Sherlock Holmes: The Complete BBC Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle, Bert Coules

Written by Arthur Conan Doyle, Bert Coules
Read by Full Cast, Clive Merrison, Michael Williams
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 256 Kbps
Dramatization

This is a sound quality upgrade over the Audible version, ripped from my CDs with EAC and converted using FDK VBR 5 maximum bit-rate.

It occurred to me that these days most people will be listening over Bluetooth (therefore transcoded) and with storage being so cheap nowadays I should revisit some of my older torrents with an upgrade.

All four long stories and 51 of the 56 short stories are my CD rips.

I’m missing 5 of the short stories on CD so those are from the BBC iPlayer.

I had to perform reconstructive surgery on The Hound of the Baskervilles. The CDs are edited to make a sort of movie-length episode.

I don’t really approve so used the CD for 90% of it and the BBC broadcast version for the opening and closing credits of episode one and the recap and opening credits of episode two.

I liked the introductions to each book that came with the Audible set so I include them here too, however I put the stories in published order - Audible gathers the long stories at the front.

I have also included Bert Coules’ follow-up ‘The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. This is from iPlayer at 160kps VBR

Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his dear friend Dr Watson are among the most enduringly popular fictional characters ever created. Their adventures have been dramatised countless times on radio, TV and film, but until BBC Radio 4 took on the challenge in 1989, no one had ever attempted to adapt all sixty stories.

Beginning with A Study in Scarlet and concluding with The Hound of the Baskervilles, their epic project took over 8 years to complete - and this landmark collection contains the extraordinary result of their labours. Here is the world’s first ever fully dramatised Sherlock Holmes canon: 56 short stories and 4 novels, all made by the same team of directors, producers, dramatists and leading actors, and packed with the high production qualities of a film or TV drama that set it apart.

Starring one of radio’s great double acts, Clive Merrison and Michael Williams, as Holmes and Watson, and with guest stars including Brian Blessed, Judi Dench, Maurice Denham, Andrew Sachs, Peter Davison, Robert Glenister and Harriet Walter, this definitive collection contains over 48 hours of enthralling listening.

1887 A Study in Scarlet - Two Episodes

1890 The Sign of the Four - Two Episodes

1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Twelve Episodes

1893 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Eleven Episodes

1902 The Hound of the Baskervilles - Two Episodes

1904 The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Thirteen Episodes

1915 The Valley of Fear - Two Episodes

1917 His Last Bow - Eight Episodes

1927 The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes - Twelve Episodes

2002 - 2010 The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sixteen Episodes

Cast
Sherlock Holmes - Clive Merrison
Dr John Watson - Michael Williams
Mrs Hudson - Anna Cropper/Mary Allen/Joan Matheson/Judi Dench
Inspector Gregson - John Moffatt
Inspector Lestrade - Donald Gee/Stephen Thorne
Mary Morstan/Mary Watson - Moir Leslie/Elizabeth Mansfield/Hannah Gordon
Irene Adler - Sarah Badel
Inspector Jones - Nigel Carrington
Colonel Moran - Fraser Kerr/Frederick Treves
Mycroft Holmes - John Hartley
Professor Moriarty - Michael Pennington

Production credits
Written by Arthur Conan Doyle
Dramatised by Bert Coules with David Ashton, Michael Bakewell, Roger Danes, Robert Forrest, Denys Hawthorne, Gerry Jones, Peter Ling, Vincent McInerney and Peter Mackie
Produced and directed by Ian Cotterell, David Johnston, Patrick Rayner and Enyd Williams
Musicians: Alexander Balanescu, Leonard Friedman, Richard Friedman, Michael Haslam, Ian Humphries and Abigail Young