What was the first film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes?
Maurice Costello
Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants Ellen (née Fitzgerald; born 1853) and Thomas Costello (born 1852). He made his film debut in 1908, but was long believed to have debuted in "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom" (1905), supposedly playing the lead in what is regarded as the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, since it was preceded only by the 30-second comedy film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" (1900). However, Holmesian scholar Leslie S. Klinger has written that the identification of Costello in the role is flawed. Klinger states that the first identification of Costello with the role was in Michael Pointer's "Public Life of Sherlock Holmes" published in 1975 but Pointer later realized his error and wrote to Klinger stating
Alfred L. Werker
Most of Werker's work is unremarkable, but a few were well received by critics. Those films included "House of Rothschild" (1934) and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939); the latter film is considered one of the best in the Sherlock Holmes series.
Sherlock Holmes (1916 film)
Sherlock Holmes is a 1916 American silent film starring William Gillette as Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. The film, which was directed by Arthur Berthelet, was produced by Essanay Studios in Chicago. It was adapted from the 1899 stage play of the same name, which was based on the stories, "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Final Problem," and "A Study in Scarlet" by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sherlock Holmes (1951 TV series)
Sherlock Holmes (a.k.a. We Present Alan Wheatley as Mr Sherlock Holmes in...) was a 1951 television series produced by the BBC featuring Alan Wheatley as Sherlock Holmes, Raymond Francis as Dr. Watson and Eric Maturin as Colonel Moran. This was the first series of Sherlock Holmes stories adapted for television.
The Return of the World's Greatest Detective
The Return Of The World's Greatest Detective is a 1976 American made-for-television mystery comedy film starring Larry Hagman as an inept motorcycle cop named Sherman Holmes, who, after sustaining a head injury, became convinced that he was actually Sherlock Holmes and as a result of his injury acquired formidable powers of observation and deduction. Dean Hargrove and Roland Kibbee wrote the film's story directly for television, intending it to be a pilot for a series that would have been titled "Alias Sherlock Holmes." The film originally aired on NBC on June 16, 1976.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
The 24 part series "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson" (1979–1980) starred Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes and Donald Pickering as Watson.
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking is a British television film originally broadcast on BBC One in the UK on 26 December 2004. Produced by Tiger Aspect Productions, it was written by Allan Cubitt and was a sequel to the same company's adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", made for the BBC two years previously. Although "Silk Stocking" retained the same Dr. Watson, Ian Hart, this time the character of Sherlock Holmes was played by Rupert Everett.
Louis Hector
Hector worked regularly as a radio performer in the 1930s, often portraying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's protagonist, Sherlock Holmes. Hector was chosen to play Holmes in an early NBC experimental television broadcast of "The Three Garridebs" on November 27, 1937. This is the first televised adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes character. The show ran for 30 minutes, and was processed in B&W.
Basil Rathbone
Rathbone is most widely recognised for his many portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. In a radio interview Rathbone recalled that Twentieth Century-Fox producer and director Gene Markey, lunching with producer-director-actor Gregory Ratoff and 20th Century-Fox mogul Daryl Zanuck at Lucey's Restaurant in Hollywood, proposed a film version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles". When asked who could possibly play Holmes, Markey incredulously replied, ""Who?!" Basil Rathbone!" The film was so successful that Fox produced a sequel which appeared later in 1939. Interest in Holmes cooled at Fox, but Universal Pictures picked up the character, and twelve feature films were made between 1941 and 1944 for release until 1947, all of which co-starred Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929 film)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1929 American Pre-Code mystery film directed by Basil Dean and written by Arthur Conan Doyle, Basil Dean and Garrett Fort. The film shares its title with the third volume of the Sherlock Holmes stories, "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle. The film stars Clive Brook, H. Reeves-Smith, Betty Lawford, Charles Hay and Phillips Holmes. The film was released October 29, 1929, by Paramount Pictures. A copy is held at the Library of Congress."The Return of Sherlock Holmes" was the first sound film to feature Sherlock Holmes. A silent version of the film was also produced to accommodate theaters which did not feature sound.
William Gillette, America's Sherlock Holmes
Gillette was among the first American playwrights to offer tightly-knit and well-constructed plays, Bronson Howard, Steele MacKaye and James Herne being the others, but his most significant contributions to the theater were in devising realistic stage settings and special sound and lighting effects, and, as an actor, in putting forth what he called "The Illusion of the First Time". His portrayal of Holmes helped create the modern image of the detective. His use of the deerstalker cap (which first appeared in some "Strand" Magazine illustrations by Sidney Paget) and the curved pipe became synonymous with the character. And it was in his play, not in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, that Holmes first said "This is elementary, my dear fellow," which subsequently became "Elementary, my dear Watson". Gillette assumed the role onstage more than 1,300 times over thirty years, starred in a silent motion picture based on his Holmes play, and voiced the character twice on radio.
Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series)
The two 20th Century Fox films—"The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"—had survived complete and in good condition, but those in the Universal series suffered badly over the years, as they passed through the hands of different copyright owners. In 1993 the UCLA Film and Television Archive started a restoration project on the series after the unstable cellulose nitrate film was found to be suffering from deterioration. Restoration on the first six films—"The Woman in Green", "The Pearl of Death", "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon", "The Scarlet Claw", "Terror by Night" and "The Spider Woman"—took four years from 1993; the costs for the restoration were met by UCLA and Hugh Hefner, who was a fan of the Rathbone-Holmes series. From 1998 Warner Bros. matched Hefner's funding and the remaining six films—"Dressed to Kill", "Pursuit to Algiers", "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death", "The House of Fear", "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" and "Sherlock Holmes in Washington"—were then restored, a process that was completed in 2001.
Sherlock Holmes (1965 TV series)
Finally, Peter Cushing was approached to take over the role of Sherlock Holmes for the 1968 series. Having already played Holmes in the Hammer films adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959), Cushing was eager to play the role again. Like Wilmer, Cushing was an avid fan of Doyle and looked forward to portraying the detective correctly.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
The actor most associated with Holmes on stage was William Gillette, who wrote, directed, and starred in a popular play entitled "Sherlock Holmes" in seven different productions on Broadway from 1899 (filmed in 1916), while the stories were still being published, to 1930. His version of Holmes, dressed in deerstalker hat and Inverness cape and smoking a large curved calabash pipe, contributed much to the popular image of the character. The deerstalker hat appears occasionally in Paget's original illustrations for "The Strand", but it is by no means a part of Holmes' regular clothing. Doyle's text is even vaguer, referring only to a travelling cap with earflaps in the passages with the relevant illustrations. He is also described as smoking several different types of pipes, varying them with his mood.
Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series)
While the 20th Century Fox adaptations had high production values and big budgets, the Universal films changed the approach of the series, and aimed "simply to be entertaining 'B' pictures". The second film produced by Universal, "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon", was directed by Roy William Neill; he went on to direct the remaining ten films—and produce the final nine—in the Universal series.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
The next significant cycle of Holmes films were produced by the Stoll Pictures company in Britain. Between 1921 and 1923 they produced a total of 47 two-reelers, all featuring noted West End actor Eille Norwood in the lead with Hubert Willis as Watson.
Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series)
From 1921 to 1923, Stoll Pictures produced a series of silent black-and-white films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Forty-five short films and two feature-length films were produced featuring Eille Norwood in the role of Holmes and Hubert Willis cast as Dr. Watson with the exception of the final film, "The Sign of Four", where Willis was replaced with Arthur Cullin. Consequently, Norwood holds the record for most appearances as Sherlock Holmes in film.
Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery
Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery is a 1908 American silent film directed by an unknown director. The film was released on 27 November 1908 and is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), which is considered the first detective story, though the plot was altered to include Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes instead of Poe's C. Auguste Dupin. Dr. Watson makes his film debut here, though the actors playing Holmes and Watson are unknown, as the rest of the cast. It is considered a lost film.
Sherlock Holmes (play)
In 1916, a silent film of the play also entitled "Sherlock Holmes" featured William Gillette in the role of Holmes and has been called "the most elaborate of the early movies". It is one of the earliest American film adaptations of the Holmes character. Long thought to be a lost film, a print of the film was found in the Cinémathèque Française's collection in October 2014. It was restored and screened in 2015.
Sherlock Holmes (1922 film)
Sherlock Holmes (released as Moriarty in the UK) is a 1922 American silent mystery drama film starring John Barrymore as Sherlock Holmes and Roland Young as Dr. John Watson.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a 1970 DeLuxe Color film in Panavision written and produced by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, and directed by Wilder. The film offers an affectionate, slightly parodic look at Sherlock Holmes, and draws a distinction between the "real" Holmes and the character portrayed by Watson in his stories for "The Strand" magazine. It stars Robert Stephens as Holmes and Colin Blakely as Doctor Watson.
Sherlock Holmes (1931 film series)
Sherlock Holmes is a film series running from 1931 to 1937. Arthur Wontner portrayed Sherlock Holmes in five films.
Robert Downey Jr.
The first role Downey accepted after "Iron Man" was the title character in Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes". Warner Bros. released it on December 25, 2009. The film set several box office records in the United States for a Christmas Day release, beating the previous record holder, 2008's "Marley & Me", by nearly $10M, and finished second to "Avatar" in a record-setting Christmas weekend box office. "Sherlock Holmes" ended up being the 8th highest-grossing film of 2009. When Downey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role as Sherlock Holmes, he noted in his acceptance speech that he had prepared no remarks because "Susan Downey (his wife and "Sherlock Holmes" producer) told me that Matt Damon (nominated for his role in "The Informant!") was going to win so don't bother preparing a speech".
Sherlock Holmes (play)
The 1939 film "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", the second film to star Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, is credited as an adaptation of the play, though they bear little resemblance.
Sherlock Holmes (play)
On September 25, 1938, Orson Welles starred in his own radio adaption of "Sherlock Holmes" for "The Mercury Theatre on the Air". The cast included Ray Collins as Dr. Watson, Mary Taylor as Alice Faulkner, Brenda Forbes as Madge Larrabee, Edgar Barrier as James Larrabee, Morgan Farley as Inspector Forman, Richard Wilson as Craigin, Alfred Shirley as Bassick, William Alland as Leary, Arthur Anderson as Billy, and Eustace Wyatt as Professor Moriarty. Music was conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes has been adapted numerous times for both films and plays, and the character has been played by over 70 different actors in more than 200 films. A number of film and television series have borne the title "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", but some of these are either original stories, combinations of a number of Doyle's stories, or in one case, an adaptation of "The Sign of the Four".
