This episode, Sherlock Holmes contends with a predatory Austrian baron who “collects” women in ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ (1924).

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD69sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘69’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

It is September 1902. Sherlock Holmes is at the height of his fame and professional standing when he is approached by the noted society fixer, Colonel Sir James Damery, who wishes to employ Holmes’s knowledge, influence and powers of detection to help prevent the impending marriage of the sinister Baron Adelbert Gruner to Miss Violet de Merville. Damery, however, is not the principal but simply an agent acting on behalf of a highly placed client who has his own reasons for wanting to prevent the misalliance. Holmes at first demurs in the face of such muddied waters – to have mystery at both ends of a case is too confusing – but his desire to bring down the Austrian murderer, as he terms Gruner, and to prevent a potentially infamous and tragic society scandal proves too strong and he embarks upon one of the most dangerous cases of his career…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We answer your questions on ACD, his life and times in our very first Q/A episode. Submit your questions by 8 December via BlueSky, Facebook or email mark@doingsofdoyle.com.

And we’ll have a bonus extended edition on the making of the podcast for our patrons. To hear that episode, just sign up now – for free or for a small monthly fee – at www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This month, Paul and I are delighted to welcome to the podcast Nick Lane, the writer and director of Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty for Blackeyed Theatre.

You can find out more about Blackeyed Theatre here.

You can find the tour dates for Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD68sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘68’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

And follow us on BlueSky as @doingsofdoyle.com

About Nick Lane

Nick started his career as an actor, before he turned to writing and directing. From 2006-2014 he was the Associate Director and Literary Manager of Hull Truck Theatre. Since then he has struck up a long association with Blackeyed Theatre, beginning with Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in 2016, and going on to adapt other gothic classics including Frankenstein, Jane Eyre and Dracula. He is also an accomplished children’s playwright, with credits including A Christmas Carol, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and the excellently titled When Santa Got Stuck in the Fridge. He has adapted The Sign of the Four and The Valley of Fear and his latest is The Hunt for Moriarty which is touring in the UK right now.

Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty

“When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities”

London, 1900. As the British Empire wages war in the name of a Queen whose health is failing, a series of mysterious events reveals a crack in the high corridors of power. A crack that threatens to destabilise monarchy, government and Empire. And at its centre, controlling the flow of information and influence, a shadowy figure plans a final deadly move.

Drawn into the game and unsure who to trust, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves confronting figures from their past in a desperate race against time, aware that the most powerful person in the world could be in the pocket of one of the most corrupt. But just how much is Holmes willing to sacrifice as he faces 'checkmate'?

A thrilling adventure based on the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty is a world premiere combining powerful performances, a haunting soundscape and innovative design for an exhilarating theatrical experience.

Recommended for age 11+

Running time: Approx 140 minutes (plus interval)

(Source: Blackeyed Theatre website)

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We stay in Sherlockian mode with ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ (1924). You can read the story here.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This episode, we look at one of Conan Doyle’s last short stories, ‘The End of Devil Hawker’ (1930) which he completed shortly before his death.

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD67sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘67’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

It seems like just another night at Tom Cribb’s London establishment, the Union Arms at the corner of Panton Street, in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The bar is crowded with aristocratic men about town, members of the boxing fraternity and all their assorted followers, hangers-on and hearty rowdies. Cribb himself, still nominally the champion of all England, is there, as is the nascent young poet Lord Byron. Amidst the uproar and chaff, the sinister figure of Sir John Hawker - ‘Devil Hawker’ – holds quiet converse with Sir Charles Trevor over a debt of three thousand pounds. They decide to settle the issue by the turn of a card, a transaction that is witnessed surreptitiously by the sharp bookmaker Billy Jakes, who notices a slight of hand and makes a decision that will cost both him and Hawker dearly…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We are joined by Nick Lane, author of several Sherlock Holmes plays for Blackeyed Theatre, to talk about their new production Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.