Piratetv Theater | Classic Radio Drama

Sherlock Holmes
The are some entertainment partnerships that were surely made in heaven and the duo Norman Shelley & Carleton Hobbs is no exception. Throughout the 50s and 60s they were THE Sherlock and Watson for BBC Radio having been brought together for the first time October 1952. Both were already established radio actors: Hobbs was a founding member of the BBC drama repertory company in 1939; the same year that Shelley created his famous Children's Hour role as Winnie-The-Pooh. But it's as the residents of 221B Baker Street that two will be immortalized; whom they portrayed for 17 years.

SYNOPSIS

listen: Sherlock Holmes - The Retired Colourman

This one is for the Watson fans. Our man Holmes meets with an elderly, 'feeble' man who tells the tale of how his wife has run off with another man and took most of his savings along with her. Holmes, who is too preoccupied with another mystery, sends Watson to visit the man's home in order to gather as much information about the crime as possible.

Watson fumbles the ball on this one and ends up missing several clues, most notably the smell of paint... why didn't he think of the paint?! At any rate, Holmes does figure it out in the end and the crime is solved.

Holmes's description of the elderly man at the beginning of this story is one of those truly excellent moments in Doyle's writing.

Originally aired: October, 1964

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