The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (TV series)
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is a British television series that was co-produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on the ITV Network. There were two series of 13 fifty-minute episodes; the first aired in 1971, the second in 1973.
The programme presented adaptations of short mystery, suspense or crime stories featuring, as the title suggests, detectives who were literary contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes took its inspiration – and title – from a series of published anthologies by Hugh Greene, elder brother of author Graham Greene and the former director-general of the BBC.[1] Hugh Greene is credited on the programme as a creative consultant.[2]
The authors and detectives featured on the programme include:
Episode list
Series 1 (1971) September 20 - December 9
- Episode 01 - A Message from the Deep Sea (Dr. Thorndyke)
- Episode 02 - The Missing Witness Sensation (Max Carrados)
- Episode 03 - The Affair of the Avalanche Bicycle & Tyre Co. Ltd. (Horace Dorrington)
- Episode 04 - The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds (Simon Carne)
- Episode 05 - The Horse of the Invisible (Carnacki)
- Episode 06 - The Case of the Mirror of Portugal (Horace Dorrington)
- Episode 07 - Madame Sara (Dixon Druce)
- Episode 08 - The Case of the Dixon Torpedo (Jonathan Pryde)
- Episode 09 - The Woman in the Big Hat (Lady Molly)
- Episode 10 - The Affair of the Tortoise (Martin Hewitt)
- Episode 11 - The Assyrian Rejuvenator (Romney Pringle)
- Episode 12 - The Ripening Rubies (Bernard Sutton)
- Episode 13 - The Case of Laker, Absconded (Martin Hewitt)
Series 2 (1973) January 29 - May 7
- Episode 01 - The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway (Polly Burton)
- Episode 02 - Five Hundred Carats (Inspector Lipinzki)
- Episode 03 - Cell 13 (Professor Van Dusen)
- Episode 04 - The Secret of the Magnifique (John Laxworthy)
- Episode 05 - The Absent-Minded Coterie (Eugene Valmont)
- Episode 06 - The Sensible Action of Lieutenant Holst
- Episode 07 - The Superfluous Finger (Professor Van Dusen)
- Episode 08 - Anonymous Letters (Dagobert Trostler)
- Episode 09 - The Moabite Cypher (Dr. Thorndyke)
- Episode 10 - The Secret of the Fox Hunter (Duckworth [William] Drew)
- Episode 11 - The Looting of the Specie Room (Mr. Horrocks)
- Episode 12 - The Mystery of the Amber Beads (Hagar)
- Episode 13 - The Missing QCs (Charles Dallas)
DVD availability
The first series was released on a 4-disc Region 2 DVD set by Network Distributing on 15 June 2009.[3] Acorn Media released a Region 1 version of this set on 1 September 2009.[4] Series Two was released on a Network DVD 4-disc Region 2 release on 15 February 2010;[5] Acorn will follow with a Region 1 version on 27 April.
Bibliography
- Greene, Hugh; editor. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1970; ISBN 039441330X
- Greene, Hugh; editor. Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1971; ISBN 039447340X
- Greene, Hugh; editor. Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1973; ISBN 039448827X
- Greene, Hugh; editor. The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1976; ISBN 0394409213
Notes
- ^ History of the BBC: the 1960s
- ^ BFI.org.uk
- ^ Network DVD
- ^ Acorn Media press release, accessed 23 July 2009
- ^ Network DVD
External links