The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (TV series)
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is a British television series that was 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:
- Robert Barr (Eugene Valmont, French private investigator)
- Guy Boothby ("gentleman thief" Simon Carne)
- Ernest Bramah (blind detective Max Carrados)
- R. Austin Freeman (forensic detective Dr. Thorndyke; con artist Romney Pringle)
- Jacques Futrelle (Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, the Thinking Machine)
- Adalbert Goldscheider, a.k.a. "Balduin Groller" (Viennese sleuth Dagobert Trostler)
- George Griffith (Inspector Lipinzki)
- William Hope Hodgson (Carnacki, the ghost hunter)
- Fergusson Wright Hume (Hagar Stanley, a.k.a. Hagar of the Pawnshop, the Gypsy detective)
- C. J. Cutliffe Hyne (ship's purser Mr. Horrocks)
- William Le Queux (Duckworth Drew of the Secret Service)
- L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace (trade investigator Dixon Druce)
- Arthur Morrison (Horace Dorrington, crooked private detective; Martin Hewitt; Jonathan Pride)
- E. Phillips Oppenheim (John Laxworthy, reformed crook)
- The Baroness Orczy (Polly Burton from The Old Man in the Corner stories; Lady Molly of Scotland Yard)
- Max Pemberton (professional jeweller Bernard Sutton)
- Baron Palle Rosenkrantz (Lieutenant Holst, Danish police detective)
Episode list
Series 1 (1971) September 20 - December 9
- Episode 1 - A Message from the Deep Sea (Dr. Thorndyke)
- Episode 2 - The Missing Witness Sensation (Max Carrados)
- Episode 3 - The Affair of the Avalanche Bicycle & Tyre Co. Ltd. (Horace Dorrington)
- Episode 4 - The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds (Simon Carne)
- Episode 5 - The Horse of the Invisible (Carnacki)
- Episode 6 - The Case of the Mirror of Portugal (Horace Dorrington)
- Episode 7 - Madame Sara (Dixon Druce)
- Episode 8 - The Case of the Dixon Torpedo (Jonathan Pryde)
- Episode 9 - 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 1 - The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway (Polly Burton)
- Episode 2 - Five Hundred Carats (Inspector Lipinzki)
- Episode 3 - Cell 13 (Professor Van Dusen)
- Episode 4 - The Secret of the Magnifique (John Laxworthy)
- Episode 5 - The Absent-Minded Coterie (Eugene Valmont)
- Episode 6 - The Sensible Action of Lieutenant Holst
- Episode 7 - The Superfluous Finger (Professor Van Dusen)
- Episode 8 - Anonymous Letters (Dagobert Trostler)
- Episode 9 - 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 followed with a Region 1 version on 27 April.
Bibliography
- Greene, Hugh; editor. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1970; ISBN 0-394-41330-X
- Greene, Hugh; editor. Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1971; ISBN 0-394-47340-X
- Greene, Hugh; editor. Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1973; ISBN 0-394-48827-X
- Greene, Hugh; editor. The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1976; ISBN 0-394-40921-3
Notes
- ↑ History of the BBC: the 1960s
- ↑ BFI.org.uk
- ↑ Network DVD
- ↑ Acorn Media press release, accessed 23 July 2009
- ↑ Network DVD
External links
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes at the Internet Movie Database
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes at the BFI Film & TV database
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes at Television Heaven