of putting words in Holmes and
THESE TWO STORIES, one from The Memoirs and one from The Return, are, in radio terms, among the most neglected of Sherlock Holmes's exploits. Both, of course, featured in BBC Radio 4's monumental dramatisation of the entire Canon, with Clive Mer
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THESE TWO STORIES come from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the last of the nine books about the great detective to be written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
"The Mazarin Stone", being based on a stage play, "The Crown Diamond", works w
HERE WE PRESENT two classic investigations from the first volume of Dr Watson's chronicles, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
"The Beryl Coronet" takes Holmes and Watson into a world of high society and high finance. Not for the first time, or th
