149 Fun Facts About Sherlock Holmes

Which musical instrument does Sherlock Holmes play?

Holmes plays the violin; in 'The Cardboard Box' he says he bought his Stradivarius from a broker in Tottenham Court Road for fifty-five shillings.

In which year did Holmes first appear in print, in the novel A Study in Scarlet?

A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887 and attracted little notice; Holmes only became a sensation four years later, when the short stories began in 1891.

Holmes's debut novel was first published in which magazine?

A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual, a one-shilling paperback; only about eleven complete copies of that issue are known, making it one of the most valuable magazines ever printed.

Alongside four novels, how many Holmes short stories did Doyle write?

Doyle wrote 56 Holmes short stories, collected in five books from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) to The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927).

Dr Watson was wounded while serving as an army surgeon in which conflict?

Watson was wounded in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, invalided home on the troopship Orontes and granted a pension of eleven shillings and sixpence a day.

What wounded Watson at the Battle of Maiwand?

A jezail bullet, fired from a long-barrelled Afghan musket, struck Watson at Maiwand in 1880; his orderly Murray saved him by throwing him across a packhorse.

In Doyle's early plot notes, what was Holmes's companion called before he became John Watson?

Doyle's plot notes called the narrator Ormond Sacker; Holmes himself was pencilled in as Sherrinford in the same notes before Doyle changed his mind.

Mycroft Holmes spends his hours at which Pall Mall institution, where members may not speak to one another?

The Diogenes Club, which Mycroft helped found, bars members from speaking except in the Stranger's Room; it stands in Pall Mall opposite Mycroft's lodgings.

Which drug does Holmes inject as a seven-per-cent solution?

Holmes injects cocaine; Watson opens The Sign of the Four by asking 'Which is it today, morphine or cocaine?', and both drugs were legal in Victorian England.

The Reichenbach Falls, where Holmes apparently plunges to his death, are in which country?

The Reichenbach Falls are in Switzerland, in the Bernese Oberland; Doyle visited them in 1893 and chose them as the scene of Holmes's apparent death in 'The Final Problem'.

Holmes says he flung Moriarty over the falls using which Japanese martial art?

Holmes tells Watson he escaped Moriarty's grip through baritsu, 'the Japanese system of wrestling'; Doyle apparently misspelled bartitsu, a real self-defence method Edward Barton-Wright taught in London from 1898.

What nickname does Holmes give Professor Moriarty?

Holmes calls Moriarty 'the Napoleon of crime' in 'The Final Problem', echoing a phrase Scotland Yard's Robert Anderson had used of a real master thief.

Before turning to crime, Professor Moriarty held a university chair in which subject?

Moriarty won a mathematics chair at a small university on the strength of a treatise on the binomial theorem; his later The Dynamics of an Asteroid was said to be beyond any reviewer in the scientific press.

Where does Holmes's index record that Irene Adler was born?

Holmes's index lists Irene Adler as born in New Jersey in 1858; some Sherlockians link her to Lillie Langtry, the Channel Islands actress and royal mistress nicknamed the Jersey Lily.

In A Scandal in Bohemia, what does the King of Bohemia hire Holmes to recover from Irene Adler?

The King wants a photograph of himself with Irene Adler, which he fears she will send to the family of his fiancée, a Scandinavian princess, and wreck the match.

After she outwits him, Holmes always refers to Irene Adler by which title?

To Holmes she is always 'the woman'; Irene Adler appears in only one story yet has become one of the most reused characters in Holmes adaptations.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is set largely on which English moor?

Baskerville Hall stands on Dartmoor in Devon; the novel was serialised in 1901-02, before Holmes had officially returned from the dead, so Doyle set it earlier in the detective's career.

Which journalist supplied Doyle with the legend and local colour for The Hound of the Baskervilles?

Bertram Fletcher Robinson, a journalist friend of Doyle, told him the West Country legend of a spectral hound and toured the moor with him in 1901; Doyle thanked him in the book's dedication.

How much was Doyle paid for the full rights to his first Holmes novel?

