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
This, in brief, is the story of English fairs, through songs, readings, and interviews with fairground people. The musicians are Jeff Giddings, Mike Studd and Colin Cater. The voices you'll hear are those of Dennis Rookard, Annie Harding, Peter Bil
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
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.
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
"Shortly before his death I asked him what he really thought on the subject, since he had written better ghost-stories than any man living. He answered: 'Depend upon it! Some of these things are so, but we do not know the rules!'" --- Shane Leslie
“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
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
THE CASE OF "The Five Orange Pips", from the late 1880s, was one of Sherlock Holmes's rare failures: he identified the doom that stalked the Openshaw family, but could not prevent the murder of his client. By contrast, Holmes's investigation a dec
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
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 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
Dr Charles was a quiet man, but when he took a room in Mrs Musgrave's house fear moved in with him. And murder. They called it the Miracle of Marlborough Road - the case of the shot without a gun.
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