Sherlock Holmes (2014 TV series)
Following the broadcast of "The Three Musketeers" from 2009 to 2010, Kōki Mitani planned to adapt "The Brothers Karamazov" to a puppetry. Despite his love for the stories of Sherlock Holmes, Mitani was reluctant to adapt the series into puppetry due to the difficulty in describing the details of investigations through the operation of puppets. He also worried that it was too late to produce a Sherlock Holmes series as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" gained popularity and the modern adaptation "Sherlock" had already received a reputation. Then he planned to make a puppet with the spitting image of Sherlock Holmes drawn by Sidney Paget but abandoned the idea as tall puppets are difficult for puppeteers to operate. Mitani then decided to make it a show set in a fictional boarding school called "Beeton School" with Sherlock Holmes as a fifteen-year-old schoolboy. Though many incidents occur in the school, there are no murders and the same puppets appear many times. According to Mitani, as the story progresses it will be revealed to viewers the full picture of why the show is set in a school. All four novels of the canon – "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of the Four", "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Valley of Fear" – are dramatised in the puppetry, which Mitani says may be the first case among screen adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's work.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Many similar films were made in the early years of the twentieth century, most notably the 13 one- and two-reel silent films produced by the Danish Nordisk Film Company between 1908 and 1911. The only non-lost film is "Sherlock Holmes i Bondefangerkløer", produced in 1910. Holmes was originally played by Viggo Larsen. Other actors who played Holmes in those films were Otto Lagoni, Einar Zangenberg, Lauritz Olsen, and Alwin Neuss. In 1911 the American Biograph company produced a series of 11 short comedies based on the Holmes character with Mack Sennett (later of Keystone Kops fame) in the title role.
Sherlock Holmes (1965 TV series)
Sherlock Holmes (alternatively Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) is a British series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations for television produced by BBC between 1965 and 1968. This was the second screen adaption of Sherlock Holmes for BBC Television.
Detective fiction
Sherlock Holmes is British detective fiction written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes is at “A study in Scarlet”. At first, Sherlock Holmes did not result massive success, however starting from 1891, after published Sherlock Holmes at “Strand Magazine”, it became unquestionably popular. After Sherlock Holmes, many detective stories followed Conan Doyle’s structure and also include characters which have Sherlock Holmes characteristics.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Carleton Hobbs portrayed Holmes in a series of BBC radio broadcasts that ran from 1952 to 1969, with Norman Shelley playing Watson. Many of these were broadcast on Children's Hour. Of the many actors who have portrayed Holmes and Watson for the BBC, the Hobbs and Shelley duo is the longest running.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
The 1991-92 series "Sherlock Holmes the Golden Years" consisted of two TV films, in which Sherlock Holmes (played by Christopher Lee) and Dr. Watson (played by Patrick Macnee) are older adults who continue investigating cases. The two films were "Incident at Victoria Falls" and "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady".
Sherlock Holmes (1916 film)
The 1916 print of "Sherlock Holmes" had long been considered a lost film. However, on October 1, 2014, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) and the Cinémathèque Française announced that a print of the film had been found in the Cinémathèque's collection in Paris. The restoration of the film was overseen by SFSFF board president Robert Byrne in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française. The French premiere of the restored film took place in January 2015; the U.S. premiere followed in May 2015.
A Scandal in Bohemia
William Gillette's 1899 stage play "Sherlock Holmes" is based on several stories, among them "A Scandal in Bohemia". Films released in 1916 (starring Gillette as Holmes) and 1922 (starring John Barrymore), both titled "Sherlock Holmes", were based on the play, as was a 1938 "Mercury Theatre on the Air" radio adaptation titled "The Immortal Sherlock Holmes", starring Orson Welles as Holmes.
Harry Potter influences and analogues
Chris Columbus, who directed the first two "Harry Potter" film adaptations, has cited the 1985 film "Young Sherlock Holmes", which he wrote, as an influence in his direction for those films. "That was sort of a predecessor to this movie, in a sense", he told the BBC in 2001, "It was about two young boys and a girl in a British boarding school who had to fight a supernatural force." Scenes from "Young Sherlock Holmes" were subsequently used to cast the first Harry Potter film. On 3 January 2010, Irish journalist Declan Lynch (writing in "The Sunday Independent") stated that "there's more than a hint of young Sherlock evident in Harry".
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (released theatrically as Sherlock Holmes in the United Kingdom) is a 1939 mystery-adventure film released by Twentieth Century Fox. It is a pastiche featuring the characters of the Sherlock Holmes series of books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film is an adaptation of the 1899 play "Sherlock Holmes" by William Gillette, though there is little resemblance in the plots.