Ward, Lock & Co. paid Doyle £25 for the full copyright of A Study in Scarlet after refusing his request for royalties, warning that the market was flooded with cheap fiction.

Which story did Doyle himself name as his favourite Holmes tale?

Doyle put 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' first when The Strand asked him in 1927 to list his twelve best Holmes stories.

In which 1903 story does Holmes reappear and reveal he faked his death?

It appeared first in the American magazine Collier's, a week before British readers saw it in The Strand.

What do Holmes fans call the years 1891 to 1894, when the detective was presumed dead?

Sherlockians call 1891–94 the Great Hiatus; Holmes claims to have spent it travelling in Tibet, Persia and Sudan as a Norwegian explorer named Sigerson.

What occupation does the retired Holmes take up on the Sussex Downs?

Holmes takes up beekeeping in retirement on the Sussex Downs and in His Last Bow proudly shows Watson his Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, 'the fruit of my leisured ease'.

Doyle said Holmes was inspired by which Edinburgh surgeon he had once worked for?

Joseph Bell, for whom Doyle clerked at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, was famous for deducing a stranger's trade and travels at a glance and later wrote an introduction to an 1892 edition of A Study in Scarlet.

Which actor is credited with originating 'Elementary, my dear Watson' in an 1899 stage play?

William Gillette wrote and starred in the 1899 play Sherlock Holmes, whose 'Elementary, my dear fellow' is the usual origin given for the catchphrase; it also fixed the curved pipe and dressing gown in the popular image.

On which date do many Sherlockians celebrate Holmes's birthday?

Sherlockians mark 6 January, a date fixed by fan tradition rather than the stories; the year 1854 comes from His Last Bow, where Holmes is described as about sixty in 1914.

Which building society at 221 Baker Street employed a secretary to answer letters to Holmes?

Abbey National's Baker Street headquarters, Abbey House, took in number 221 from 1932, so the society employed a secretary to answer the letters that arrived for Holmes; the museum later took over the post.

The American backstory of The Valley of Fear is loosely based on which secret society?

The Molly Maguires, a secret society among Irish miners in Pennsylvania's coal country, were broken by a Pinkerton infiltrator in the 1870s, a story Doyle reworked as the Scowrers of Vermissa Valley.

Doyle was commissioned to write The Sign of the Four at an 1889 dinner also attended by which author?

Oscar Wilde was the other guest of Lippincott's editor J. M. Stoddart at the Langham Hotel in August 1889; Stoddart left with promises of both The Sign of the Four and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Who played Dr Watson in every one of the 1939–46 Holmes films?

Nigel Bruce played Watson in every one of the 1939–46 Holmes films, and the pair also voiced the roles on radio in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1939.

How many Holmes films did Basil Rathbone star in between 1939 and 1946?

He made 14 Holmes films: two period pieces at Fox in 1939, then twelve at Universal, which moved Holmes into the wartime present day to fight Nazis.

Which actor got top billing over Basil Rathbone in the 1939 Hound of the Baskervilles?

Richard Greene, playing Sir Henry Baskerville, was billed above the film's Holmes as Fox's rising romantic lead; the film ends with Holmes calling 'Oh, Watson — the needle!', a drug reference that slipped past the censors.

Jeremy Brett's Holmes series (1984–1994) was produced by which British television company?

Granada Television made the series at its Manchester studios, where it built a full-scale Baker Street exterior set; the run covered more than forty of the sixty stories.

Who played Watson opposite Jeremy Brett in the first series before Edward Hardwicke took over?

David Burke played Watson for the first thirteen episodes (1984–85), then left for the Royal Shakespeare Company; Edward Hardwicke took over and later joined Brett on stage in The Secret of Sherlock Holmes.

Before playing Holmes, Jeremy Brett played Watson on stage in 1980 opposite which Hollywood star?

Brett played Watson to Charlton Heston's Holmes in The Crucifer of Blood in Los Angeles in 1980, making him one of the few actors to play both halves of the partnership professionally.

