LUCY WORSLEY’S HOLMES VS. DOYLE - PBS

LUCY WORSLEY’S HOLMES VS. DOYLE: a three-part series featuring the popular British historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan who seeks to answer why author Arthur Conan Doyle came to despise the character that made him rich and famous. 

Throughout the series, Worsley explores the parallel lives of Doyle and Holmes in the historical context of their times. From the dying years of Victorian England, through the imperial crisis of the Boer war, the optimism of the early Edwardian years, to the trauma of the First World War, Arthur and Sherlock lived through them all. 

LUCY WORSLEY’S HOLMES VS. DOYLE premieres Sundays, December 8-22, 2024, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App. 

Featured in over 60 original stories and countless film and television adaptions, Sherlock Holmes has intrigued and excited fans with his intellect and powers of deduction for more than a century. Over the course of three episodes, Worsley investigates the curious relationship between detective and author. 

In Episode 1, “Doctor and Detective” (December 8), Lucy unearths Holmes’ origins in Doyle’s early life as a medical student in Edinburgh. She unpacks the early stories, revealing the dark underbelly of late Victorian Britain, from drug use to true crime. She explores how Doyle infused his stories with cutting-edge technological developments and traces the author’s growing disenchantment with his detective, heading to Switzerland to visit the site of one of the most famous deaths in literature. 

In Episode 2, “Fact and Fiction” (December 15), Lucy explores Doyle’s desire to distance himself from Sherlock after the detective’s apparent death at the Reichenbach Falls. From the delights of the ski slopes to the horrors of the Boer War, she reveals how far Doyle went to make himself the hero of his own story. He even took on the role of detective himself in one of the most important legal cases of the 20th century.  

In the finale, “Shadows and Sleuths” (December 22), Lucy investigates the return of Sherlock. Doyle began the Edwardian age delighting in all it had to offer, but as the First World War approached, the darkness of the later stories mirrored the reality of Doyle’s life. After losing his eldest son, he became an evangelist for spiritualism, and his star declined after a public spat with a famous magician. Sherlock Holmes, in contrast, found a life beyond his author on stage and screen. 

LUCY WORSLEY’S HOLMES VS. DOYLE will stream simultaneously with broadcast and be available on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app.

Sherlockian Pastiche and Unwrapping a Mummy: Guest Post by Jeri Westerson

First, get yourself a several thousand-year-old dead guy, invite all your friends over to watch you unwrap him from his bindings, then grind him into a powder and everyone gets to go home with a powdered mummy souvenir. Fun times!

Well, that was the premise behind the Victorian “Egyptomania” fad. Not only did they scramble all over themselves to get the latest piece of ancient Egyptian sculpture, canopic jar, statue, vase, stylized wallpaper and curtains, but they also wanted that mummy. And mummies were a dime a dozen in Egypt —or gold Egyptian pound a dozen, I suppose—even though it was technically illegal to sell and take these artifacts out of the country. (If you’ve ever been to the British Museum in London, you can’t swing a statue of Bastet without hitting a mummy.)

And besides the proliferation of séances and spiritualism in general, this fascination with all things Egyptian was a fad that would take them right up to the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922, where it would only flare up again.

So when I set out to write my own Sherlockian pastiche (“Holmesian” for all my Brit fans out there), I wanted them to have that taste of the sensationalism of penny dreadful stories that were popular at the time. Such titles as Varney the Vampire in the Feast of Blood were pretty much de rigueur for the day. The first book in my An Irregular Detective Mystery series, THE ISOLATED SÉANCE, introduced my own characters, Tim Badger, the former Baker Street Irregular who aged out of Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars, and his black friend from the East End, Ben Watson (no relation to Doctor Watson). The two opened their own detecting agency under the patronage and watchful eye of one Mister Sherlock Holmes. Their first client of any real substance was the manservant of the universally disliked Horace Quinn and is accused of his murder during a locked-room séance. There is the woo-woo element of the supernatural of the story, something that even Doyle did not shy away from in his stories, mostly including The Adventure of the Creeping Man, The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, and The Hound Of The Baskervilles. But unlike the sensational writers of his day, he only made it look as if it were supernatural, and gave Holmes the logic and intelligence to disprove it, even though Doyle himself was a rabid spiritualist and believer in séances…and, it must be said, fairies.

In my latest book in the series, THE MUMMY OF MAYFAIR,  my detectives are hired as security for a mummy unwrapping party given by an illustrious surgeon, when Badger and Watson make a rather grisly discovery.

