Sherlock Holmes was a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who made his first published appearance in 1887 by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is famous for his prowess at using logic and astute observation to solve cases. He is perhaps the most famous fictional detective, and indeed one of the best known and universally recognizable literary characters.

Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring his creation. Almost all were narrated by Holmes' friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, with the exception of two, narrated by Holmes himself and two more written in the third person. The stories first appeared in magazine serialization, notably in The Strand, over a period of forty years.

The detective stories appeared on radio beginning in 1930 and ran for more than 25 years with a long list of performers playing the parts of Holmes and Dr Watson. The radio mysteries were written by Edith Meiser, a self-confessed Holmes addict. At first she used Arthur Conan Doyles’ original tales, but when the series outlived the original material, she created her own new stories. These were written so well that she was warmly praised by Arthur Conan Doyle’s widow and son.

In the stories by Conan Doyle, Holmes often remarked that his logical conclusions were "elementary", in that he considered them to be simple and obvious. He also, on occasion, referred to his friend as "my dear Watson". It’s interesting to note that the complete phrase, "Elementary, my dear Watson", does not appear in any of the sixty Holmes stories written by Conan Doyle. The phrase only first appeared at the very end of the 1929 film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first Sherlock Holmes sound film, and may owe its familiarity to its frequent use in these Edith Meiser's radio scripts.

This disc contains 48 episodes including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes productions by the BBC, a 1938 production by Orson Welles' Mercery Theater, and several multi-part mysteries including the famous Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear and others. This is one disc your OTR collections can't be without!

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FIRST BROADCAST: October 20th 1930

LAST BROADCAST: September 4th 1956

SPONSORS: George Washington Coffee, Household Finance, Bromo Quinine, Petri Wines, Clipper Craft

CAST: Richard Gordon, Louis Hector, Basil Rathbone, Tom Conway, Ben Wright, John Stanley, Leigh Lovel, Nigel Bruce, Eric Snowden, Alfred Shirley, Ian Martin, Orson Welles, Louis Hector, Joseph Bell, Agnes Moorehead, Harry Neville, Lucille Wall, Bill Shelley, Junius Matthews

ANNOUNCERS: Knox Manning, Harry Bartell

PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS: Edna Best, Basil Loughrane, Joseph Bell, Tom McKnight, Glendall Taylor

WRITERS: Edith Meiser, Bruce Taylor (pseudonym of Leslie Charteris), Dennis Green, Anthony Boucher, Howard Merrill, Max Ehrlich

SOUND EFFECTS: Bill Hoffman

ORGANIST: Dean Foster

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Graham Harris

THEME: ‘March of the Ancestors’ – based on a theme from Ruddigore by Gilbert and Sullivan

Sherlock Holmes – 1930-1960s