Rosemary has come home. Her new retirement flat overlooks a garden that she once knew very well, but the garden isn’t the only reason why she chose that particular flat. There’s also the man who looked after it all those years ago – the man who died
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories, Dr Watson drops tantalising hints about other cases of the great detective. Here we attempt to reconstruct two of these unpublished exploits.
In "The Long Man", while Holmes investigates an insuranc
If you’re middle-aged (and who isn’t these days?) you’ll know what it’s like. After a tiring day at work, and a busy evening fixing extra security locks on the doors – there have been three burglaries in your street this week, and you don’t want
He didn’t really do his act naked, of course. Charlie Walker just went a little further than most magicians to prove that there was nothing up his sleeve. Charlie was good – very good. And famous. But then his wife died, and everything changed for
Julie's not having a good day. Her husband Ben spends most of his time mending clocks and tinkering with the kitchen appliances. Their daughter Kate calls round now and then, usually when she wants something. The only one Julie can rely on is Fur
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
Wendy's life is about to be changed, and for the better. Mind you, yesterday she wouldn't have thought it possible. In her late forties and still single, Wendy still lives with her elderly mother, and she's worked
Brentwood in Essex isn’t a particularly distinguished place, and Dennis Rookard’s local, the Traveller’s Rest, is not much to look at from the outside. A bit down at heel, in
At the age of six she'd wished that she was a fairy. Nothing happened, of course - but she hadn't realised then that these things take time. So it was rather a shock when she woke up one morning, prepared for just another day at the office, and fo
Brave Gilbert Trubshawe has gone abroad to fight for Queen and Country, leaving his young wife Priscilla in charge of their country estate. But Gilbert’s wicked uncle Jasper has designs on the property, and even perhaps on the beautiful (but somew
Essex has always had more than its fair share of eccentrics, from the reclusive millionaire Bayard Brown to Vivian Stanshall of blessed memory. The inhabitants of the little town of Coggeshall were long notorious for their eccentric ways:
Evening classes have begun at the local adult education centre. Linda, Tracy, Jo and new student Helen are ready for the second week's lesson in DIY - but someone is missing. Gordon, the teacher, has had an accident.
There's a New Broom at the Job Centre, and she's determined to sweep away all the little irregularities that make life just that much more comfortable for the local layabouts - sorry, "the long-term unemployed". Needless to say, they aren't too ha
More than sixty years on, an old airman is visited by dreams of the Second World War. A Lancaster bomber returns from a top-secret mission, badly damaged and almost out of fuel. With heroic skill, the pilot manages to bring it down on a stretch
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
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
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 hisroom. 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").