Not only am I having a whale of a time climbing out of the medieval and Tudor milieu, but delighting in the research into the late Victorian period. Oh, and the props! I can get the real deal from the Victorian period to display at my book events, not all those medieval and Tudor reproductions. For instance, ask me about castor sets when next you see me. Okay, never mind, I can’t stand it. I’ll just tell you about them now. Watch old movies carefully, whether they are depicting Victorian times or contemporary 1930s or 1940s times set in England or America. Look at the kitchen or dining room tables. There will be a castor set on them. A silver carousel of glass containers that consisted of salt and pepper, oil and vinegar (or sometimes sugar shaker) and a mustard pot with spoon. These everyday items—and no one would really ever mention them in an inventory because they were so common to every table—lasted from the seventeenth century all the way to the early 1950s. And their remnants can be found in your everyday restaurant that has on your table a salt and pepper shaker in a wire container with a stalk to pick it up with, that might also have your ketchup, mustard, and sugar packets in it. 

Yes, this kind of thing excites the heck outta me. But I digress.

Weren’t we talking about mummies? 

The first man to unwrap a mummy for entertainment purposes was surgeon Thomas Pettigrew (1791-1865). It happened in front of a group of doctors in 1821, perhaps to give the affair legitimacy, but by the 1830s it was for the shock value of ordinary folk. He began with an introduction and lecture, then unrolled each layer of linen bandages, revealing amulets secreted there during the mummifying process. In fact, Alexander Hamilton, the 10^th Duke of Hamilton (not that Alexander Hamilton) hired Pettigrew to mummify him when he died, and bury him in a genuine Egyptian sarcophagus that he had acquired to donate to the British Museum, but kept it for his own purposes and was indeed, mummified and interred in it in 1852. Now that’s dedication to one’s hobby. 

In any case, it was the ultimate in society street cred to be invited to one of these affairs, and they were many. And your powdered mummy? That was a throwback to medieval curatives, a medicine used in the Middle Ages as the latest snake oil. Despite advances in medicine throughout the long Victorian period though, Victorians also believed that a tincture made with powdered mummy was a cure-all. (Mmm. Just a little musty-tasting but great when added to my laudanum!) 

So what could be better than this setting to place one’s mystery, only to have it widen the circle of suspects to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, to smuggling, and more murders that all involve Egyptomania…with Sherlock Holmes popping into the action now and again to set our young detectives on the right path with maddening hints? 

Incidentally, never did I imagine writing Sherlock Holmes! I was used to the medieval and now the Tudor period with my King’s Fool Mystery series. It would have been intimidating to write an entire book about Holmes. Better that I concentrate instead on these two young men from the East End who observe Holmes from their point of view and stumble through their cases, even with their own Boswell to write up their adventures, a female reporter (based on a real female reporter of the time) who at first rankles them with her less than flattering articles, and then comes to know them and then to admire their resourcefulness. The books have a lot of humor, heart, a little romance, and moments of pathos. 

I treat the Doyle canon as I treat other historical periods. As if it were real. Don’t deviate from the history. Just include it in the lives of my characters, real or fictional. And so it is the “what if” of my characters coming in contact with Doyle’s characters. What would be natural? Would the reader believe my characters’ reality alongside Doyle’s reality? That’s the fun of a pastiche, I’ve discovered. Blending them as a whole, writing it from the point of view of two blokes, not from the perspective of the Great Detective himself, but as an affectionate complement to it.

 

Jeri Westerson is the author of the King’s Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the reluctant sleuth, her fifteen-book complete Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series, and several other historical and paranormal series. The second in her Sherlockian An Irregular Detective Mystery, THE MUMMY OF MAYFAIR, is available now.

  

Happy Birthday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Happy Birthday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. In this original 'podcast', Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tells how he came to write the Sherlock Holmes stories. Nothing like hearing it from the man, himself.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, born May 22, 1859, was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

The Great Detective: Ten Ways Holmes Influenced the Mystery Genre: Guest Post by Amber M. Royer

Amber M. Royer:  The Great Detective: Ten Ways Holmes Influenced the Mystery Genre

In A Study in Chocolate, the fifth book in my Bean to Bar Mysteries, my protagonist receives a copy of A Study in Scarlet, as a way of being called out by a Sherlock Holmes fan who is the book’s antagonist.  This killer is trying to take on the role of Moriarty (though this person is nowhere near up to the task) and is trying to cast Felicity as Holmes.  

I had a great deal of fun writing this fan dynamic – as Holmes is considered by many to be THE iconic detective. The Guinness Book of World Records lists him as, “the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history.” It’s not the first time I’ve referenced him. In the third book in my series, part of the plot surrounds a Holmes-themed LARP (live action roleplaying game) taking place on board a mystery-themed cruise. (I tend to reference all of my favorite detectives at some point – which isn’t that different from Doyle himself, who had Sherlock and Watson discuss Poe’s Detective Dupin, who was obviously something of the model for Holmes.  In a somewhat meta move, Holmes declares himself the superior detective, right in the first novel, A Study in Scarlet.)

