The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (television series)

"The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" is a British television series that was co-produced by Pearson Television International and Thames Television. There were two series of 13 fifty-minute episodes; the first aired in 1971, the second in 1973.

The program presented adaptations of short mystery, suspense or crime stories featuring, as the title suggests, detectives who were literary contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

"The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" took its inspiration – and title – from a series of published anthologies by Hugh Greene, elder brother of author Graham Greene and the former director-general of the BBC. [History of the BBC: the 1960s. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/heritage/more/pdfs/1960s.pdf] ] Ironically, Hugh Greene had no hand in the production of the TV series of "Rivals", which was televised by the BBC's own rival, Thames.

The authors and detectives featured on the program include:

* Robert Barr (Eugene Valmont, French private investigator)
* Guy Boothby ("gentleman thief" Simon Carne)
* Ernest Bramah (blind detective Max Carrados)
* Adalbert Goldscheider, a.k.a. "Balduin Groller" (Viennese sleuth Dagobert Trostler)
* R. Austin Freeman (forensic detective Dr Thorndyke)
* Jacques Futrelle (Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, the Thinking Machine)
* William Hope Hodgson (Carnacki, the ghost hunter)
* Fergusson Wright Hume (Hagar Stanley, a.k.a. Hagar of the Pawnshop, the Gypsy detective)
* William Le Queux (Duckworth Drew of the Secret Service)
* Arthur Morrison (Horace Dorrington, crooked private detective; Martin Hewitt; Jonathan Pride)
* E. Phillips Oppenheim (John Laxworthy, reformed crook)
* The Baroness Orczy (Polly Burton; Lady Molly of Scotland Yard)
* Max Pemberton (professional jeweller Bernard Sutton)
* Baron Palle Rosenkrantz (Lieutenant Holst, Danish police detective)

Bibliography

* Greene, Hugh; editor. "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes". Pantheon Books, 1970; ISBN 039441330X
* Greene, Hugh; editor. "Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes". Pantheon Books, 1971; ISBN 039447340X
* Greene, Hugh; editor. "Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes". Pantheon Books, 1973; ISBN 039448827X
* Greene, Hugh; editor. "The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes". Pantheon Books, 1976; ISBN 0394409213

Notes

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167703/ "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes"] at the Internet Movie Database
* [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/26993 "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes"] at the BFI Film & TV database
* [http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/rivals.htm "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes"] at Television Heaven