The Final Problem
William Gillette's 1899 stage play "Sherlock Holmes" is based on several stories, among them "The Final Problem." Films released in 1916 (starring Gillette as Holmes) and 1922 (starring John Barrymore), both titled "Sherlock Holmes", were based on the play, as well as a 1938 "Mercury Theatre on the Air" radio adaptation titled "The Immortal Sherlock Holmes", starring Orson Welles as Holmes, although in none of these retellings does Holmes die (and indeed in the two film versions he marries).
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Between 1979 and 1986, Soviet television produced a series of five television films at the Lenfilm movie studio, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson". The series were split into eleven episodes and starred Vasily Livanov as Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Watson. Livanov earned honorary membership Order of the British Empire for a performance ambassador Anthony Brenton described as "one of the best I've ever seen".
Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse
Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse is a 1983 Australian animated television film directed by Eddie Graham. It is an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1901-1902), the third of his novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 mystery period action film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, and Dan Lin. The screenplay, by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, and Simon Kinberg, was developed from a story by Wigram and Johnson. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson respectively. Set in 1890, eccentric detective Holmes and his companion Watson are hired by a secret society to foil a mysticist's plot to expand the British Empire by seemingly supernatural means. Rachel McAdams stars as their former adversary Irene Adler and Mark Strong portrays villain Lord Henry Blackwood. The film was widely released in North America on December 25, 2009, and on December 26, 2009 in the UK, Ireland, the Pacific and the Atlantic.
Sherlock Holmes
The exact phrase, as well as close variants, can be seen in newspaper and journal articles as early as 1909; there is some indication that it was clichéd even then. The phrase "Elementary, my dear fellow, quite elementary" appears in P. G. Wodehouse's novel, "Psmith in the City" (1909–10), and "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary" in his 1915 novel "Psmith, Journalist" (neither spoken by Holmes). The exact phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" is used by protagonist Tom Beresford in Agatha Christie's 1922 novel "The Secret Adversary". It also appears at the end of the 1929 film "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", the first Holmes sound film. The phrase became familiar with the American public in part due to its use in The Rathbone-Bruce series of films from 1939 to 1946.
Jeremy Brett
Although Brett appeared in many different roles during his 40-year career, he is best remembered for his performance as Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", a series of Granada Television films made between 1984 and 1994. These were adapted by John Hawkesworth and other writers from the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even though he reportedly feared being typecast, Brett appeared in 41 episodes of the Granada series, alongside David Burke and, latterly, Edward Hardwicke as Dr Watson. Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke appeared on stage in 1988 and 1989 in "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" directed by Patrick Garland.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Between 1979 and 1986, Soviet television produced a series of five films at the Lenfilm movie studio, split into eleven episodes, starring Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Dr. Watson. Later, a cinematic adaptation was made based on the 1986 episodes. This film was called "The Twentieth Century Approaches". The series ran as follows:
Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Around 1902, Doyle wrote and produced a play based on his short story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band". It premièred 8 years later, at the Adelphi Theatre, London on 4 June 1910, with H. A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes and Lyn Harding as Dr. Grimesby Roylott. The play, originally entitled "The Stonor Case", differs from the story in several small details, such as the names of some of the characters.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
The contemporarily-set 1987 television movie "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" starred Michael Pennington as the detective and Margaret Colin as Dr. Watson's granddaughter, Jane. Jane, after following directions written by her grandfather years ago, finds out that she has thawed Holmes who had been cryogenically frozen by Dr. Watson for 88 years due to Bubonic plague. They become a team—the essential Victorian gentleman and a post-feminist young woman—to solve a case that combines elements of "The Sign of the Four" with elements from the celebrated news story of a plane hijacked for ransom by D. B. Cooper.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939 film)
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" marks the first of the fourteen "Sherlock Holmes" films starring Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson, respectively. It is also notable as the earliest known "Sherlock Holmes" film to be set in the Victorian period of the original stories; all known previous "Holmes" films, up to and including the 1930s British film series starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes, had been updated to a setting contemporaneous with the films' release. It is also the only film in the series to be a strict adaptation of its source material, while subsequent installments would feature original titles and incorporate various elements of different stories.
Sherlock Holmes
The popularity of Sherlock Holmes has meant that many writers other than Arthur Conan Doyle have created tales of the detective in a wide variety of different media, with varying degrees of fidelity to the original characters, stories, and setting. According to "The Alternative Sherlock Holmes: Pastiches, Parodies, and Copies" by Peter Ridgway Watt and Joseph Green, the first known period pastiche dates from 1893. Titled "The Late Sherlock Holmes", it came from the pen of Conan Doyle's close friend, J. M. Barrie. A common pastiche approach is to create a new story fully detailing an otherwise-passing canonical reference (such as an aside by Conan Doyle mentioning the "giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared" in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"). Other adaptations have seen the character taken in radically different directions or placed in different times or even universes. For example, Holmes falls in love and marries in Laurie R. King's Mary Russell series, is re-animated after his death to fight future crime in the animated series "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century", and is meshed with the setting of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" (which won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story). An especially influential pastiche was Nicholas Meyer's "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution", a 1974 "New York Times" bestselling novel in which Holmes's cocaine addiction has progressed to the point of endangering his career. It was made into a film of the same name in 1976 and popularised the pastiche-writing trend of incorporating clearly identified and contemporaneous historical figures (such as Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, or Jack the Ripper) into tales featuring Holmes, something Conan Doyle himself never did.
Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series)
Critical success returned with the second installment of fifteen short films entitled "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in 1922. Elvey was replaced as director by George Ridgwell.
A final collection of fifteen shorts was released in 1923 entitled "The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The series was successful enough to spawn one last feature-length film, "The Sign of Four" released later in 1923.
Young Sherlock Holmes
Young Sherlock Holmes (also known with the title card name of "Pyramid of Fear") is a 1985 American mystery adventure film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Chris Columbus, based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film depicts a young Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meeting and solving a mystery together at a boarding school.
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films which updated the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the then present day. The film is credited as an adaptation of Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men," though the only element from the source material is the dancing men code. Rather, it is a spy film taking place on the background of the then ongoing Second World War with an original premise. The film concerns the kidnapping of a Swiss scientist by their nemesis Professor Moriarty, to steal a new bomb sight and sell it to Nazi Germany. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson have to crack a secret code in order to save the country. The film is one of four films in the series which are in the public domain.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson () is a 1979 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels about Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Igor Maslennikov it is the first of a 5-part TV film series (divided into 11-episodes) "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson". The film is divided into two episodes – "The Acquaintance" (, based on "The Adventure of the Speckled Band") and "Bloody Inscription" (, based on "A Study in Scarlet").
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
While Gillette is the most well known stage actor to portray Holmes, the first was John Webb. Webb assayed Holmes in a play written by Charles Rodgers in 1894.
Sherlock Holmes (play)
Sherlock Holmes is a four-act play by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. After three previews it premiered on Broadway November 6, 1899, at the Garrick Theatre in New York City.
Douglas Wilmer
He is mainly associated with the role of Sherlock Holmes, which he first played in the BBC's 1964 production of "The Speckled Band". Together with co-star Nigel Stock, who played Doctor Watson, Wilmer was brought back for a further twelve episodes of the "Sherlock Holmes" series. In 1973, Wilmer played author Jacques Futrelle's Holmesian detective Professor Van Dusen in "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" for ITV. In 1975, he once again appeared as Holmes (albeit in a supporting role) in Gene Wilder's "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother", with Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson. Wilmer also played Sir Denis Nayland Smith in two of Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu films, "The Brides of Fu Manchu" (1966) and "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" (1967).
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Jeremy Brett starred as Holmes in a Granada Television adaptation screened from 1984 to 1994, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", with David Burke and subsequently Edward Hardwicke as Watson. All but 18 of the Conan Doyle stories were filmed before the death of Jeremy Brett from a heart attack in 1995. Between 1984 and 1994, 36 episodes and five films were produced over six series. Brett and Hardwicke reprised their roles as Holmes and Watson in 1988-89 in a West End stage play, "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes", written by Jeremy Paul.
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace
Lee donned a false nose to play the famous detective for the first time. (He later reprised the role on TV, in 1991's "Incident at Victoria Falls" and 1992's "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady"). Lee and the rest of the cast were dubbed. Although "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" was originally filmed in English, the English language audio track was recorded post-production by different actors, mainly American. The film has a jazz score by Martin Slavin.
Sherlock Holmes Baffled
The director and cinematographer of "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" was Arthur Weed Marvin, a staff cameraman for Biograph. Marvin completed over 418 short films between 1897 and 1911, and was known for filming vaudeville entertainers. He later became known as the cameraman for the early silent films of D. W. Griffith. The identities of the first screen Holmes and his assailant are not recorded.
Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series)
In 1920, Stoll purchased the rights to produce films based on Sherlock Holmes' tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Stoll embarked on the production of his first series of fifteen short films entitled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in 1921.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Irene Adler, who is in the first short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", is prominent in many modern adaptations, despite only appearing in one story. Often in modern adaptations, she is portrayed as a love interest for Holmes, as in Robert Doherty's "Elementary" and the BBC's "Sherlock", even though in the story itself, the narration claims: "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler." In his "Sherlock Holmes Handbook", Christopher Redmond notes "the Canon provides little basis for either sentimental or prurient speculation about a Holmes-Adler connection."
Sherlock Holmes (1954 TV series)
Sherlock Holmes was a detective television series aired in syndication in the fall of 1954, based on the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The 39 half-hour mostly original stories were produced by Sheldon Reynolds and filmed in France by Guild Films, starring Ronald Howard (son of Leslie Howard) as Holmes and Howard Marion Crawford as Watson. Archie Duncan appeared in many episodes as Inspector Lestrade (and in a few as other characters). Richard Larke, billed as Kenneth Richards, played Sgt. Wilkins in about fifteen episodes. The series' associate producer, Nicole Milinaire, was one of the first women to attain a senior production role in a television series.
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
Douglas Wilmer and Thorley Walters appear as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. Wilmer had previously appeared as Sherlock Holmes in the 1960s BBC TV series, and Walters played Watson in three other films: "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" (1962), "The Best House in London" (1969), and "Silver Blaze" (1977).
