Sherlock Holmes in Old Time Radio

Detective mystery (1930 - 56)

"Everything comes in circles - even Professor Moriarty It's all been done before, and will be again." So said Holmes, and he was right. Conan Doyle killed Holmes off in disgust, but had to "resurrect" him and continue the tales, as the public knew what they liked, and wanted more of the same!

Sherlock Holmes episodes on radio are often dismissed, as are the many films. Yet for his fans and all lovers of mystery, the swirling London fogs, murder most foul, odd villains and an upper class becoming modern as London's denizens struggle in pitiful poverty means "the game is afoot!" Holmes actually has a long and wonderful history on the radio.

For American radio, the heroine of Holmes on the radio was Edith Meiser, an actress who loved the stories and was convinced they would make great listening. She scripted several Conan Doyle stories and took them around. Meiser entrepreneured a fitting sponsorship for the show herself, and went back to the network triumphantly. Beginning in the early 1930s, she single handed wrote the show for over a dozen years, first working from the Conan Doyle canon, and then continuing to create stories in the spirit of the originals.

A spot of crass commercialism seeped into the old time radio show from the start, as Watson himself, played by various actors, took on the co-host role with a spokesman for G. Washington Tea as a visitor ready to hear a Holmes story. Before a blazing fire with tea always at the brew, Watson reminiscences the great tales between comments on how good the tea is!

In 1955, the transcribed re-ran of the original great Conan Doyle stories with the fine actors Sir John Gielgud as Holmes, and Sir Ralph Richardson as Watson, and in "The Final Problem," Orson Welles as Moriarty. This series is held in high regard by all fans of Holmesiana.

For over one hundred years, these Sherlock Holmes episodes have thrilled and chilled the world. These radio dramatizations are collected from a variety of sources, including fine British ones, and together offer more exciting adventures and more clues to more mysteries than any mere mortal could possibly keep straight. But we have a special man in charge. "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know."

For more brainy detectives, see also: Softboiled Detectives and Adventures of Raffles.