Poe may have set the stage, but it was Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes that captured the public imagination and basically invented a new literary genre.  Here’s my top ten favorite things about the legacy Holmes left us mystery writers.  And mystery fans.
 
1. The “Consulting” Detective – Dupin and Holmes are two early examples of characters who are solving crimes, despite not being part of organized law enforcement. Dupin’s motivations for solving cases shifts in each of the three stories he is a part of.  But Sherlock Holmes is different.  He has intentionally educated himself in all the sciences related to criminology – leaving huge gaps in other areas of basic knowledge. Many fictional detectives that followed have had similar interests in criminology, keen skills of observation, and a need to either solve puzzles or find justice. Characters such as Shawn Spenser and Richard Castle wind up accompanying the authorities, in a true “consulting detective” capacity, but more loosely, this is the model for every amateur sleuth to ever sneak away from a cake shop or library to solve an inexplicably long series of murders.

2. The Sidekick/Sounding Board Friend – As an audience, we respond to Dr. Watson as the narrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories. This serves two purposes: to blunt Holmes’ abrasive personality, and also to give us someone whose shoes to step into to watch the detective’s brilliant mind. Watson-type characters still exist, obviously.  (My favorite current example is Chet, from Chet and Bernie, who happens to be a dog who is thrilled to watch his seedy-detective master solve crimes.) This idea gets flipped in series where the detective is the first person narrator (as in my series, and many other cozy mysteries). That friend character is still there – but more to give the protagonist someone to bounce ideas off of, and the opportunity to say out loud things the protag would only be thinking.

3. Fascination With Trace Evidence – Holmes was obsessed with forensic science, sometimes conducting experiments on himself, and maintaining a full chemistry lab at 221 Baker Street. The Royal Society of Chemistry even gave Holmes honorary membership. Their website says, “Holmes began, albeit it fictionally, a tradition that is now part of everyday policing around the world in which science and rational thinking are allied to combat evil.” So Holmes also gives us the pattern for CSI and Bones, and every other fictional detective that is focused in on science.

4. Created the Iconic “Detective” Look – The deerstalker hat that we associate with Holmes was never mentioned in the pages of the actual stories or novels. (Though there is a reference to "his ear-flapped travelling cap.")  We first get the illustrations of Holmes in a deerstalker from Sidney Paget, who illustrated the stories Doyle wrote for The Strand Magazine. While the actual hat would have only been worn for traveling, Paget continued illustrating Holmes wearing the hat in London – and the image stuck.  Now, just the illustration of a deerstalker hat by itself gives up a symbol for not only Holmes, but for detectives in general. As writers, our takeaway is: if you want an iconic detective, give that person an iconic look. Poirot twirling his fastidiously waxed mustache. Columbo with his rumpled raincoat.  Dick Tracy and his yellow fedora.  Adrian Monk with his wipes. This is part of what makes all these characters larger than life.

5. Highlighting Deductive Reasoning – Doyle gives evidence of his influence from Poe’s Detective Dupin’s focus on deductive reasoning. Several times in the stories, Sherlock compares himself to Dupin, noting the similarities. There are a lot of characters who in turn give nods back to Sherlock for their interest in deductive reasoning and crime solving. If you look at the opening credits of Diagnosis Murder, the collection of Holmes memorabilia is right there. In Castle, Beckett gives Castle a deerstalker when he goes out on his own as a private investigator.  Even when the nods aren’t there, characters like Shawn Spencer and Adrian Monk are showing off their hyper-awareness of detail that allows them to solve murders others can’t.

6. Emphasized the Need for a Different Perspective – one of the hardest things about writing any sort of consulting or amateur detective is giving a reason why this person is the one solving the crime in question – instead of the authorities. With Holmes, it was his sheer deductive brilliance, honed at great cost to other areas of his education and ability to function in society. His obsession with following the clues gave him a different perspective. That’s still something we’re trying to do with characters today. I’ve focused on making Felicity’s shop a hub in the community, giving access to people who the police might not have thought to question. I’ve also given her empathy and a need to find meaning in loss (as she is a relatively recent widow) as the driving force.

7. Set the Pattern for the “Big Reveal” – I love the way in most mysteries, the clues come together, the detective figures it out, and then the audience gets a scene where the baddie is captured and all our suspicions are confirmed. (Or we find out our guesses were off base, and we’re genuinely surprised at the reveal of the killer’s identity. Which – if we can follow a logical thread of clues back to the introduction of the actual culprit, can be equally satisfying.) In the Holmes stories, we sometimes see Watson standing in our place, ready to receive the big reveal.  One of my favorite examples of this is in, “The Dying Detective,” where misdirection has kept Watson unaware of Holmes’s subterfuge, though the clues are clearly there.

