This month, Paul and I are delighted to welcome to the podcast Nick Lane, the writer and director of Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty for Blackeyed Theatre.

You can find out more about Blackeyed Theatre here.

You can find the tour dates for Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD68sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘68’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

And follow us on BlueSky as @doingsofdoyle.com

About Nick Lane

Nick started his career as an actor, before he turned to writing and directing. From 2006-2014 he was the Associate Director and Literary Manager of Hull Truck Theatre. Since then he has struck up a long association with Blackeyed Theatre, beginning with Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in 2016, and going on to adapt other gothic classics including Frankenstein, Jane Eyre and Dracula. He is also an accomplished children’s playwright, with credits including A Christmas Carol, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and the excellently titled When Santa Got Stuck in the Fridge. He has adapted The Sign of the Four and The Valley of Fear and his latest is The Hunt for Moriarty which is touring in the UK right now.

Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty

“When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities”

London, 1900. As the British Empire wages war in the name of a Queen whose health is failing, a series of mysterious events reveals a crack in the high corridors of power. A crack that threatens to destabilise monarchy, government and Empire. And at its centre, controlling the flow of information and influence, a shadowy figure plans a final deadly move.

Drawn into the game and unsure who to trust, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves confronting figures from their past in a desperate race against time, aware that the most powerful person in the world could be in the pocket of one of the most corrupt. But just how much is Holmes willing to sacrifice as he faces 'checkmate'?

A thrilling adventure based on the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty is a world premiere combining powerful performances, a haunting soundscape and innovative design for an exhilarating theatrical experience.

Recommended for age 11+

Running time: Approx 140 minutes (plus interval)

(Source: Blackeyed Theatre website)

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We stay in Sherlockian mode with ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ (1924). You can read the story here.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This episode, we look at one of Conan Doyle’s last short stories, ‘The End of Devil Hawker’ (1930) which he completed shortly before his death.

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD67sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘67’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

It seems like just another night at Tom Cribb’s London establishment, the Union Arms at the corner of Panton Street, in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The bar is crowded with aristocratic men about town, members of the boxing fraternity and all their assorted followers, hangers-on and hearty rowdies. Cribb himself, still nominally the champion of all England, is there, as is the nascent young poet Lord Byron. Amidst the uproar and chaff, the sinister figure of Sir John Hawker - ‘Devil Hawker’ – holds quiet converse with Sir Charles Trevor over a debt of three thousand pounds. They decide to settle the issue by the turn of a card, a transaction that is witnessed surreptitiously by the sharp bookmaker Billy Jakes, who notices a slight of hand and makes a decision that will cost both him and Hawker dearly…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We are joined by Nick Lane, author of several Sherlock Holmes plays for Blackeyed Theatre, to talk about their new production Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This month, we join a young doctor struggling to recruit patients for his medical practice in ‘Crabbe’s Practice’ from 1884, a story that Conan Doyle rewrote in its entirety in 1922.

You can read the two versions of the story here.

Or listen to an audiobook version of the 1922 version here.

The episode will appear on our YouTube page. Please like and subscribe.

You can follow us @doingsofdoyle on BlueSky.

Synopsis

When they were fellow medical students at Edinburgh University, Robert Hudson had foreseen a successful and rewarding career for the eccentric but brilliant John Waterhouse Crabbe. His prophecy appears to have been fulfilled when Crabbe invites Hudson to stay at his impressive and well-appointed residence-cum-practice at Bridport. All, however, is not as it seems: Crabbe is the area’s least regarded doctor, despite his local family connections, and he is desperate need of a plan to attract patients and stave off bankruptcy. Hudson provides an answer: he will play the role of a well-heeled gentleman who is suddenly taken ill on Crabbe’s doorstep and then cured within. Crabbe then further dramatises the plot to involve Hudson’s miraculous recovery from a staged drowning. What could possibly go wrong?

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We look at one of the last stories penned by Conan Doyle, his Regency short story ‘The End of Devil Hawker' (1930). You can read the story here.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.