This radio drama uses AI-generated writing, voices, music, sound effects and artwork. All spoken performances in this edition use ElevenLabs V4.

Why would four hostages refuse to be rescued from the man who is holding them in a bank vault?

Listen as a podcast, with full transcripts: https://mono-noir.transistor.fm/

Stockholm, September 1975. A trunk call reaches Baker Street from the Swedish police: a gunman who speaks nothing but English has taken four bank clerks down into the vault of a city-centre bank, and he has asked for money, a getaway car and a prisoner named Blom. He has not asked for food, a blanket or a doctor for the people he is holding. By Saturday the hostages are telling a Minister of State that it is the police they are afraid of. Holmes and Watson cross the North Sea to a square full of cameras, a command post full of exhausted men and a vault that will not explain itself.

From the series Sherlock Holmes — The New Cases: a real 1970s hostage siege reimagined as a classic Sherlock Holmes radio mystery, performed by a full multi-voice AI cast with an original score and sound design.

Loosely inspired by a real 1970s hostage siege in Sweden. All names, characters, dialogue and events are fictional; the words, actions and motives of every character, including the police, the Minister, the hostages and the gunman, are invented for drama, and so is the solution of the mystery. It is not the outcome of the real case, and no character in this story represents or accuses any real person. This is a work of fiction, not a factual account of any real person or institution.

Setting: London and Stockholm — September 1975.

Directed Edition: the same story, newly performed line by line with a directing pass for every voice: each actor's delivery is chosen for the moment, from a dry aside to a held breath.

Chapters:
0:00 A Gale at Baker Street
2:54 The Banking Hall
5:46 The Cashier and the Prisoner
8:47 A Voice on the Vault Line
11:30 The Minister Calls
14:03 The Mail Book and the Hole in the Floor
17:15 Four Nights
18:18 Cold Coffee in the Canteen
21:41 Four O'Clock in the Vault
27:51 Dawn on Brunnsplan
29:32 Baker Street, Three Weeks Later

#MonoNoirRadioDrama #AudioDrama

This radio drama uses AI-generated writing, voices, music, sound effects and artwork. All spoken performances in this edition use ElevenLabs V4.

Eleven classified folders have vanished from a locked vault at a defence plant in California, and the lock shows no sign of force. Three men hold the combination, and the company's own security chief has flown to London to say so. Who among them could have opened it?

Listen as a podcast, with full transcripts: https://mono-noir.transistor.fm/

🎭 Directed Edition — every role cast for this story and every line performed with full voice direction.

In the first week of August 1983, a wet grey morning in London, an American security chief named Barrow is shown into the sitting room at Baker Street. He has flown through the night from Calder Avionics, a defence contractor in Culver City, California. Eleven folders of classified guidance material have gone from the company vault, and the lock is untouched: no forced entry, nothing broken. Only three men know the combination, and Barrow is one of them. Holmes agrees to come on one condition: no police, no press, no questions at the gates. With Watson he crosses the Atlantic, and the next morning they stand in the emptied vault, where the shelves show a clean outline of every folder taken. Barrow counts the keys that exist, and the list is short. A radar engineer is summoned, wearing worn cuffs and a defensive manner. Holmes asks for the vault's tally books and the names of every man who holds a key. How does a locked vault give up eleven folders without leaving a mark?

From the series Sherlock Holmes — The New Cases: a real crime of the 1980s reimagined as a classic Sherlock Holmes radio mystery, performed by a full multi-voice AI cast, with sound design and a light score that stays under the story.

Loosely inspired by a real event of the 1980s. All names, characters, dialogue and events are fictional; the words, actions, motives and private lives of every character — including the security men, the engineers, the club staff, the investigators and the police — are invented for drama, and so is the solution of the mystery. Where a real city, state, public body or newspaper is mentioned, its part in this story is invented; the avionics company and the club named in it are invented too. This is a work of fiction, not a factual account of any real person or institution. No real person is portrayed, and no real individual, company or organisation is accused of any act shown here.

Setting: London and Los Angeles — August 1983.

