Theatre/Interactive Experiences
12) Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Emperor's Gold (Milestones Museum)
11) Sherlock Holmes and the Man Who Believed in Fairies (Studio, Greenwich Theatre)
10) Sherlock Holmes and the Thief of Antiquity (Theatre Royal Winchester)
9) A Highly Suspect Murder Mystery: The Death of the Great Detective (theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, Edinburgh)
8) Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula (Studio, Churchill Theatre Bromley)
7) Baker Street Ladies (theSpace @ Symposium Hall, Edinburgh)
6) Sherlock in Summertown (Summertown, Oxford)
5) The Shire, Shakespeare and Sherlock [Exhibition] (Stonyhurst College, Clitheroe)
4) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester)
3) Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B (Arcola Theatre, London)
2) Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford)
1) Sherlock Holmes & The 12 Days of Christmas (Birmingham Rep)
Television/Audio
5) Sherlock Holmes Untold (Big Finish Audio)
Featuring six of the untold cases (those mentioned in passing in published accounts) unusually for Big Finish's SH output, this was released in weekly eight half-hour episodes, and I must admit that I was looking forward to it. However, despite Nicholas Briggs and Richard Earl being up to their usual high standard, it was Jonathan Barnes' scripts that annoyed me slightly, as the episodes in fact told one long story with each individual adventure being inconsequential (and given the ongoing story, not being adequately resolved), and sometimes, in my opinion, tweaking the one/two sentence tease given by Doyle too far. I found myself comparing it unfavourably to the similarly inspired 'The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' written by Bert Coules for BBC Radio 4 (starring Clive Merrison and Andrew Sachs). [The most obvious example of this being the story of Bert Stevens, 'the terrible murderer who wanted [Holmes] to get him off in '87', which is one of the latter series' highlights] I was also disappointed that when all the episodes had been released, it was no longer possible to download individual episodes on the App, only the boxset.
4) The Fantastic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Volume 1 (Bleak December Audio)
A Canadian audio drama series starring Anthony D.P. Mann as Sherlock Holmes and Terry Wade as Dr. Watson, reprising their roles from the 2011 film 'Sherlock Holmes and the Shadow Watchers'. The first volume was released in October 2025, with subsequent instalments to be released in January and April 2026. Each volume comprises three stories, in this case 'A Study in Scarlet', 'The Speckled Band' and 'The Dying Detective', all tightly abridged to around twenty minutes each (Mann has form for this - his audio 'Hound of the Baskervilles' featuring him as Watson to Derek Jacobi's Holmes manages to cram the entire story into 35½ minutes). This leads to versions of the story where only the vital facts are included, none of the window dressing that makes the written stories so engaging, and also means that Holmes solves every case without ever being led on a false scent or there being more than one person who might have done it. The second and third stories also introduced the presence of Moriarty (played by Simon Callow) whose increased involvement in future volumes bodes well.
3) Mademoiselle Holmes (C4)
Shown as part of Channel 4's 'Walter Presents' strand, this subtitled French show features shy French cop Charlie Holmes (Lola Dewaere), Sherlock Holmes' great-granddaughter, who after an accident and ceasing using her prescribed medication unlocks her hereditary deductive brilliance to solve crimes with the aid of Samy Vatel (Tom Villa), her Dr. Watson substitute. The relationship that Charlie has with her police colleagues reminded me of that from the early episodes of 'High Potential', one of my current favourite crime dramas. I must also admit being amused by the makers attempting to make Dewaere who is clearly a very attractive French actress, look dowdy for much of the time. Samy being a Sherlockian who has read all of Watson's accounts of her great-grandfather's cases, really appealed to me, highlighting the implications when Charlie realises that she has a direct connection to the descendants of a certain Professor of Mathematics. However, their visit in the London-set episode to a ridiculously fake Sherlock Holmes Museum slightly irked me. (Why could they not use the real one ?)
2) Watson (Sky Witness)
From the creative team behind 'Elementary' and created by Craig Sweeny (writer of 16 episodes of the former), this imagines a post-Reichenbach Dr John Watson (Morris Chestnut) having been set up in his own clinic by a legacy from Holmes, where he and his team of young medical geniuses treat out-of-the ordinary illnesses. The series is described as a "medical drama with detective elements", as Watson uses the skills he learnt working in London with the 'worlds first consulting detective' to solve medical mysteries. In the series Watson is described as 'a clinical geneticist', and this programme certainly shares a lot of genetic material with another Holmes-inspired series, 'House', but with a protagonist whose bedside manner is slightly more reasonable given that he's not the Holmes of the pairing. I must admit to enjoying this, particularly the canonical characters of Watson's (in this case ex-) wife Mary Morstan (Rochelle Aytes) who unlike her literary equivalent was not willing to play 'second fiddle' (or should that be violin ?) to Mr Sherlock Holmes, and Holmes' former criminal informer, Shinwell Johnson (Ritchie Coster) whose loyalties are unclear to say the least. Randall Park's Moriarty also plays an increasing part as the series goes on, but I am writing this before the final episode of Series 1 has been shown in the UK. However, I found myself frustrated that instead of employing identical twins to play the twin members of Watson's group, instead they employed one actor (Peter Mark Kendall) and a regular stand-in (Riley Orr).
1) Sherlock & Daughter (Discovery+)
An American mystery television series created by Brendan Foley, this series premiered in April in the United States on The CW, and features David Thewlis as the Great Detective, who finds himself having to refuse to investigate specific cases due to concerns over the safety of a kidnapped Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson. However, the arrival of Amelia Rojas (Blu Hunt), a young Native American woman whose mother was recently murdered and who claims that Holmes is her long-lost father, provides him with the clues that he needs to investigate the doings of the 'Red Thread' criminal syndicate, who have his friends. Thewlis' Holmes was excellent, and even if Amelia was a version of the already successful Enola Holmes (albeit a different family connection), I thoroughly enjoyed all eight episodes. I also enjoyed Ardal O'Hanlon in the role of Mrs. Hudson's brother-in-law (her sister having stepped into the 221b breach), Shashi Rami as the insurance investigator Bertram Birtwistle who teams up with Holmes, and Dougray Scott as an imprisoned Professor Moriarty. The plot also involved Moriarty's son, which seemed one child too many. [It also strikes me that three of these series posit the inconceivable notion of the emotionless Holmes procreating].
Sojourns
12) Crimes Holmes Could Have Solved
11) Whitechapel Horrors - Victims' Graves
10) Manchester (2)
9) East Anglia (3)
8) Chatham (2)
7) Oxfordshire
6) Bluebell Railway
5) Liverpool/Bradford
4) Baddesley Clinton
3) Aldershot
2) Netley
1) Scottish Highlands
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