A
Brief History
Without
question one of the most recognized and beloved characters ever created
is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. As
Doyle scholar Vincent Starett noted, "(Holmes is) a symbol as familiar
as the Tower of London, a name that has become a permanent part of the
English language. A larger literature has grown around him than around
any other character except Hamlet."
It
is no surprise then that a fair number of people to this day believe
that Holmes is not a fictional character at all, but a once living and
breathing thinker of the first order, quick to assist clients ranging
from a scandal-prone European aristocracy to Scotland Yard's often baffled
detectives. And let us not forget the many and varied commoners from
all walks of English life who found their most perplexing puzzles swiftly
pieced together by Holmes, and who today give us a wonderful peek into
Edwardian England.
As
great as his popularity might be, and as long-lasting as his legend
has proven, Holmes is a fictional construct. It
is known through Doyle's own comments that Holmes is based on Dr. Joseph
Bell, whose reputation at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland
was legendary. Dr. Bell amazed medical students, including a young Doyle
in 1876, with his "miraculous" diagnostic abilities, often
deducing a patient's ailment "as soon as they walked through the
door, sometimes before they had opened their mouths ... He would tell
them their symptoms and even give them details of their past life, and
very seldom was he in error." Sound like someone we know?
Sherlock
Holmes in Print
In
1887 the first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in
a small paperback, The Beeton's Christmas Annual, for which Doyle
received £25 ($60) and tepid reviews. Holmes' existence very nearly
ended right there, but in February 1890 The Sign of the Four
appeared as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine and
was better received. After A Scandal in Bohemia was published
in the Strand Magazine in July of 1891, however, it seemed no
one could get enough of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The
Strand published the Holmes adventures throughout 1891, 1892
and 1893, making Doyle the most popular writer of short stories in England,
but the work was all-consuming, and he soon grew tired of the character.
He wanted to branch out from the detective genre to write historical
novels (The White Company) and even science fiction
(The Lost World), and so in the twenty-sixth Holmes
story penned by Doyle, The Final Problem, the author did the
unthinkable: He KILLED Sherlock Holmes.
"That's
that," Doyle remarked with finality, but the dismissal would prove
more difficult than the author anticipated -- the public it seemed was
not yet ready for such an end. Doyle was assailed from all sides to
resurrect the great detective, especially from the Strand who saw 20,000
subscriptions cancelled, but he held out for nearly ten years. Then
in 1902, the year of his knighthood, Doyle relented and The Hound
of the Baskervilles was published, quickly devoured by a reading
public ravenous for Holmes' brilliant deductions and Watson's faithful
assistance.
Hound
was followed in 1903 by the next series of adventures, The Return
of Sherlock Holmes, then came The Adventure of the Empty House,
and next was His Last Bow (another vain attempt
at ending his character's career). Finally in 1927, Doyle concluded
the Holmes canon, forty years after he began it, with The Casebook
of Sherlock Holmes.
A
short three years later, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, aged seventy one and
in ill health, died ... but
Sherlock Holmes? Ah, how well he would live on!
Sherlock
Holmes on Stage, Screen and Airwaves
Sherlock
Holmes transitioned from the pages of Doyle's books to virtually every
artistic genre except perhaps interpretive dance (tho
I have found reference to a ballet, so perhaps this is untrue)!
The first major actor to appear as Holmes was William Gillette who appeared
on stage in over 1,200 performances from the turn of the 20th Century
to the 1930s.
Theatrical
productions transmitted over the air proved very popular. NBC first
broadcast Holmes on television on November 27, 1937 from the stage of
Radio City Music Hall with Luis Hector and William Podmore. This play
projected film sequences behind the stage in order to link scenes. A
second television broadcast of a staged production, based on The
Speckled Band, was shown in 1949 featuring Alan Napier and Melville
Cooper. The long-running play Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of
Blood starring both Frank Langella and Charleton Heston was filmed
for later television broadcast in the 1970s.
Holmes'
stories have been a recurring part of radio programming since 1930,
with Yankees beating the BBC in tackling this decidedly British icon.
Over 600 Holmes-related broadcasts have been cataloged, but no one knows
the full number, especially as this partial count does not even consider
foreign language productions!
