Come back to the beginning. The game is afoot!
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was a 1954-54 joint British and American venture starring Sir John Gielgud as Sherlock Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Dr. John Watson. This episode was the first of sixteen produced, although only twelve were aired in England; the show was aired in the UK on the BBC Light Programme, and in the United States on the ABC network.
The series was produced by Harry Alan Towers and was directed by Val Gielgud, Sir John's brother; Val Gielgud would occasionally be featured on the series as Sherlock's brother, Mycroft. The series was scripted by John Keir Cross.
This first episode, depicting the meeting between Holmes and Watson, was based on the first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, and on the first Holmes short story, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" (also known as "Charles Augustus Milverton," "The Blackmailer," and "The First Case"). It first aired in the UK on October 5, 1954, and in the United States on January 2, 1955. (Sir Arthir Conan Doyle based the short story on the real-life villain Charles Augustus Howell, an art dealer who preyed on many, including famous artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Howell died in 1880, his throat slit posthumously and a coin inserted in his mouth -- he may or may not have been still alive when his body was found, accounts differ. Officially, the police concluded that he died of "pneumonic phthisis," which determination avoided a public inquiry; the circumstances of his death have never been satisfactorily explained. According to scholar Richard Lancelyn Green, Doyl's short story was also inspired by the A. J. Raffles short story "Willful Murder" by Doyle's brother-in-law, E. J. Hornung.)
Also featured in the cast were Philip Leaver as Middleton, John Cazabon as Inspector Lestrade, Norman Claridge as Stamford, and Monica Gray as "the woman" -- not, mind you, The Woman, whom as we all know was Irene Adler; her appearance was to wait until the next episode of the series, "A Scandal in Bohemia," in which she was played by Margaret Ward; I'll try to bring you that episode shortly.
In the meantime, enjoy this bit of Holmesian history, mystery, and deduction:
No comments:
Post a Comment