8. Created the Modern Concept of Fandom – Sherlock Holmes captured the popular imagination of his author’s times in a way that hadn’t really happened before.  When Doyle wrote the story where he killed off Holmes, 20,000 people unsubscribed from The Strand Magazine out of outrage.  Some sources say people wore black and openly mourned. Not able to handle losing this favorite character, people started writing Holmes fan fiction as far back as 1897. (Holmes fans were the ones who coined the word canon, when it all started getting confusing.)  There are still Sherlock Holmes fan societies, keeping their favorite character alive today.

9. Adaptations – There have been numerous film adaptations of Holmes stories, as well as different takes on Holmes in both print and film. There have even been cartoons.  (The Great Mouse Detective, anyone?  That one was a favorite of mine, growing up.) The different takes on the character, even in media coming out near the same time, are fascinating – for example, the different ways the source material was adapted for Elementary vs. Sherlock – and the much stronger action-adventure interpretation of the Robert Downey, Jr. films. There’s a fun take in the new Enola Holmes films, which pictures Sherlock as the protagonist’s older brother, giving a different side to Sherlock’s personality.
 
10. Pop Culture And Meta References – There are a number of other literary characters who are huge fans of Sherlock Holmes. There are two episodes in Star Trek Next Generation where Data dons a deerstalker and the holodeck conjures up Moriarty for him to prove that he can dynamically solve a crime as well as a human (and later, Moriarty tries to escape the computer.)  Probably my favorite homage, though, is Detective Conan (also titled Case Closed), an anime where teenage detective Kudo Shinichi is forced to take an experimental drug that turns him into a child. On the run, he takes on the alias Edogawa Conan – based on his two favorite authors – Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Ranpo, the pen name of the guy who played a formative role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. The Holmes connection, runs through the story in subtle ways (they live in Beika City – Baker City – after all).  In the sixth feature-length film, Conan and his friends become trapped in virtual reality game that sets them down in Holmes’s London, and it is Conan’s knowledge of the Holmes characters that allows them all to survive. (The Case Closed series is still ongoing and extremely popular in Japan, with over 900 episodes and – at present – 25 feature films.) 

I’m sure I’ve missed a few of the things people love about Holmes.  What’s your favorite thing about this iconic literary detective?

***

Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse space opera series, and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. She is also the author of Story Like a Journalist: a Workbook for Novelists, and has co-authored a chocolate-related cookbook with her husband. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach.

 

Cartoon of the Day: Elementary!

Cartoon of the Day: Sherlock Holmes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHERLOCK HOLMES! 

221B Baker Street Key Pendant

Here's a cool pendant--a Sherlock 221B Baker Street Key. Love it! It's definitely the perfect fashion accessory for any Sherlockian.

It's at the Spookyisland shop on Etsy. $13.31

Comes with a chain in a variety of widths.

And, if the Sherlock 221B Baker Street Key pendant and necklace isn't your "cup of tea," Spookyisland also had a great Alice in Wonderland necklace, a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver, and a human brain (I like this one!)

More information here.

Lyndsay Faye: Clueless: Deductive Reasoning and Sherlock Holmes Pastiches

Lyndsay Faye's The Whole Art of Detection (The Mysterious Press; March 7, 2017) is an outstanding collection of stories featuring the world's most famous detective: Sherlock Holmes. An Edgar award-finalist, Lyndsay Faye is the author of five critically acclaimed books: Dust and Shadow; The Gods of Gotham, which was nominated for an Edgar for Best Novel; Seven for a Secret; The Fatal Flame; and Jane Steele. Faye, a true New Yorker in the sense she was born elsewhere, lives in New York City with her husband and son. Her latest collection has already garnered great advance praise, including three starred reviews in Booklist, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. 

Lyndsay Faye:
Clueless: Deductive Reasoning and Sherlock Holmes Pastiches 

As a Sherlockian omnivore, one who likes my The Great Mouse Detective and Basil Rathbone fighting Nazis and House, M. D. all piled together like a heap of Thanksgiving dinner sides, I was avidly looking forward to the fourth season of BBC’s Sherlock. This isn’t meant to be a review, so I’ll save the majority of my critique of those three episodes for elsewhere. There were high points and lo, there were lows. But after watching it, and finding a good percentage of the plotting about as sensible as a feline in a catnip packaging facility, I started reflecting on how very difficult writing Holmes’s “deductions”—at least, writing reasonable deductions—can in fact be.