Radio
and film projects went hand-in-hand for the better part of the 1930s
and 1940s with actors such as William Gillette, Arthur Wontner and Basil
Rathbone doing double duty as Holmes for both genres. Orson Welles'
Mercury Theatre produced several radio scripts for American audiences
on CBS radio in the late 30s. Another very notable radio pair is John
Geilgud and Ralph Richardson who performed weekly on the radio from
1954-1955. The longest-running pair featured Norman Shelley and Carleton
Hobbs from 1952-1969. The most comprehensive radio performances belong
to Clive Merrison and the late Michael Williams who produced the entire
canon for BBC Radio between 1988 and 1998. Merrison has gone on
to produce non-canon material, now teamed with Andrew Sachs as
Dr. Watson.
To
date there have been over 250 cinematic releases featuring Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson. Probably the most recognized actors in the roles
are Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Nearly forgotten is Eille Norwood
who portrayed Holmes in 47 half hour silent films 1921-1923. Other notable
names to have donned the deerstalker cap for the big screen include
the previously mentioned Arthur Wontner as well as John Barrymore. Peter
Cushing starred as Holmes in the 1958 Hammer Studios version of The
Hound of the Baskervilles (it was to launch a film
series that never materialized). Worth mentioning is this was
the first Holmes film to be shot in color. To round out the list let
us mention the Christophers (Lee and Plummer). And let's not forget
Nicol Williamson and Robert Duval meeting up with Alan Arkin as Sigmund
Freud to wrestle with Holmes' internal foes in The Seven Percent
Solution, the first Holmes film I saw on the big screen.
Numerous
Holmes spoofs exist, including films by Buster Keaton, Abbott and Costello,
Gene Wilder, as well as some interesting pairings such as George C.
Scott and Joanne Woodward teaming up as the crime-solving duo. Something
we would love to see (or even just hear) is the 1949 NBC Texaco Star
Theatre television send-up with Milton Berle, Victor Moore and a surprise
appearance by Basil Rathbone himself. My personal favorite Holmes send-
up is Peeper Radio Theater's 30 Second Holmes, an outrageously
amusing condensing of the cases; short, indeed, yet still mostly recognizable
(they don't always make the deadline however ... listen for the bell).
Nearly
all of the motion pictures quickly made their way to television, but
there has also been nearly 20 made-for-TV movies, as well as 14 separate
television series over the years, again only counting English language
productions. Without a doubt the most often adapted story is The
Hound of the Baskervilles with separate TV films broadcast in 1968,
1972, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1996 and 2000 to name just a few of the more
recent productions.
The
first television series was produced by the BBC and broadcast in June
of 1951; as expected, the BBC has produced the bulk of the English language
films and series for television, and as noted above, admirably still
produces Holmes for radio. One of the finest of the TV series starred
Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock in 13 shows from 1964 to 1965. Peter
Cushing took over for Wilmer when the series continued with 16 shows
in 1968 and 1969. Next to Rathbone -- and until Jeremy Brett -- Cushing
is probably the most recognized person portraying Holmes. This fact
makes it very interesting to note that Cushing was less than pleased
with his performance, citing the mental and physical tolls resulting
from the demands of quick TV production schedules. Not so displeased
that he could refuse to reprise the role for UK Channel 4 in 1984; The
Masks of Death shows Cushing portraying Holmes in later life
Back
in the US, Rathbone reprised his most famous role in 1953 for a live
30 minute broadcast, The Adventures of the Black Baronet. This
was shown as part of the CBS television series Suspense (also
a popular radio series), and intended as a pilot for a future series,
but no network chose to produce further scripts. The first and only
American television series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, broadcast
in 1954, consisted of 39 half hour original stories produced by NBC.
The
BBC produced Murder Rooms (The Dark History of Sherlock Holmes)
was shown as part of the PBS series Mystery! beginning in 2000 with
four further episodes airing between 2001 and 2002. Murder Rooms
is the fictional account of a young Doyle (Charles Edwards) during
his years of medical training under Dr. Joseph Bell (Ian Richardson).
Richardson's portrayal of a crime-solving Bell demonstrates all of the
characteristics Doyle would (supposedly) later use in his Holmes writings.