Which two writers created the BBC series Sherlock?

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss created Sherlock, an idea that took shape on long train journeys while both were writing for Doctor Who; the first episode aired in July 2010.

Which real-life couple plays Sherlock and Mycroft's parents in series three of Sherlock?

Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton are Benedict Cumberbatch's real parents, so the family resemblance was no accident when they first appeared as the Holmes parents in 'The Empty Hearse'.

Who plays Jim Moriarty in the BBC series Sherlock?

Andrew Scott plays Moriarty, first seen in 'The Great Game' posing as 'Jim from IT', a shy hospital worker, before revealing himself at the swimming pool.

In which Sherlock episode does Lara Pulver's dominatrix keep compromising pictures on a camera phone?

'A Scandal in Belgravia' opened series two in January 2012, recasting Irene Adler as a dominatrix whose camera phone holds compromising pictures of a royal client.

Exterior shots of 221B in the BBC series Sherlock were filmed at which London address?

The exteriors were shot at 187 North Gower Street, near Euston, because the real Baker Street was too busy and had too many things labelled Sherlock Holmes to disguise; Speedy's café sits beneath.

Although set in London, the BBC series Sherlock was filmed mainly in which city?

Sherlock was made by Hartswood Films with BBC Wales, so most filming took place in Cardiff, sharing a base with Doctor Who; the city stood in for many London streets.

How does Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock describe himself when accused of being a psychopath?

In 'A Study in Pink' Sherlock tells Anderson 'I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath — do your research', a line that became the show's most quoted retort.

Who directed the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr.?

Guy Ritchie took over from Neil Marshall, who had been attached, in June 2008 and shot the film in London and Manchester that autumn.

Robert Downey Jr. won which award for playing Holmes in the 2009 film?

Downey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy in January 2010; the film also earned two Oscar nominations, for Hans Zimmer's score and for art direction.

Who plays Professor Moriarty in the 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows?

Jared Harris plays Moriarty in A Game of Shadows; in the first film the professor had been only a shadowy figure whose voice was supplied by dialect coach Andrew Jack.

Who plays Dr Joan Watson in the CBS series Elementary?

Lucy Liu plays Joan Watson, a former surgeon hired as Holmes's sober companion who becomes his full detective partner rather than his chronicler.

Which actor plays Holmes in Elementary?

Jonny Lee Miller plays Holmes; a year before Elementary began in 2012 he had alternated the lead roles with Benedict Cumberbatch in Danny Boyle's stage Frankenstein at the National Theatre.

Elementary relocates Holmes from London to which city?

Holmes settles in New York as a consultant to the NYPD after a stint in drug rehab that followed his fall from grace in London.

Which actress plays Jamie Moriarty, Holmes's nemesis and former lover, in Elementary?

Natalie Dormer plays Jamie Moriarty, introduced as Irene Adler before the series-one finale reveals that Adler and Moriarty are the same person.

Which Scotland Yard inspector appears in the most Holmes stories?

Inspector Lestrade appears in more of the stories than any other Scotland Yard man — over a dozen, from the very first novel onward — far ahead of Gregson, Hopkins or Athelney Jones.

Which Edinburgh forensic expert and police surgeon is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes?

Sir Henry Littlejohn, Edinburgh's police surgeon for decades and from 1897 its Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, pioneered the use of forensic evidence in Scottish courts.

Holmes claims his grandmother was the sister of which French artist?

He never clarifies which Vernet: Claude Joseph, Carle or Horace.

Where does Holmes keep his tobacco at 221B Baker Street?

Holmes keeps his tobacco in the toe of a Persian slipper, per 'The Musgrave Ritual', where Watson also notes cigars in the coal-scuttle and letters pinned to the mantelpiece with a jack-knife.

Which two composers does Holmes enjoy listening to when relaxing?

Wagner and Sarasate: Holmes hears Sarasate play at St James's Hall in 'The Red-Headed League' and hurries off to a Wagner night at Covent Garden at the end of 'The Red Circle'.