All power to show creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss for giving us a meth-fueled carnival ride of a fourth series, one that challenged my perceptions of what the show was and occasionally even made me question if I was actually trapped inside a particularly vivid pizza dream. They have a tendency, however, to throw special effects at the screen when “clues” might fail to withstand scrutiny, and unfortunately the plodding writer of prose doesn’t get to wow the reader with computer-generated folderol whenever the soil samples don’t hold up. Over the course of the last eight years, I’ve written 15 Sherlock Holmes pastiches for the Strand Magazine and other publications, which are now being published in a collection titled The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. Now that I squint at the volume? That’s a lot of clues. Historical clues at that—Victorian sleight of hand designed to convince the reader that my Holmes is the real Holmes, that he can read entire histories in a man’s manicured pinky toe, or the lint clinging to the humble flower girl’s faint moustache.

It’s not that I’m annoyed at BBC’s Sherlock for skipping some of the gristly bits of writing detective work. They can present their adventures however they like, which is seemingly with disembodied set pieces hovering before Sherlock’s eyes, and with questionable CG firewalls. (Doubtless next season will feature a lizard army, an Elton John guest appearance, and a steampunk Jim Moriarty android—and I’m OK with that.) It’s just that it’s hard to come up with logical inferences, and I’ve been doing it long enough to know that you can spend upwards of an hour staring at your laptop screen and tapping your front teeth in bafflement, a parade of tarnished watch chains, dirtied boots, mismatched gloves, calloused thumbs, and unpolished spectacles parading before your eyes—any of which could mean literally anything, depending on how the author needs to manipulate the information Holmes will glean from the data.

Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t bat a hundred when it came to the Great Detective’s intuitive leaps. Take the classic scene in which Holmes studies a lost hat in “The Blue Carbuncle.” Sure, it’s perfectly fair for Holmes to say that the owner doesn’t have gas laid on in his house because the felt has too many tallow stains on it; it’s equally logical to surmise that traces of lime cream and snipped ends indicate his choice of pomade and the fact that he’s recently had a haircut. But Holmes goes on to deduce that because the man had a serious pumpkin of a noggin, he is intellectual (it’s not the size that counts—it’s how you use it), and that because his hat isn’t brushed, his wife has ceased to love him. Apparently either Holmes has never so much as heard of a woman who eschews housekeeping, or he’s ignoring that she may be abroad, or tending a sick relative, or simply has cataracts.

I’m absolutely certain that over the course of some 120,000 words’ worth of Sherlock Holmes adventures, I’ve fallen on my face plenty of times. (To the reader who identifies these highly unscientific moments: please just pour another brandy and carry straight on.) Other displays of Holmesian brilliance still seem successful years later. For instance, I am rather proud of an interlude in “The Beggar’s Feast” during which Holmes makes a string of deductions based on the fact that an anonymous man admitted to Bart’s hospital in the wake of an assault is not wearing his own clothing. The logic seems to me sound, and the circumstances peculiar enough to merit Holmes’s notice. On the other hand, like Doyle, I occasionally threw up my hands and resorted to inventing non-existent poisons and deadly animal species. Touché, Moffat and Gatiss. Apparently fake biological discoveries are my version of flashy dolly shots.

Of course, none of this is to say that my way of approaching Sherlock Holmes is the “right” one, or indeed that any such true path exists. I’ll happily sit down to watch Robert Downey Jr. parade around in bloomers and cornflower blue eyeshadow, or watch subtle character studies morph into the hunt for the Loch Ness monster in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. But there’s something rewarding about actually developing an inference that holds water. It may not be as satisfying as exploring the beautiful relationship between Holmes and his Boswell, or channeling the atmosphere of the Victorian gothic. It’s a small, keen pleasure, however, to work out what it means to Holmes when a client’s trousers have been recently hemmed, and one I look forward to experiencing on many future occasions.

Cartoon of the Day: Red Herring

Love this Cartoon from Mark Anderson! HT: Jayna Monroe

Sherlock Season 4: Premieres New Year's Day

Sherlock returns to the U.S. tonight  (January 1) in "The Six Thatchers" on PBS MASTERPIECE. There will be three brand-new episodes. Season Four begins with the mercurial Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), back once more on British soil as Doctor Watson (Martin Freeman) and his wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) prepare for their biggest challenge yet: becoming parents.

Co-creators, writers and executive producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss say: “Whatever else we do, wherever we all go, all roads lead back to Baker Street, and it always feels like coming home. Ghosts of the past are rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and terror and tragedy are looming. This is the story we’ve been telling from the beginning and it’s about to reach its climax.”

Sherlock is written and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Christmas Pudding

Love this. Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Christmas Pudding.

