Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective genius, Sherlock Holmes, came to NBC radio in 1930 starring Richard Gordon. By 1939, Basil Rathbone was heard as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. The duo was simultaneously starring in a popular series of Sherlock Holmes features for Fox, and later for Universal. By the end of the feature run in the mid-1940s, Rathbone was eager to separate himself from the radio show to avoid being typecast, and even though the show’s sponsor (Petri Wines) offered him generous pay to continue, he decided to move on. Tom Conway took over with Nigel Bruce continuing as Watson (in this paring Nigel Bruce received top billing). Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce were replaced in 1947 by John Stanley and Alfred Shirley. Others to portray Holmes and Watson over the radio run were George Shelton and Ian Martin and Ben Wright and Eric Snowden. In 1955, NBC signed heavyweights Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson to star as Holmes and Watson, but with radio fast giving way to television, it only lasted one season.

10-29-45 Murder by Moonlight

11-5-45 The Gunpowder Plot

11-12-45 The Speckled Band

11-19-45 The Adventure of the Double Zero

12-31-45 The Iron Box

2-4-46 The Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards

2-25-46 The Terrifying Cats

3-11-46 The Adventure of the Living Doll

3-25-46 The Girl with the Gazelle

4-15-46 The Headless Monk

5-13-46 The Uneasy Easy Chair

5-20-46 The Haunting of Sherlock Holmes