Chapters:
0:00 A Caller at Baker Street
2:10 The Emptied Vault at Culver City
3:41 Tally Books and Missing Numbers
5:15 Veranda Above the Tennis Courts
7:13 An Early Visitor at the Hotel
9:06 An Inspector Brings a Folder
10:27 Tea as the Light Fades
12:13 Monday Morning in the Security Office
13:59 Behind the Club Bar
15:14 The Steward's Desk, Late Afternoon
17:40 Morning Report at the Hotel
18:18 Pacing Before the Hotel Window
20:10 Dusk on the Final Saturday
23:01 Empty Courts, Evening Falls
24:34 Home to Baker Street

#MonoNoirRadioDrama #SherlockHolmes #AudioDrama

This radio drama uses AI-generated writing, voices, music, sound effects and artwork. All spoken performances in this edition use ElevenLabs V4.

On Whit Monday evening a typist with a bandaged hand brings Sherlock Holmes a letter the police laughed at: an apology from whoever shot a racing driver outside a Hampstead pub. Why would a gunman stop to say sorry to a stranger?

Listen as a podcast, with full transcripts: https://mono-noir.transistor.fm/

🎭 Directed Edition — every role cast for this story and every line performed with full voice direction.

On the evening of Whit Monday, 1957, Holmes and Watson are idling at Baker Street over a wager about a passer-by when a woman arrives with a cab waiting at the kerb. Rosalind Ridley, a solicitors' typist, was wounded in the hand by a stray bullet outside the Black Heron in Hampstead, where a racing driver was shot dead the night before. She has since received a typed note of apology, and the police have filed it with the cranks. Holmes is reluctant to take on what looks like legwork for Scotland Yard, but Watson points out that cranks boast and accuse, and never apologise. At Ferndale Rise, Inspector Lestrade shows them the chipped brickwork, the low bullet marks and the grim facts of the shooting. Next morning Watson dresses Mrs Ridley's torn hand and gives her a hard verdict about her trade, while Holmes asks her to relive the minutes before the first shot. The police station register records a revolver found beneath a plane tree across from the pub. The station also holds the note itself. A woman's life's work has been taken by a bullet meant for someone else. Who would be sorry enough to write, yet cold enough to fire?

From the series Sherlock Holmes — The New Cases: a real crime of the 1950s reimagined as a classic Sherlock Holmes radio mystery, performed by a full multi-voice AI cast, with sound design and a light score that stays under the story.

Loosely inspired by a real event of the 1950s. All names, characters, dialogue and events are fictional; the words, actions, motives and private lives of every character — including a racing driver, a club proprietor, a typist, a barman, the investigators and the police — are invented for drama, and so is the solution of the mystery. Where a real city, state, public body or newspaper is mentioned, its part in this story is invented; the pub, the club and the newspaper named in it are invented too. This is a work of fiction, not a factual account of any real person or institution. No real person is portrayed, and no real individual, company or organisation is accused of any act shown here.

Setting: Baker Street and Hampstead — June 1957.

Writer v2.7 — the studio's newest writing process: the plot is planned and checked by an AI story editor, then each act is drafted with the whole story in view and edited before a word is voiced — and then cast and performed with our new casting and voice direction.

Chapters:
0:00 A Wager at the Window
2:38 Bullet Marks in Ferndale Rise
4:05 A Typist's Bandaged Hand
5:47 The Station Register
7:16 Back on the Pavement
8:51 Contents of a Dead Man's Pockets
10:15 Past Midnight Above Knightsbridge
11:53 The Office Behind the Bar
13:34 A Constable's Book of Empty Houses
15:23 The Club Falls Quiet
16:35 Midnight in Baker Street
17:35 Three Days at the Gunsmith's
18:52 Under the Roped-Off Tree
20:04 Down in the Cells
21:37 A Taxi Through the Lamplight
22:36 An Hour Before Opening
24:13 The Green-Shaded Lamp
25:47 A Fortnight Later

#MonoNoirRadioDrama #SherlockHolmes #AudioDrama