Toby Jones joins Benedict Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman on Sherlock

Toby Jones (Infamous, The Secret Agent, The Girl) is confirmed to star in the fourth season of Sherlock on MASTERPIECE PBS, produced by Hartswood Films for BBC One and co-produced with MASTERPIECE.

Toby Jones will star in the second episode of the brand new three-part season, which starts filming today. Episode two will be directed by Nick Hurran, who was Emmy®-nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries for "His Last Vow", a season three Sherlock episode.

Toby Jones said: “I'm excited and intrigued by the character I shall be playing in Sherlock..." Rumor has it that he will be a villain.

Promising laughter, tears, shocks, surprises and extraordinary cases, it was announced last month that season four will begin with the nation’s favorite detective, the mercurial Sherlock Holmes, back once more on British soil, as Doctor Watson and his wife, Mary, prepare for their biggest ever challenge - becoming parents for the first time.

Sherlock is written and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock is produced by Sue Vertue and the executive producers are Beryl Vertue, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat for Hartswood Films, Bethan Jones for BBC Cymru Wales and Rebecca Eaton for MASTERPIECE. It is distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the American Twins

The Baker Street Players will present the world premiere of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's play Sherlock Holmes and the Case of The American Twins on Fridays and Saturdays between May 20th and June 11th. The venue, Baker Street West, is located on the second floor above Hein & Company Bookstore at 204 Main Street, Jackson, CA 95642. Beth Barnard is directing the limited run. Hein & Company co-owner Linda Hein is producing the show.

Contact:  Hein at  209-223-2215 or info@bakerstreetwest.com for tickets. 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bakerstreetwest

Sherlock Holmes and The Case of The American Twins is a traditional Sherlockian adventure that begins, as one always seems to, at 221B Baker Street where a distressed female client (Miss Phoebe Dillingham) consults with Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson on the whereabouts of her twin brother.  What follows is a trail that leads to Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's more intelligent brother) and on to Colonel Collins (retired intelligence officer from the Army) who sends Sherlock to Madam Flora Yao (a provocative connoisseur of information).  The denouement of the case turns ruckus in Mrs. Hudson's sitting room and yet there is more . . .

Baker Street West is a Victorian tribute to Sherlock Holmes. The setting includes eight storefronts relating to characters or subjects drawn directly from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's four novels and 56 short stories of Sherlock Holmes. It is an event-oriented venue that includes eight retail storefronts and a recreation of Sherlock Holmes' flat:  221B Baker Street.

***

An interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
(Reprinted with permission of Saichek Publicity)

Some people may not realize you began your career writing children's plays. How does it feel to return to this medium?

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: I've written plays since I was eight, and for the last four decades, I do one about every ten years. There's nothing like writing plays to sharpen the ear to dialogue, and I find it refreshing to think theatrically from time to time.

Tell us how your association with Hein & Company and the Baker Street Players came about

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: When my old friends, Cedric and Jan Clute, moved from Volcano to Jackson, they became involved with the Hein & Company Bookstore (the largest used bookstore in northern California), whose owners, Linda and Wolf Hein, were starting a Holmesian society. They put on a play about the Houdini seance, which I attended, and mentioned that they would like to do more productions with ties to Holmesian literature. I had been doing some Tarot readings at the store as part of the publicity for the play and since there was a bit of an opening in my schedule, I offered to do them a Holmesian play --- after all, Bill Fawcett and I had done four Mycroft novels and two Victoire Vernet novels Napoleon Must Die and Death Wears a Crown (Victoire being the Holmes brothers' French grandmother) --- and they could perform it if it suited their purposes. So I wrote the play, and then wrote a novelette from it which is available and the Baker Street Players will be performing it on Friday and Saturday nights from May 20th through June 11th.

What was the inspiration for this play?

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: American Twins arose out of some of the gaps in the Doyle stories about the early days of Sherlock's career, plus I wanted to play around with the underworld of London.

In addition to this play (and the companion "novella-ization" available digitally) you co-wrote the aforementioned novels with Bill Fawcett featuring Mycroft Holmes (Against the Brotherhood, Embassy Row, The Flying Scotsman and The Scottish Ploy). These have been re-released digitally. Why do you think people continue to find the Holmes brothers so fascinating?

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: To me, the Holmes stories are artifacts of the late Victorian era, and as such have social echos that have become iconographic of an age that is just long enough gone that we can be caught up in it as a gesture of affection. I would like to think that the play touches on this aspect of Doyle's original work.

Along those lines, what do you hope Holmes' fans take away with them, after seeing your play or reading the digital story?

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: I hope that the audience/readers enjoys the story and that seeing/reading it was time well spent. When you've been writing as long as I have, you know that what readers/audiences take away from your work may have nothing to do with your intention, but that whatever they find in it, that is what it means to them.