H. Reeves-Smith
Reeves-Smith appeared in only three motion pictures, two silents and one sound. His last was "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (1929) with Clive Brook, which holds the distinction of being the first Sherlock Holmes film to be shot in sound and Reeves-Smith the first Dr. Watson in a sound film.
A. J. Raffles
According to the "Strand Magazine", these stories made Raffles "the second most popular fictional character of the time," behind Sherlock Holmes. They have been adapted to film, television, stage, and radio, with the first appearing in 1903.
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
"The Devil's Foot" served as the basis for a 1921 short film starring Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes, an episode of the 1965 television series "Sherlock Holmes" starring Douglas Wilmer (with Nigel Stock as Dr Watson and Patrick Troughton as Mortimer Tregennis), and a 1988 episode of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" starring Jeremy Brett.
Sherlock Holmes (1922 film)
The movie, which features the screen debuts of both William Powell (credited as William H. Powell) and Roland Young, was directed by Albert Parker and written by Earle Browne and Marion Fairfax from the 1899 play by William Gillette based upon Arthur Conan Doyle's characters, and was produced by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation.
Arthur Wontner
Wontner landed the role of Sherlock Holmes thanks to his performance of Holmes imitation Sexton Blake in a 1930 stage production. He played the famed sleuth in five films from 1931 to 1937.Of the five films in which Wontner portrayed Sherlock Holmes, "The Missing Rembrandt" is no longer available. It is officially a lost film.
Reginald Owen
Owen first played Watson in the film "Sherlock Holmes" (1932), and then Holmes himself in "A Study in Scarlet" (1933). Having played Ebenezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Owen has the odd distinction of playing three classic characters of Victorian fiction only to live to see those characters be taken over and personified by other actors, namely Alastair Sim as Scrooge, Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson.
Sherlock Holmes
"Guinness World Records" has listed Holmes as the "most portrayed movie character", with more than 70 actors playing the part in over 200 films. His first screen appearance was in the 1900 Mutoscope film, "Sherlock Holmes Baffled". The detective has appeared in many foreign-language versions, including a Russian miniseries broadcast in November 2013. With 24 episodes per season, by the end of season two of "Elementary" Jonny Lee Miller became the actor who had portrayed Sherlock Holmes the most in television and/or film beating Jeremy Brett with forty-one television episodes and Eille Norwood with forty-seven silent films.
Sherlock Holmes (1965 TV series)
In 1964, an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" was commissioned as a pilot for a twelve part series of Sherlock Holmes stories. Giles Cooper wrote the adaptation and Douglas Wilmer was cast as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Watson, with Felix Felton as Dr. Grimesby Roylott.
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is the sixth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films. Made in 1943, it is a loose adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes story "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual." Its three immediate predecessors in the film series were World War II spy adventures with Holmes and Watson as characters, but this one marks a return to the pure mystery form. Though several characters are military men and there are frequent mentions of the war, it is not the focus of the story.
Sherlock Holmes (1967 TV series)
The series aired on WDR from 1 October 1967 to 18 March 1968 and is formed by six episodes, each one adapting a Sherlock Holmes short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle, though the scripts are based on the adaptations made in the first season of the British TV series "Sherlock Holmes" (1965-1968). A DVD was issued in 2012 under the name "Straßenfeger 45".
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987 film)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1987 American made-for-television mystery film and pilot created and written by Bob Shayne involving the famous detective Sherlock Holmes finding himself in the modern world. It originally premiered January 10, 1987 on CBS.
June Wyndham Davies
With a knack for spotting talent, Wyndham Davies gave the young Michael Caine his first chance in theatre, along with early opportunities for Rhys Ifans and Hugh Grant. Her inspired casting ideas whilst working for the Drama department at Granada included the suggestion of the late Jeremy Brett for the part of Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". To this day, Brett is still widely considered to have given the definitive portrayal of Conan Doyle’s detective. Wyndham Davies went on to produce the second series: "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", as well as "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" in 1994, and several feature-length television films including: "Sherlock Holmes – The Sign of Four", also starring Jenny Seagrove.1986 - "Shades of Darkness" (TV Series) (1 episode) 
1980-1981 - "Cribb" (TV Series) (3 episodes) 
1981 - "Christmas Spirits" (TV Movie)
1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns
1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns, or Sherlock Holmes Returns! In The Adventure of the Tiger's Revenge and sometimes shortened to just Sherlock Holmes Returns, is a 1993 American television movie about the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, starring Anthony Higgins as Holmes. In its title and basic premise, it is very similar to a 1987 TV movie, "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", but the plot details of the two films are quite different.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
In the 1930s, writer, actress, and producer Edith Meiser was largely responsible for first bringing Holmes to American radio listeners. Meiser, loved the Holmes stories, helped sell the show to the NBC radio network and found a sponsor. She wrote the show by herself for 12 years [1930–1942], both adapting Doyle's classic tales as well as writing new adventures in the Holmesian style. The first show she adapted was "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." It was broadcast on October 20, 1930, and featured William Gillette in the lead role. Various actors played the Holmes and Watson parts in the series until October 2, 1939, when Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were cast after appearing in the 1939 film “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
NBC’s Red and Blue networks carried the series until 1942. After that the shows were then written by the team of Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher. Then the Mutual Broadcasting System picked up the series which it ran until 1947 [Rathbone left in 1946 and was replaced by Tom Conway, Nigel Bruce remained] with the proviso that Meiser continue to contribute “new adventures”. Meiser's adaptations and original stories won praise from Conan Doyle's family for their faithful adherence to the original characterization.