And while it is known that in real life Bell indeed performed forensic
inquiries for the police, whether Doyle drew upon real cases, or whether
Dr. Bell supplied Doyle with any material that later appeared in the
adventures of Sherlock Holmes ... ahhh, that remains a mystery.
The
most recent Holmes production to air on US television is the 2004 BBC
produced The Case of the Silk Stocking, appearing on PBS Masterpiece
Theater in 2005 and due for a reprise in March 2006. This is a non-canon
pastiche story following Holmes' pursuit of a serial killer with a foot
fetish, not a typical Holmes-type plot line, but the foggy atmospherics
are captured perfectly. Performances by Rupert Everett (Holmes) and
Ian Hart (Watson) are both quite enjoyable and unique, although by overtly
focusing on Holmes' opiate addiction, Everett's particularly languid
interpertation will undoubtedly leave traditional Sherlockians miffed
(but then, when you think about it, they are easily miffed).
Holmes'
stories have been adapted for children as well, including the Steven
Spielberg produced "Young Sherlock Holmes", a film which examined
the deductive brilliance of the detective's early years. A recent
animated television series features a female Inspector Lestrade of New
Scotland Yard bringing a cryogenically preserved Sherlock Holmes back
to life to help solve crime in the 22nd Century assisted by a robotic
Watson (perhaps Wattson?).
Without
question the most famous, or at least the best regarded Holmes to appear
on television was that portrayed by Jeremy Brett, who starred with David
Burke (then later with Edward Hardwicke). Granada TV in Britain produced
nearly the entire canon with Brett in the lead role over three installments
from 1984 to 1994 before the actor's untimely death. This series was
first broadcast in the US by PBS and then later rebroadcast on A&E.
Not limited to television, Brett portrayed the great detective in a
long run (1988-89) on stage in The Secrets of Sherlock Holmes, again
with Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. It is very unfortunate that this
play was never filmed.
So
thoroughly accomplished at portraying Holmes was the late Jeremy Brett,
that he is arguably the best Holmes ever. I say arguably, but
it is not my intention to entertain such arguments. I
have an obvious soft spot for our new productions, which I believe can
stand with the best of the last seventy years. As most
of the productions mentioned above remain available for purchase or
rent, including the old movies and radio broadcasts, I would suggest
you watch and/or listen and decide for yourself.
About
the One Act Adaptations
The
Speckled Band ... A Scandal in Bohemia ... and The Final Adventure ...
our series was selected to encompass three very distinct types of Holmes
cases: A thrilling adventure ... a light-hearted brain teaser with a
twist ... and a shocking tragedy. What
more could a group of actors ask for!
When
I set to work on the scripts, it was my intention that each production
run 30 minutes, half the length of the television adaptations and most
recent radio plays, and the same length as the broadcasts from the 1940s
through 1960s. As Doyle himself had written the stories to be read in
one short sitting, my choice seemed justified, and this allowed me to
emulate the old time radio production values One Act Audio Theatre has
become known for.
But
as Doyle's original stories seemed a little cluttered for a 30 minute
radio production, I began to look at the plot lines for places to trim
and streamline. Several dramatic options came to mind as well. What
if we never meet Dr. Grimesby Roylott? What if Irene Adler's deception
was more complete? What if Moriarty was a little less civilized and
a little more unstable? What if ... what if, indeed.
Scot
Crisp's performance clearly pre-dates Everett's by a good two years,
but there are similarities in approach to the character, and the two
certainly have shared a common love-it/hate-it reaction from Holme's
afficianados around the world.
Click
here to listen now.
See
detailed information on our production.
Read our official press release.
Donate
$20 or more to help us produce further audio drama, and receive as our
gift, a professional high-quality CD of all three One Act Audio Theatre
Holmes adaptations.
Can't
wait? Click
here to download files now!
We
hope that you enjoy our productions, and as always, The One Act Players
say thanks for tuning in.
Glenn
Carlson ./.
The
Players extend our gratitude to The
Sherlock Holmes Society for their extensive historical database.
More
Excellent Sherlock Holmes Resources
Sherlockian.net
Sherlock
Holmes on Oxford Lane
Wikipedia
Holmes
Camden
House
Gaslight
on the Web
221B Baker
Street
IMDb
Sherlock Holmes
The Sherlock
Holmes Museum of Baker Street
