The Six Napoleons

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson

Length: 27 mins

Publisher's summary

From an original story entitled "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", this tale shows how Holmes tracks down a precious gem, secreted by a clever jewel thief in a supposedly perfect hiding-place.

The 16 episodes of Sherlock Holmes starring Gielgud and Richardson were produced by Harry Alan Towers (1920-2009) for his "Towers of London" company. They were first broadcast on the old BBC Light Programme in 1954, and by NBC in 1955; they are still regarded by many as the definitive Holmes series. Heritage Media acquired exclusive distribution rights to the series from Towers in 1994; the series was licensed for several years with great success to Hodder Headline and reverted to Heritage at the end of 2009.

The scripts were written by John Keir Cross, closely following the original stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but renaming some of them. The music for the productions was composed by Sydney Torch, with the famous violin cadenzas played by Alfredo Campoli. Other actors appearing included Robert Rietti, and John Gielgud's brother Val (later Director of Drama at the BBC), who played Mycroft Holmes. Orson Welles took the part of Professor Moriarty. Quite possibly other 'big names' on the BBC roster appeared in the series anonymously too.

The recordings were carefully remastered so as not to detract from the ambience of the original performances.

©2010 Divine Art Ltd (P)2010 Divine Art Ltd

Old Time Radio!

Great dramatization by an all-star cast! Sir John Geilgud and Ralph Richardson make a memorable Holmes and Watson.

Not great

This was fine if you just want to spend a half hour with Watson and Holmes, but the case was slight and the story was mundane. On another note, I found the violin theme really irritating after a little while.

I've listened to many hours of golden-age radio Sherlock Holmes (check out a podcast such as "The Great Detectives of Old-Time Radio"), and compared to the better episodes of those, this is weak sauce.