What astronomical fact does Holmes claim to be unaware of in A Study in Scarlet?

Holmes professes ignorance that the Earth revolves around the Sun, telling Watson his brain-attic has limited room and that he will do his best to forget the fact.

Holmes wrote a monograph on the Polyphonic Motets of which composer?

Holmes's monograph on the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, mentioned in 'The Bruce-Partington Plans', was privately printed and, Watson reports, called 'the last word upon the subject' by experts.

How many separate ciphers did Holmes analyse in his monograph on secret writing?

In 'The Dancing Men' Holmes says his 'trifling monograph' on secret writings analyses one hundred and sixty (160) separate ciphers, yet the stick-figure code is new to him.

In 'Silver Blaze', what was the 'curious incident' Holmes draws Inspector Gregory's attention to?

The dog did not bark: Holmes's 'curious incident of the dog in the night-time' was that the stable dog stayed silent, showing the midnight visitor was someone it knew well.

Which street urchin leads the band of boys Holmes uses as informants?

Wiggins leads the ragged boys Holmes calls his 'unofficial force'; in A Study in Scarlet each is paid a shilling a day, and they help hunt the launch Aurora in The Sign of the Four.

Which two sports does Holmes say he practised at college, per 'The Gloria Scott'?

In 'The Gloria Scott' Holmes says that 'bar fencing and boxing' he had few athletic tastes at college; Watson's early list also rates him an expert singlestick player.

What does Holmes straighten after an angry visitor bends it in 'The Speckled Band'?

The visitor bends the steel poker into a curve to intimidate Holmes, who straightens it after he storms out, remarking that his own grip is 'not much more feeble'.

What has Holmes just discovered when Watson first meets him at Barts?

Holmes greets Watson with 'I've found it!': a reagent precipitated by haemoglobin and nothing else, which he says gives an infallible test for blood stains however old.

Which New York fan society was founded in 1934, the same year as its London counterpart?

The Baker Street Irregulars were founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley; the London society formed the same year lapsed before the war and was refounded in 1951.

What are Holmes fans traditionally called in the UK?

British fans have traditionally been called Holmesians, while Americans say Sherlockians; the usage dates from the 1930s, when fan societies first formed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Which 1893 story contains one of the closest approximations to 'Elementary, my dear Watson'?

In 'The Adventure of the Crooked Man' (1893) Watson cries 'Excellent!' and Holmes replies 'Elementary' — the closest the canon comes to the famous catchphrase.

Where is Watson's war wound in A Study in Scarlet, before it migrates to his leg?

The Great Game tries to reconcile such contradictions.

The Great Game treats Doyle as what, rather than the author?

The Great Game, begun by Ronald Knox's 1911 essay, treats Holmes and Watson as real and Doyle as merely Watson's literary agent, applying mock-biblical criticism to the canon.

Which university founded its Sherlock Holmes Collections in 1974?

The University of Minnesota founded its Sherlock Holmes Collections in 1974; the libraries of collectors such as John Bennett Shaw later joined them, making them the largest such holdings in the world.

A Holmes museum opened in 1991 in which town near the Reichenbach Falls?

Meiringen's Sherlock Holmes Museum opened in 1991 in the former English Church, a year after London's, with a bronze Holmes statue by John Doubleday nearby.

Where in London is the pub holding memorabilia first shown at the 1951 Festival of Britain?

The Sherlock Holmes pub in Northumberland Street, off the Strand, houses the reconstruction of the 221B sitting room built for the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition.

A 2007 Holmes and Watson sculpture in Moscow modelled Watson's face on which actor?

The sculpture, unveiled near the British Embassy in April 2007, gave Watson the features of Vitaly Solomin, who played him opposite Vasily Livanov's Holmes in the Soviet TV films of 1979–86.

Which 'story for which the world is not yet prepared' is mentioned in 'The Sussex Vampire'?

Holmes mentions the Matilda Briggs, 'a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared', in 'The Sussex Vampire'.