Sherlock Holmes pastiches
"The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) was directed by Billy Wilder and stars Robert Stephens as the famous sleuth. In this film, Holmes travels to Scotland in search of the Loch Ness Monster.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002 film)
Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country. Produced by Tiger Aspect Productions, this was the third adaptation of the tale for the BBC, it was shown on BBC One on Boxing Day, 2002. It was directed by David Attwood, and adapted by Allan Cubitt. The film stars Richard Roxburgh as Sherlock Holmes and Ian Hart as Doctor Watson. Hart would play Watson again in the 2004 TV film "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking", also written by Cubitt. The hound was a mix of animatronics and computer generated images and was created by the same team, Crawley Creatures and Framestore, that provided the dinosaurs for "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "The Lost World".
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
In the 1976 "The Return of the World's Greatest Detective" policemen Sherman Holmes suffers from a blow to the head resulting in him thinking he is Sherlock Holmes.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (film)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson () is a 1980 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes. It is the second film (episodes 3-5) in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson" film series directed by Igor Maslennikov.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
John Cleese played Holmes in a 1973 episode of "Comedy Playhouse": "Elementary My Dear Watson". William Rushton played Watson.
Sherlock Holmes pastiches
In 1985, director Barry Levinson made a film called "Young Sherlock Holmes" (a.k.a. "Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear") with a story about the youth of Holmes and Watson as Secondary School students and their first great adventure, even before "A Study in Scarlet". There are a lot of references about Holmes canon such as the violin, the pipe, "elementary, my dear...", the clothes and the reason why Holmes never married, and it includes the first meeting of Holmes and Professor Moriarty. The film was produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Chris Columbus; the novelization was written by Alan Arnold.
Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
The film had its world premiere on 14 December 2009, in London and was subsequently released worldwide on 25 December 2009 (26 December, boxing day, in the UK and Ireland), after being pushed from a November release date.
An advance charity screening was held in select locations in Belgium on 10 December 2009.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983 film)
In 1982, American producer Sy Weintraub partnered with English producer Otto Plaschkes to make six television films of Sherlock Holmes stories. Charles Edward Pogue was enlisted to pen the screenplays but only "The Sign of the Four" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" were ultimately filmed before Granada Television's "Sherlock Holmes" series premiered in 1984. A proposed third film, "Hands of a Murderer" (originally entitled "The Prince of Crime") was eventually made with Edward Woodward as Sherlock Holmes and John Hillerman as Dr. John H. Watson.
Harry Arthur Saintsbury
In 1910, Saintsbury played Sherlock Holmes for five months in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own stage play "The Speckled Band". Charles Millward took over the role when the production moved to New York, but Saintsbury returned as Holmes in a West End revival of the play in 1921. Saintsbury played the role of Holmes again in a 1916 film, "The Valley of Fear", which is believed lost, opposite Booth Conway as Professor Moriarty. By the time the film was made, Saintsbury had played Holmes more than a thousand times on stage, and by 1921 he had taken this total to 1,400 performances. His interpretation of Holmes was notably restrained and made a powerful impression on the young Charlie Chaplin, who wrote of Saintsbury in 1964:
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891–1894, a period called "The Great Hiatus" by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories.The Return of Sherlock Holmes was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 1992–3 as part of Bert Coules' complete radio adaptation of the canon, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Notable guest stars included Denis Quilley as Bob Carruthers in "The Solitary Cyclist", Alex Norton as Cairns in "Black Peter", Peter Vaughan as Charles Augustus Milverton, Peter Sallis as Jonas Oldacre in "The Norwood Builder", and Penny Downie as Lady Brackenstall in "The Abbey Grange". The episodes were written by Bert Coules, Michael Bakewell, Roger Danes, David Ashton, Peter Ling, and Robert Forrest, and directed by Enyd Williams and Patrick Rayner.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Clive Brook played Sherlock Holmes three times: "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (1929), as part of an anthology film, "Paramount on Parade" (1930), and "Sherlock Holmes" (1932).
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
One of the earliest television appearances was the 1951 BBC mini series "Sherlock Holmes" starring Alan Wheatley as Holmes and Raymond Francis as Watson.
Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series)
The initial series of fifteen shorts entitled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" was so successful, that Stoll moved to film a feature-length adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" also in 1921.
Sherlock Holmes (1954 TV series)
Most of the show's 39 episodes are non-Canonical original adventures, but a few are directly based on Arthur Conan Doyle's stories: "The Case of the French Interpreter" (based on "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter"), "The Case of the Pennsylvania Gun" (based on "The Valley of Fear"), "The Case of the Shoeless Engineer" (based on "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb"), and "The Case of the Red-Headed League" (based on "The Red-Headed League"). The first episode, "The Case of the Cunningham Heritage," adapts the first section of "A Study in Scarlet", in which Holmes and Watson's relationship is established, and develops an original story from there.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Many of the stories from the collection were included as episodes in the Granada Television series, "Sherlock Holmes" which ran from 1984 until 1994. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 1990–1991, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Bert Coules was the head writer, but stories were also written by Vincent McInerny and Peter Mackie, and directed by Patrick Rayner and Enyd Williams.