What are you working on now? Do you have any plans to write another play? Will Sherlock Holmes or Mycroft Holmes appear in a new adventure by you, whether it's on-stage or in print?

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: I'm currently working on the third Chesterton Holte mystery novel (following Haunting Investigation and Living Spectres), and on the 28th Saint-Germain book. I have no plans at this point to do another play, Holmesian or otherwise, but the decade is young and that may change.
***

Avalerion Books has released Yarbro's "novella-ized" version of The Case of The American Twins in all digital formats. Avalerion also just released Yarbro's original Holmesian story Brother Keeper (not connected with the play).

While she is best known for her historical horror novels featuring the vampire Saint-Germain, Yarbro is no stranger to the Holmes universe. In addition to the above works she and Bill Fawcett co-wrote four novels featuring Mycroft Holmes that are available again digitally: Against the Brotherhood, Embassy Row, The Flying Scotsman and The Scottish Ploy. These four novels were authorized by Dame Jean Conan Doyle.

Douglas Wilmer, Sherlock Holmes actor: R.I.P.

Douglas Wilmer, Sherlock Holmes Actor: R.I.P.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

The London native played the famous detective for the BBC and in a Gene Wilder film and had many brushes with the character over the years.

Douglas Wilmer, who began a long association with Sherlock Holmes when he ably portrayed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary sleuth on a 1960s series for the BBC, died Thursday. He was 96.
Wilmer, a respected veteran of stage and screen, died at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, England, after a short illness, The Sherlock Holmes Society of London reported. (He was an honorary member of the society.)
The London-born actor first played Holmes opposite Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson in 1964 (for a pilot episode) and then for an 11-episode season in 1965. (For another season of Sherlock Holmes, Peter Cushing replaced him in 1968.)
Wilmer also portrayed the logical Professor Van Dusen, a Holmesian detective created by American author Jacques Futrelle, in 1971's The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes for the ITV network. Later, Gene Wilder insisted Wilmer return as the famous resident of 221B Baker St. in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975).
And for Sherlock, the current British series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Wilmer had a cameo as a cranky old man who gave Watson a hard time in the Diogenes Club in the 2012 second-season finale "The Reichenbach Fall."
There are many — including some at The Sherlock Holmes Society of London — who consider Wilmer the definitive Holmes.

HT: Doc Quatermass

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

TONIGHT!

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson return in a 90-minute special, Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, set in 1890s London. Watch the premiere tonight: Friday, January 1, at 9pm or online at pbs.org/masterpiece. In the San Francisco Bay Area, an encore airs Sunday, January 10, at 10pm on KQED 9.

New Sherlock Holmes Special to Premiere January 1

MASTERPIECE and PBS announced today that Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, a 90-minute special, will premiere Friday, January 1, 2016 on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS at 9:00 p.m. ET, and simultaneously online at pbs.org/masterpiece. The special will have an encore broadcast on Sunday, January 10 at 10:00 p.m. ET. This is the first time that Sherlock has premiered in the US and the UK on the same day.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman return as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the modern retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic stories. But now our heroes find themselves in 1890s London. Beloved characters Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington), Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and Mrs. Hudson (Una Stubbs) also turn up at 221b Baker Street.

New Sherlock Holmes stories to raise money to restore Conan Doyle's Home

60 authors will contribute to the anthology and all royalties will go towards renovating Undershaw, the former home of Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle.

From Radio Times:

Sixty of the world’s leading Sherlock Holmes authors have come together to create the largest ever anthology of new stories about the Baker Street detective. The royalties from the project are to go towards the restoration of Undershaw, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former home which will become a school for children with learning disabilities.

Undershaw is where Conan Doyle wrote many of the original Sherlock Holmes stories and where he brought Holmes back to life after having killed him off at the famous Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. The building fell into disrepair in 2009 when developers tried to carve up the house but were blocked by a determined group of Sherlock Holmes fans who fought the planning all the way to the high court. The group – supported by their patron, Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss – won an injunction in the high court. The developer appealed but that was quashed in 2012.

Read more here.

Conan Doyle Estate Sues Miramax Over Mr. Holmes

The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Conan Doyle estate is suing Miramax over the film Mr Holmes because it allegedly infringes works about the detective still in copyright.

The heirs of Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle have apparently accepted an appellate judge's conclusion that most of the Sherlock stories are in the public domain. However, that's not stopping the Doyle Estate from filing a new lawsuit targeting Miramax and others over the coming film, Mr. Holmes, which features the famous detective near the end of his life.

On Thursday, a copyright and trademark lawsuit was lodged in New Mexico federal court that alleges that Mr. Holmes treads upon the last ten of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, published between 1923 and 1927.