Which old friend introduces Watson to Holmes in A Study in Scarlet?

Young Stamford, once a dresser under Watson at Barts, runs into him at the Criterion Bar and takes him to the hospital laboratory, where Holmes wants someone to share rooms.

Who is the victim found in an abandoned Brixton Road house in A Study in Scarlet?

Enoch Drebber of Cleveland, Ohio, is found dead at 3 Lauriston Gardens with 'RACHE' scrawled in blood on the wall; his secretary Stangerson is murdered days later.

In The Sign of the Four, Mary Morstan has received what by post every year for six years?

Since 1882 an anonymous sender has posted Mary Morstan a valuable pearl each year, large and lustrous; her father, Captain Morstan, had vanished in London in 1878.

Who was the fourth of 'the Four', alongside Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh and Dost Akbar?

Abdullah Khan, one of the two Sikh guards at Agra Fort, swore the pact with Jonathan Small during the 1857 Mutiny; their map of the treasure bears the 'sign of the four'.

Which doctor brings the Baskerville legend to Holmes in 1889?

Dr James Mortimer, a country doctor from Grimpen, reads Holmes the 1742 manuscript telling how wicked Sir Hugo Baskerville met the hound in the days of the Great Rebellion.

Where had Sir Charles Baskerville amassed his fortune?

He was found dead in a yew alley with a look of horror.

Which pseudonymous double agent of Moriarty sends Holmes a cipher in The Valley of Fear?

Fred Porlock, a pseudonym for a weak link in Moriarty's chain, sends a book cipher keyed to Whitaker's Almanack that warns of danger to one Douglas at Birlstone House.

Which Pinkerton agent's undercover work in the 1870s inspired Birdy Edwards in The Valley of Fear?

James McParland spent 1873–76 undercover for Pinkerton's in the Pennsylvania coalfields and testified at trials that hanged twenty members of the society; Doyle reworked him as Birdy Edwards.

What is the name of Helen Stoner's stepfather in 'The Speckled Band'?

Dr Grimesby Roylott, Helen Stoner's stepfather, had beaten his native butler to death in India and keeps a cheetah and a baboon loose on the grounds of Stoke Moran.

What was Jabez Wilson paid per week by the Red-Headed League?

Jabez Wilson earned £4 a week for copying out the Encyclopaedia Britannica every morning, a pretext to keep him away from his pawnshop while a tunnel was dug beneath it.

Where did Doyle rank 'The Red-Headed League' in his list of twelve favourite Holmes stories?

Doyle placed 'The Red-Headed League' runner-up — second of twelve — in his 1927 Strand list, behind only the story he called his favourite.

Which Poe story does the reasoning in 'The Dancing Men' closely resemble?

Holmes cracks the stick-figure cipher by frequency analysis — E is the commonest letter — just as Legrand decodes Captain Kidd's cipher in Poe's 'The Gold Bug'.

In 'The Blue Carbuncle', the gem is stolen from whose hotel suite?

The blue carbuncle vanished from the Countess of Morcar's rooms at the Hotel Cosmopolitan, and the plumber John Horner was wrongly arrested for the theft.

Who was the murdered trainer of the racehorse Silver Blaze?

John Straker, trainer at King's Pyland, was found dead on the moor with his skull smashed; the bookmaker Fitzroy Simpson was arrested before Holmes showed the horse itself had killed Straker.

Which butler is caught studying the Musgrave family papers in 'The Musgrave Ritual'?

The butler Brunton, caught by Reginald Musgrave rifling the family papers at night, works out the ritual's riddle and is later found dead in the vault it led to.

Which missing man does Holmes investigate in 'The Man with the Twisted Lip'?

Neville St. Clair, a prosperous suburbanite, vanishes from an opium den; Holmes proves he is the beggar Hugh Boone, whose begging earns him more than any honest job.

From which city was the fatal letter to Elias Openshaw postmarked in 'The Five Orange Pips'?

Elias Openshaw's envelope of five orange pips was postmarked Pondicherry and marked K.K.K.; his nephew Joseph's came from Dundee and young John's from east London.