Sherlock Holmes (1954 TV series)
The series was the first American television adaptation of Doyle's stories, and the only such version until 2012's "Elementary".
Sherlock Holmes (2013 TV series)
Sherlock Holmes () is a Russian television crime drama series based on the Sherlock Holmes detective stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, and was aired in November 2013. Some of the stories have never been adapted before. It stars Igor Petrenko as Sherlock Holmes and Andrei Panin as Doctor John Watson. Eight episodes have been produced, while the first episode was aired in late 2013.
Sherlock Holmes
William Gillette's 1899 play "Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner" was a synthesis of several Conan Doyle stories. In addition to its popularity, the play is significant because it, rather than the original stories, introduced one of the key visual qualities commonly associated with Holmes today: his calabash pipe. The play also formed the basis for the Gillette's 1916 film, "Sherlock Holmes". In his lifetime, Gillette performed as Holmes some 1,300 times. In the early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times.
Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen U.S. films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures) from 1939 to 1946, and in "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on the Mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946 (before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway). While the Fox films were period pieces, the Universal films abandoned Victorian Britain and moved to a then-contemporary setting in which Holmes occasionally battled Nazis.
Patrick Macnee
Macnee appeared in "Magnum, P.I." (1984) as a retired, but delusional, British agent, who believed he was Sherlock Holmes, in a season four episode titled "Holmes Is Where the Heart Is". He played both Holmes and Dr. Watson on several occasions. He played Watson three times: once alongside Roger Moore's Sherlock Holmes in a TV film, "Sherlock Holmes in New York" (1976), and twice with Christopher Lee, first in "Incident at Victoria Falls" (1991), and then in "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" (1992). He played Holmes in another TV film, "The Hound of London" (1993), along with the 1996 TV film "". He is thus one of only a very small number of actors to have portrayed both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on screen.
Sherlock Holmes pastiches
"Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking" (2004 TV movie), has Holmes (Rupert Everett) and Watson (Ian Hart) searching for a killer with a foot fetish. The production was an original story written by Allan Cubitt. This was preceded by "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (2002 TV movie) with Holmes now played by Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart returning as Watson.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
In 2007, Peepolykus Theatre Company premiered a new adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Adapted by John Nicholson and Steve Canny, directed by Orla O'loughlin with Javier Marzan as Sherlock Holmes, the production involves only 3 actors. Following a UK tour, it transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End. This adaptation continues to be presented by both amateur and professional companies around the world.
Sherlock Holmes (1931 film series)
Wontner's final performance as Sherlock Holmes was in a 1943 BBC adaptation of "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" with Carleton Hobbs as Dr. Watson. Hobbs himself later went on to play Holmes in a radio series.
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (German: Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes) is a 1962 black-and-white film directed by Terence Fisher. It was a West German-French-Italian international co-production. The film starred Christopher Lee as Sherlock Holmes and Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson. Curt Siodmak wrote the screenplay, based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sherlock Holmes (1954 TV series)
In 2005, Mill Creek Entertainment released "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series", a three-disc DVD set featuring all 39 episodes of the series. Also in 2005, Elstree Hill Entertainment released all 39 episodes as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on ten discs. In 2010, Mill Creek released "Sherlock Holmes: Greatest Mysteries", a five-disc DVD set featuring all 39 episodes plus eight unrelated Holmes films: " The Sign of Four" (1932), "A Study in Scarlet" (1933), "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" (1935), "Silver Blaze", also known as "Murder at the Baskervilles" (1937), "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1943), "The Woman in Green" (1945), "Terror by Night" (1946), and "Dressed to Kill" (1946). On March 9, 2010, Allegro/Pop Flix released "Classic TV Sherlock Holmes Collection", a four-disc DVD set featuring all 39 episodes of the series. As of 2012, the series has been released on DVD by Mill Creek yet again, this time under the title of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The Mill Creek DVD releases feature short introductions by Christopher Lee, taken from the 1985 documentary "The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes".
In 2014 Tropics Entertainment released all 39 episodes on ten disc DVD set.
In 2017 it was released as a single disc Blu-ray release in Germany with original English language.
A Canine Sherlock Holmes
A Canine Sherlock Holmes is a lost 1912 English silent short film crime drama directed by Stuart Kinder and produced and released by Charles Urban Trading Company. The film starred a canine film actor called Spot, the Urbanora dog.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Throughout the early 1940s on American Radio, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce performed as Holmes and Watson, respectively, in several series of canonical and original Sherlock Holmes stories on "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" radio show. These broadcasts were loosely based on Doyle's cases. When Rathbone finally departed the role before the 1947 season, Tom Conway played Sherlock Holmes opposite Nigel Bruce for one season. After a change of networks, there were two more pairings: John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson in 1947–1948 and Stanley and "George Spelvin" in 1948–1949. Both Stanley and Conway emulated Rathbone when performing Holmes to aid in continuity for the audience.