The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (TV series)

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Genre	Anthology Period drama Crime Mystery Detective
Starring	Various
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	50 minutes
Production company	Thames Television
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	20 September 1971 (1971-09-20) – 7 May 1973 (1973-05-07)

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is a British anthology mystery television series produced by Thames Television which was originally broadcast on the ITV Network. There were two series of 13 fifty-minute episodes; the first aired in 1971, the second in 1973. ^[1] The programme 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, younger brother of author Graham Greene and the former director-general of the BBC. ^[2] Greene is credited on the programme as a creative consultant. ^[3]

Recurring characters

• Douglas Wilmer as Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen (2 episodes)
• Peter Vaughan as Horace Dorrington (2 episodes)
• Kenneth Colley as Farrish (2 episodes)
• Petronella Barker as Miss Parrot (2 episodes)
• Peter Barkworth as Martin Hewitt (2 episodes)
• Ronald Hines as Jonathan Pryde (2 episodes)
• Peter Sallis as Dr. Jervis (1 episode) ^[4]

Episode list

Series 1 (20 Sep – 9 Dec 1971)

No.	Title	Fictional detective(s)	Author(s) of original story	Actor(s) who portrayed detective(s)
1.1	A Message from the Deep Sea	Dr John Thorndyke, forensic scientist	R. Austin Freeman	John Neville
1.2	The Missing Witness Sensation	Max Carrados, blind detective	Ernest Bramah	Robert Stephens
1.3	The Affair of the Avalanche Bicycle & Tyre Co. Ltd.	Horace Dorrington, corrupt detective	Arthur Morrison	Peter Vaughan
1.4	The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds	Simon Carne, gentleman thief	Guy Boothby	Roy Dotrice
1.5	The Horse of the Invisible	Thomas Carnacki, occult detective	William Hope Hodgson	Donald Pleasence
1.6	The Case of the Mirror of Portugal	Horace Dorrington, corrupt detective	Arthur Morrison	Peter Vaughan
1.7	Madame Sara	Dixon Druce, trade investigator	L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace	John Fraser
1.8	The Case of the Dixon Torpedo	Jonathan Pryde, [n 1] enquiry agent	Arthur Morrison	Ronald Hines
1.9	The Woman in the Big Hat	Lady Molly of Scotland Yard	Baroness Orczy	Elvi Hale
1.10	The Affair of the Tortoise	Martin Hewitt, working-class detective	Arthur Morrison	Peter Barkworth
1.11	The Assyrian Rejuvenator	Romney Pringle, reformed con artist	"Clifford Ashdown" (R. Austin Freeman and John Pitcairn)	Donald Sinden
1.12	The Ripening Rubies	Bernard Sutton, professional jeweller	Max Pemberton	Robert Lang
1.13	The Case of Laker, Absconded	Martin Hewitt and Jonathan Pryde [n 1]	Arthur Morrison	Peter Barkworth and Ronald Hines

Series 2 (29 Jan – 7 May 1973)

No.	Title	Fictional detective(s)	Author(s) of original story	Actor(s) who portrayed detective(s)
2.1	The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway	Polly Burton, [n 2] lady journalist	Baroness Orczy	Judy Geeson
2.2	Five Hundred Carats	Inspector Lipinzki, South African police detective	George Griffith	Barry Keegan
2.3	Cell 13	Professor Van Dusen, the Thinking Machine	Jacques Futrelle	Douglas Wilmer
2.4	The Secret of the Magnifique	John Laxworthy, reformed criminal	E. Phillips Oppenheim	Bernard Hepton
2.5	The Absent-Minded Coterie	Eugene Valmont, private investigator	Robert Barr	Charles Gray
2.6	The Sensible Action of Lieutenant Holst	Lieutenant Holst, Danish police detective	Palle Rosenkrantz	John Thaw
2.7	The Superfluous Finger	Prof Van Dusen, the Thinking Machine	Jacques Futrelle	Douglas Wilmer
2.8	Anonymous Letters	Dagobert Trostler, Viennese sleuth	"Balduin Groller" (Adalbert Goldscheider)	Ronald Lewis
2.9	The Moabite Cypher	Dr John Thorndyke, forensic scientist	R. Austin Freeman	Barrie Ingham
2.10	The Secret of the Fox Hunter	Duckworth Drew of the Secret Service	William Le Queux	Derek Jacobi
2.11	The Looting of the Specie Room	Mr Horrocks, ship's purser	C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne	Ronald Fraser
2.12	The Mystery of the Amber Beads	Hagar Stanley, Gypsy detective	Fergus Hume	Sara Kestelman
2.13	The Missing Q.C.s	Charles Dallas, defence barrister	"John Oxenham" (William Arthur Dunkerley)	Robin Ellis

Home media

The first series was released on a 4-disc Region 2 DVD set by Network Distributing on 15 June 2009. ^[5] Acorn Media released a Region 1 version of this set on 1 September 2009. ^[6] Series Two was released on a Network DVD 4-disc Region 2 release on 15 February 2010; ^[7] Acorn followed with a Region 1 version on 27 April.

Bibliography

• Greene, Hugh; editor. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1970; ISBN   0-394-41330-X
• Greene, Hugh; editor. Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1971; ISBN   0-394-47340-X
• Greene, Hugh; editor. Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1973; ISBN   0-394-48827-X
• Greene, Hugh; editor. The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Pantheon Books, 1976; ISBN   0-394-40921-3

Notes

1. Jonathan Pryde is an original TV creation, replacing Martin Hewitt from Arthur Morrison's stories.
2. The screenplay for this episode rewrites the original story to make Polly Burton, the secondary character in Baroness Orczy's "The Old Man in the Corner" stories, the detective in this episode.

References

1. "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute". Archived from the original on 2 January 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
2. History of the BBC: the 1960s
3. BFI.org.uk
4. "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1973)".
5. Network DVD
6. Acorn Media press release, accessed 23 July 2009 Archived 20 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
7. Network DVD

External links

• The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes at IMDb
• The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes at the BFI Film & TV database
• The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes at Television Heaven