Sherlock Holmes BBC Audiodramas

[Robert]

In 1987 freelance writer Bert Coules approached the BBC with the proposal to dramatise Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. It was given the go-ahead as a two-part serial with Roger Rees and Crawford Logan as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

Roger Rees and Crawford Logan as Holmes and Watson
The show went down well with the public and the press and Coules suggested doing two more of the novels. The BBC agreed but insisted on recasting, and Clive Merrison and Michael Williams were offered the roles.

Clive Merrison and Michael Williams as Holmes and Watson
When A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four were also a success, Coules proposed a six-part series of the best short adventures. The BBC though had other ideas: they would produce the entire canon of fifty-six short stories and four novels, the first time it had ever been done in any medium with the same two actors in the leads.

With Bert Coules as the head writer of a small and changing team, and with the same two producer-directors responsible for the entire remaining run of shows, the aim throughout was to go back to the original stories and characters and place the relationship between Holmes and Watson at the centre of the drama.

The project was launched in January 1991 and ran for the next nine years, attracting large audiences and guest stars of the calibre of Dame Judi Dench, Brian Blessed, Sir Donald Sinden and many others.

Four further series of brand new mysteries followed, with Andrew Sachs taking over as Watson after the untimely death of Michael Williams. The new shows were based on some of Conan Doyle's tantalising throwaway references to other cases which he never wrote up in full, culminating in one of the most famous, the strange affair of the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant.

1. Revenge (64.7Mb)
2. The Country of the Saints (64.5Mb)
3. Timbertoe (65.5Mb)
4. The Great Agra Treasure (65.2Mb)
5. The Powers of Evil (64.7Mb)
6. Death on the Moor (64.7Mb)
7. The Scowrers (65.2Mb)
8. The Tragedy of Birlstone (65.3Mb)
9. A Scandal in Bohemia (49.3Mb)
10. The Red-headed League (50.9Mb)
11. A Case of Identity (50.5Mb)
12. The Boscombe Valley Mystery (50.4Mb)
13. The Five Orange Pips (48.7Mb)
14. The Man with the Twisted Lip (50.6Mb)
15. The Blue Carbuncle (48.3Mb)
16. The Speckled Band (50.8Mb)
17. The Engineer's Thumb (49.6Mb)
18. The Noble Bachelor (50.6Mb)
19. The Beryl Coronet (50.6Mb)
20. The Copper Beeches (50.6Mb)
21. Silver Blaze (50.8Mb)
22. The Yellow Face (50Mb)
23. The Stockbroker's Clerk (49.8Mb)
24. The Gloria Scott (50.3Mb)
25. The Musgrave Ritual (50.1Mb)
26. The Reigate Squires (50.4Mb)
27. The Crooked Man (50.8Mb)
28. The Resident Patient (47.8Mb)
29. The Greek Interpreter (50Mb)
30. The Naval Treaty (50.7Mb)
31. The Final Problem (50.5Mb)
32. The Empty House (50.9Mb)
33. The Norwood Builder (50.6Mb)
34. The Dancing Men (49.6Mb)
35. The Solitary Cyclist (48.7Mb)
36. The Priory School (50.5Mb)
37. Black Peter (50.2Mb)
38. Charles Augustus Milverton (50.6Mb)
39. The Six Napoleons (49.2Mb)
40. The Three Students (49.4Mb)
41. The Golden Pince-nez (50.4Mb)
42. The Missing Three-quarter (50.5Mb)
43. The Abbey Grange (49.4Mb)
44. The Second Stain (50.5Mb)
45. Wisteria Lodge (50.6Mb)
46. The Cardboard Box (50.7Mb)
47. The Red Circle (50.6Mb)
48. The Bruce Partington Plans (50.4Mb)
49. The Dying Dectective (50.6Mb)
50. The Disapperance of Lady Frances Carfax (49Mb)
51. The Devil's Foot (50.8Mb)
52. His Last Bow (50.5Mb)
53. The Illustrious Client (48.7Mb)
54. The Blanched Soldier (49.2Mb)
55. The Mazarin Stone (49.4Mb)
56. The Three Gables (50.5Mb)
57. The Sussex Vampire (49.1Mb)
58. The Three Garridebs (50.8Mb)
59. The Problem of Thor Bridge (50.5Mb)
60. The Creeping Man (50.9Mb)
61. The Lion's Mane (50.9Mb)
62. The Veiled Lodger (50.8Mb)
63. Shoscombe Old Place (49.7Mb)
64. The Retired Colourman (50.6Mb)
65. The Madness of Colonel Warburton (40.3Mb)
66. The Star of the Adelphi (40.1Mb)
67. The Peculiar Persecution of Mr John Vincent Harden (39.9Mb)
68. The Singular Inheritance of Miss Gloria Wilson (40Mb)
69. The Saviour of Cripplegate Square (40.5Mb)
70. The Abergavenny Murder (39.5Mb)
71. The Shameful Betrayal of Miss Emily Smith (39.8Mb)
72. The Tragedy of Hanbury Street (39.9Mb)
73. The Determind Client (40Mb)
74. The Striking Success of Miss Franny Blossom (39.8Mb)