Which shop first suffered a smashed bust in 'The Six Napoleons'?

The first bust was smashed in Morse Hudson's picture shop in Kennington Road; Scotland Yard suspected a lunatic with a hatred of Napoleon, until Holmes showed the busts had been cast around a stolen jewel.

Where was Arthur Cadogan West's body found in 'The Bruce-Partington Plans'?

West's body lay beside the Underground tracks near Aldgate station; seven of the ten Bruce-Partington submarine papers were in his pocket, and Holmes showed he had been placed on a carriage roof.

Which disease does the 'dying' Holmes quiz Watson about in 'The Dying Detective'?

Feigning 'a coolie disease from Sumatra', Holmes asks Watson what he knows of Tapanuli fever — Tapanuli being a region of Sumatra — to convince him the case is beyond a London doctor.

How much does blackmailer Milverton demand from Lady Eva Blackwell?

Milverton demands £7,000 for Lady Eva's indiscreet letters; Holmes, authorised to go to £2,000, is refused, and the blackmailer is later shot by another of his victims.

Which young lawyer is accused of murdering builder Jonas Oldacre?

John Hector McFarlane, a young solicitor, is arrested after Jonas Oldacre names him heir and then vanishes; Holmes smokes the hidden Oldacre out with a fake fire.

Whose ten-year-old son disappears from the Priory School?

The Duke of Holdernesse's heir, Lord Saltire, vanishes from the Priory School along with the German master Heidegger and his bicycle; Holmes collects a £6,000 cheque for solving it.

In which county are Holmes and Watson holidaying in 'The Devil's Foot'?

Holmes is sent to Cornwall in spring 1897 to rest his health, lodging near Poldhu Bay, when the Tregennis siblings are found driven mad or dead by the fumes of devil's-foot root.

Holmes refuses what honour in June 1902, per 'The Three Garridebs'?

Watson notes that in June 1902 Holmes refused a knighthood; Doyle himself accepted one that same year, reportedly after his mother talked him out of declining it.

Which two stories are written in Holmes's own voice rather than Watson's?

'The Blanched Soldier' and 'The Lion's Mane', both in The Case-Book, are written by Holmes himself; Watson is absent from both, and Holmes grumbles at being 'compelled to be my own chronicler'.

What kills science teacher Fitzroy McPherson in 'The Lion's Mane'?

McPherson was stung by a lion's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, while bathing; he gasps 'the lion's mane' before dying, welts curving across his back as if from a whip.

How much did banker Alexander Holder lend against the beryl coronet?

Alexander Holder of Holder & Stevenson advanced £50,000 against the beryl coronet, left as security by a client so exalted that readers take him to be royalty.

What was hydraulic engineer Victor Hatherley offered to inspect a press in Eyford?

Colonel Lysander Stark offered Victor Hatherley 50 guineas for a night's work on a hydraulic press he claimed compressed fuller's earth; it was really stamping counterfeit coins.

The stolen naval treaty in Percy Phelps's case was between England and which country?

The secret treaty was between England and Italy, and the French or Russian embassy would have paid an immense sum for it; Percy 'Tadpole' Phelps was Watson's old schoolfellow.

Which story is notable for Holmes's deduction proving wrong?

In 'The Yellow Face' Holmes wrongly deduces that Effie Munro's first husband is alive and blackmailing her; the truth is her hidden daughter, and he tells Watson to whisper 'Norbury' if he ever grows overconfident.

What does Susan Cushing receive in the post in 'The Cardboard Box'?

Susan Cushing opens a cardboard box posted from Belfast holding two severed human ears in salt, meant for her sister Sarah by the sailor Jim Browner.

Which burglars does Inspector Hopkins blame for Sir Eustace Brackenstall's murder?

Hopkins pins the Abbey Grange killing on the Randall gang, a father and two sons from Lewisham, until Holmes shows Lady Brackenstall's story of the burglary was invented.

Which Prime Minister brings Holmes the case of the stolen letter in 'The Second Stain'?