In a prior dispute with a Holmes expert (Les Klinger!), the Doyle Estate attempted to argue that it would be unfair to separate out the copyrighted elements from the post-1923 stories from the character traits of the detective that were described prior to 1923. Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner rejected that argument, and also ordered the Doyle estate to pay its legal adversary more than $30,000 in legal fees, but still left open an avenue where the Doyle Estate could attempt to protect the latter works.

The lawsuit attempts to take this opportunity.

According to the complaint, Doyle's public domain works "make references to Holmes’s retirement," but the ones still in copyright tell "much more about Sherlock Holmes’ retirement and later years," such as the detective's attempt to solve one last case, how he "comes to love nature and dedicates himself to studying it," and how Holmes develops "a personal warmth and the capacity to express love for the first time."

Read more here.

HT: Doc Quatermas

Ian McKellan -- Mr. Holmes Trailer

Can't wait! 

From Entertainment Weekly:

In Mr. Holmes, Ian McKellen stars as an older version of the famous detective, who is finally penning his own story about his life to correct the misconceptions that have already been written about him. So Sherlock, at the age of 93 (requiring McKellen to play almost two decades above his own age), sets about recalling a case in his life from 35 years earlier.
The new international trailer for the film shows off more of the film’s plot as a new take on the classic character, a stark contrast from other modern on-screen interpretations, approaches its summer release date. Mr. Holmes is set to release on July 17.

Sherlock Holmes Exhibit at Museum of London

Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die

From BookTrade:

The Museum of London opened the exhibit Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die today. This exhibit celebrates the world of the greatest fictional detective of all time. The exhibit will run through April 12, 2015 with a variety of rare treasures.

Highlights include:
•A rare oil on canvas portrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle painted by Sidney Paget in 1897, which has never been on public display in the UK
•Original pages from Edgar Allan Poe's manuscript of The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) never before seen in the UK
•The original manuscript of The Adventure of the Empty House (1903)
•The iconic Belstaff coat and the Derek Rose camel dressing gown worn by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Sherlock BBC television series

Visitors enter through the  bookcase-come-secret-doorway. Tracing the history of Sherlock Holmes through the ages, the comprehensive exhibition navigates its viewers through London-esque pathways displaying original manuscripts written in Conan Doyle's hand (in a section entitled 'The Genesis of Sherlock Holmes') right through to his globally recognized protagonist's portrayals in modern culture (The Many Sides of Sherlock Holmes). Other treats include first copies of The Strand magazine in 1891 alongside drawings by the original illustrator, Sidney Paget.

Alex Werner, Head of History Collections at the Museum of London and lead curator of Sherlock Holmes said: "Peeling back the layers of Sherlock Holmes, we will reveal the roots of this global icon who has continued to enthral audiences for over 125 years. It is fitting that it be hosted here, in the city which shaped the stories and created such a rich source for its success."

Those more recently engaged with the Holmes phenomenon through the BBC's popular 'Sherlock' adaptation will not only appreciate the vast history behind the 21st century detective, but also see his famous costume Belstaff coat and the Derek Rose camel dressing gown, worn by Benedict Cumberbatch himself, on loan from Hartswood Films.

A particularly fascinating section of the exhibition focuses on The London of Sherlock Holmes bringing together paintings, drawings, illustrations and photographs to examine how Victorian London and the cultural climate of the day informed Conan Doyle's stories and characters, interpreting renowned artists and photographers through the prism of Sherlock Holmes and identifying key locations. The stories and images reinforce each other to create the seminal views of Holmes's London embedded in our cultural memory; a particularly enjoyable journey having stepped in from the very same city from which Conan Doyle took his inspiration.

As you walk through the door of 221B Baker Street, recreated to mark the final section of the exhibition, Holmes, the man, is analyzed through a series of studies on his analytical mind, his forensic and scientific approach to solving crimes, his ability to go undercover as a master of disguise, and his characterisation as a Bohemian drug taker yet model English gentleman. This is enhanced by a vast collection of objects from the period when Conan Doyle was writing, including costume, to provide a further understanding of the detective's notorious traits. The exhibition will explain where the ideas originally came from, and their real-world precedence, including the instantly recognisable symbols of the magnifying glass, pipe and deerstalker.

Many of these iconic objects have been replicated for purchase in the MoL shop, most notably the 'Museum of London Tweed' specially commissioned in collaboration with Christys' Hats and Lovat Mill. Inspired by the color palette described in the original Sherlock Holmes stories, along with late Victorian tweed and current menswear trending forecasting data, the 'sophisticated, contemporary design' as described by Sean O'Sullivan, Interim Director of Enterprise at MoL, is currently on sale in the form of the deerstalker and flat cap but will soon be appearing at Liberty and Christys' Hats.