Sherlock Holmes was an audio series released by Big Finish Productions based on the original works of Arthur Conan Doyle. For the first two stories, Roger Llewellyn played an older Sherlock Holmes with Nicholas Briggs and Richard Earl taking over as the titular character and Doctor John Watson respectively from then onwards.
Connections to the DWU
Although the character of Sherlock Holmes made a number of appearances in Doctor Who adventures, starting with the 1985 comic story Funhouse, prior to the conception of Big Finish's Holmes series, as of October 2020[update] it is Nicholas Briggs' incarnation of the character that has been depicted in all instances of performed media within the Doctor Who universe.
The series first crossed over with Doctor Who in the audio adaptation [+]Loading...{"noital":"1","1":"All-Consuming Fire (audio story)","2":"audio adaptation"} of the 1994 novel All-Consuming Fire [+]Loading...["All-Consuming Fire (novel)"]. Both Briggs and Earl reprised their Holmes roles for the story alongside the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield. The illustration of Holmes on the cover of the original novel was based upon Basil Rathbone's portrayal in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the first in a series of fourteen films wherein Rathbone played Holmes.
Big Finish's Sherlock Holmes crossed over into the DWU again in 2016 with The Worlds of Big Finish which depicted crossovers with several Big Finish ranges, some related to Doctor Who and some not. Briggs' Holmes featured in two of the six stories, The Adventure of the Bloomsbury Bomber [+]Loading...["The Adventure of the Bloomsbury Bomber (audio story)"] and The Feast of Magog [+]Loading...["The Feast of Magog (audio story)"], both with Dorian Gray, as played by Alexander Vlahos in the Big Finish series The Confessions of Dorian Gray.
There were several characters from Holmes canon who had previously appeared in Doctor Who prose but not in performed media who were played by Who actors in this series. These included Mrs Hudson played by Beth Chalmers, Lestrade played by John Banks and James Moriarty played by Alan Cox. Mycroft Holmes, who had been played by David Warner in several earlier Bernice Summerfield stories, was played in this series by Tim Bentinck.
Cast connections
Many other Doctor Who universe actors have appeared in the series including Matt Addis, James Albrecht, Ken Bones, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Ian Brooker, Natalie Burt, Derek Carlyle, Nicholas Chambers, Tracey Childs, Jemma Churchill, Sam Clemens, Jeremy Clyde, Michael Cochrane, John Dorney, Barnaby Edwards, Amy Ewbank, Andrew Fettes, India Fisher, Sheryl Gannaway, Jane Goddard, Terrence Hardiman, Nigel Hastings, Andrew Havill, Eve Karpf, Caroline Keiff, David Killick, Joe Jameson, Toby Longworth, Anjella Mackintosh, Michael Maloney, Terry Molloy, Christopher Naylor, Jamie Newall, David Peart, Leighton Pugh, Elizabeth Rider, Blake Ritson, Lex Shrapnel, Dan Starkey, Joannah Tincey, Giles Watling, Eve Webster and Gemma Whelan. Nicholas Briggs and Richard Earl also had many Doctor Who credits to their names.
Stories
Main series
| # | Title | Author | Notes | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | The Last Act | David Stuart Davies | Audio adaptation of Davies' 1999 one-man play. First appearance of Roger Llewellyn as Sherlock. |
November 2009 |
| 1.2 | The Death and Life | Audio adaptation of Davies' 2008 one-man play. Last appearance of Roger Llewellyn as Sherlock. |
December 2009 | |
| 1.3 | Holmes and the Ripper | Brian Clemens | Features Jack the Ripper. First appearance of Nicholas Briggs as Sherlock and Richard Earl as Watson. |
April 2010 |
| 1.4 | The Speckled Band | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Dramatic reading of Doyle's 1892 short story. | June 2010 |
| 2.1 | The Final Problem | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Adapted by Nicholas Briggs) | Adaptation of Doyle's 1893 short story. | October 2011 |
| The Empty House | Adaptation of Doyle's 1905 short story. | |||
| 2.2 | The Reification of Hans Gerber | George Mann | Features Inspector Charles Bainbridge from Newbury & Hobbes. Novelised in 2013 by Titan Books as The Will of the Dead. | November 2011 |
| 2.3 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (adapted by Richard Dinnick) | Adaptation of Doyle's 1902 novel. | December 2011 |
| 2.4 | The Tangled Skein | David Stuart Davies (adapted by Richard Dinnick) | Adaptation of Davies' 2007 novel Sherlock Holmes and the Tangled Skein. Sequel to The Hound of the Baskervilles, featuring Dracula. |
January 2012 |
| 2.5 | The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner | Jonathan Barnes | April 2012 | |
| 3.1 | The Guttering Candle | December 2013 | ||
| 3.2 | The Adventure of the Gatekeeper's Folly | |||
| 3.3 | The Adventure of the Bermondsey Cutthroats | |||
| 3.4 | The Sowers of Despair | |||
| 4.1 | Poppyland | December 2014 | ||
| 4.2 | At the Gates of Shambhala | |||
| 4.3 | The Man in the Moonlight | |||
| 4.4 | The Tragedy of Pargetter Square | |||
| 5.1 | The Prophet in the Rain | August 2016 | ||
| 5.2 | The Body in the Garret | |||
| 5.3 | The Beast in the Darkness | |||
| 5.4 | The Shadow in the Water | |||
| 6.1 | The Master of Blackstone Grange | March 2018 | ||
| 6.2 | The Adventure of the Fleet Street Transparency | |||
| 7.1 | The Seamstress of Peckham Rye | July 2021 | ||
| 7.2 | The Fiends of New York City | May 2022 |
In other series
| Title | Author | Notes | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghosts of Christmas Past | Tony Lee | A release in The Confessions of Dorian Gray | December 2012 |
| The Adventure of the Bloomsbury Bomber | David Llewellyn | In The Worlds of Big Finish. | May 2015 |
| The Feast of Magog | |||
| All-Consuming Fire | Andy Lane (adapted by Guy Adams) | In Big Finish's Novel Adaptations series. Featuring the Seventh Doctor. | December 2015 |
External links
- Official Sherlock Holmes page at bigfinish.com