Lord Bellinger, 'twice Premier of Britain', arrives at Baker Street with his Secretary for European Affairs, whose dispatch box has lost a letter from a foreign potentate.

Which diamond thief attacks a wax effigy of Holmes in 'The Mazarin Stone'?

Count Negretto Sylvius, who has the Mazarin diamond, raises his cane at the wax Holmes in the window before the real one steps out; the page Billy had shown Watson the dummy.

Who hires Holmes to clear governess Grace Dunbar in 'Thor Bridge'?

Neil Gibson, the Gold King — an American magnate and one-time senator — hires Holmes to clear Grace Dunbar of shooting his wife, who in fact killed herself to frame the governess.

Where had Professor Presbury secretly travelled in 'The Creeping Man'?

Presbury slipped away to Prague to obtain a rejuvenating serum from the mysterious Lowenstein, returning with a carved wooden box and a changed, creeping personality.

Robert Ferguson's second wife in 'The Sussex Vampire' is from which country?

Ferguson's Peruvian wife was found with blood on her lips at the baby's neck; Holmes shows she was sucking out curare from a poisoned dart fired by Ferguson's jealous son Jacky.

What odd condition is attached to Violet Hunter's governess job at the Copper Beeches?

The condition is that she must cut her hair short: Rucastle raised the salary to £120 a year for it, so Violet Hunter could pass at a window for his imprisoned daughter Alice.

In 'A Case of Identity', who is the vanished fiancé Hosmer Angel really?

Hosmer Angel was Mary Sutherland's stepfather James Windibank in disguise, courting her in tinted glasses and whiskers so she would pine single and he could keep enjoying her £100 a year.

Sir James Damery's unnamed 'illustrious client' is heavily implied to be whom?

The client is never named, but the arms on the carriage that calls for Holmes and the story's September 1902 setting point to King Edward VII, crowned that August.

What is Josiah Amberley's former trade in 'The Retired Colourman'?

Amberley had been junior partner in Brickfall and Amberley, makers of artistic materials — an art supply dealer — and Watson finds the retired man busily painting his own house to mask the smell of gas.

Under what pseudonym did Doyle play goalkeeper for an amateur football club in the 1880s?

Doyle kept goal for his local amateur football club under the name A. C. Smith in the 1880s; he later played ten first-class cricket matches for the MCC.

Which party did Doyle twice stand for in parliamentary elections?

Doyle stood as a Liberal Unionist at Edinburgh Central in 1900 and in the Hawick Burghs in 1906, losing both contests.

Doyle served as ship's doctor in 1880 aboard which Greenland whaler?

Doyle spent seven months of 1880 as surgeon on the Peterhead whaler Hope, falling into the Arctic sea so often that the captain dubbed him 'the Great Northern Diver'.

Doyle set up his first medical practice in 1882 in which seaside area?

Doyle hung his plate at 1 Bush Villas in Southsea, Portsmouth, in June 1882 with less than £10 to his name, and wrote A Study in Scarlet there while waiting for patients.

Which magician's friendship with Doyle collapsed over spiritualism in the 1920s?

Harry Houdini, a debunker of mediums, broke with Doyle after a 1922 séance in which Lady Doyle claimed to channel Houdini's mother in English, a language she barely spoke.

Which speculative-fiction subgenre took its name from Doyle's 1912 Professor Challenger novel?

Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World, which introduced Professor Challenger and his South American plateau of surviving dinosaurs, gave the 'lost world' subgenre its name.

Which Napoleonic soldier starred in Doyle's humorous stories?

Brigadier Etienne Gerard, a vain but gallant hussar in Napoleon's army, starred in Doyle's comic stories collected as The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896) and Adventures of Gerard (1903).

Doyle was elected captain of which golf club in 1910?

Doyle captained Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in 1910, near his home Windlesham in Crowborough, Sussex, where he lived from 1907 until his death in 1930.

Doyle's own account popularised the mystery of which abandoned ship, adding fictional details?

