Game status: afoot

January 1, 2018 8:10 AM

A massive collection of Sherlock Holmes radio shows—541 episodes of adapted stories and original mysteries produced between 1931 and 2017. The eighteen actors portraying Holmes include Clive Merrison, John Gielgud, Orson Welles, Basil Rathbone, and Simon Callow.

If you'd prefer a version that's closer to the source, David Clarke has recorded every Holmes story in the public domain for Librivox. His reading style is very listenable, and he has the essential trick of differentiating Holmes from Watson with a small twist of the voice.

posted by Iridic (5 comments total)

Audible's Stephen Fry reading is really good, too. More than 60 hours for one credit. Kept me company for a couple transpacific trips earlier this year with some spare drive time listening.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 1:59 PM on January 1, 2018

Excellent title, Iridic! Excellent!

Please note the torrent option, very handy in today's go-go world, eh?

I can't speak to the later ones, but the 20's-40's at least include the original advertising which is almost as much fun as the story.

And remember folks, CrusterWheeze cigarettes are the ONLY brand with that deeply satisfying flatulent aroma. That's CrusterWheeze - with the big brown mouse on the box!
posted by petebest at 1:59 PM on January 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Clive Merrison is my second favourite Holmes (Jeremy Brett, first). However, sometimes the way the stories are padded out to fit the running time is a little odd—if I had a shilling for every time Watson makes Holmes go on a picnic, I’d be able to buy a trained swamp adder of my very own.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:18 PM on January 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

My father's (current) life goal is to collect every single instance of Sherlock Holmes on DVD. He is also a ham radio guy. I cannot wait to combine his two loves and present him with this list. He is gonna lose his mind with glee.
posted by Hermione Granger at 2:32 AM on January 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Of particular note are The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, all of which are present (note: The Determined Client is misspelled as The Detemined Client, not the missing r). Starring the only radio actor to portray Holmes in the entire canon, the series extends throwaway references to past cases from throughout the canon that were never elucidated upon into full stories. It is to be noted that the Giant Rat of Sumatra is not touched with a pole of any length; perhaps the world will never be prepared.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:22 AM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]