Doyle's 1884 story 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement' turned the Mary Celeste, found drifting in 1872, into legend, spelling it 'Marie Celeste' and inventing details, such as the boats left aboard, that were later repeated as fact.

How many episodes of BBC's Sherlock were made across its four series and one-off special?

Sherlock ran to 13 episodes: four series of feature-length episodes (2010–2017) plus the Victorian-set special 'The Abominable Bride' in 2016.

Which Sherlock character is a pathologist at Barts Hospital?

Molly Hooper, the Barts pathologist played by Louise Brealey, was created for the show and became a fan favourite for her unrequited devotion to Sherlock.

Sherlock's producer Sue Vertue is married to which member of the show's team?

Sue Vertue, who runs Hartswood Films with her mother Beryl Vertue, is married to Steven Moffat and urged him and Gatiss to develop the idea before someone else did.

Which Sherlock role did the producers say was harder to cast than Sherlock himself?

Dr John Watson was the harder part: Cumberbatch was the only actor seen for Sherlock, while Martin Freeman was chosen after Matt Smith, among others, read for Watson.

Which mentalist featured in the first episode of Sherlock's third series?

Derren Brown cameos in 'The Empty Hearse' (2014), hypnotising Watson on the pavement in one of the fan theories about how Sherlock survived the fall.

How many Emmys did 'His Last Vow' win for acting and writing in 2014?

Three: Benedict Cumberbatch (lead actor), Martin Freeman (supporting actor) and the episode's writer all won for 'His Last Vow' in the 2014 miniseries and movie categories.

Whose voice, from a 1966 recording, was used for Sherlock Holmes in The Great Mouse Detective?

Basil Rathbone's reading of 'The Red-Headed League', recorded in 1966, a year before his death, was sampled for the off-screen Holmes in Disney's 1986 film.

Which Doyle story mentions 'Basil' as one of Holmes's aliases?

In 'The Adventure of Black Peter' Holmes poses as 'Captain Basil', a sea captain hiring harpooners, to lure the killer of Peter Carey to Baker Street.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) was the first feature to include what?

The stained-glass knight that leaps from a church window was the first fully computer-generated character in a feature film, created by Lucasfilm's computer graphics group that became Pixar.

Who wrote the screenplay for Young Sherlock Holmes?

Chris Columbus, fresh from writing Gremlins and The Goonies, scripted Young Sherlock Holmes; Barry Levinson directed and Steven Spielberg executive-produced.

How old is Ian McKellen's Holmes in Mr. Holmes (2015)?

Holmes is 93 in 1947, living in retirement in Sussex and struggling with his memory; the film adapts Mitch Cullin's 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind.

Who plays Holmes's housekeeper Mrs Munro in Mr. Holmes?

Laura Linney plays the widowed housekeeper Mrs Munro, with Milo Parker as her son Roger, whom Holmes takes under his wing among the bees.

Enola Holmes adapts novels by which author?

Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes Mysteries, beginning with The Case of the Missing Marquess (2006), were adapted by Netflix in 2020 with Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock's teenage sister.

Roughly how many households watched Enola Holmes in its first four weeks on Netflix?

Netflix reported that 76 million households watched Enola Holmes in its first four weeks after its September 2020 release, having bought the film from Legendary during the pandemic.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum's Georgian townhouse was built in what year?

The museum's house was built in 1815 as a Georgian lodging house and is Grade II listed; although it bears the number 221B, it actually stands between 237 and 241 Baker Street.

How long is the 1900 film Sherlock Holmes Baffled?

Sherlock Holmes Baffled runs about 30 seconds, made by American Mutoscope and Biograph for hand-cranked Mutoscope arcade machines; it is the earliest known film to feature Holmes.

Roughly how many times did the 1899 play's star perform Holmes on stage over thirty years?

The play's American star performed Holmes on stage more than 1,300 times between 1899 and 1932, and also starred in a 1916 silent film of the play, rediscovered in 2014.

Sidney Paget was one of how many children?

Sidney Paget, born in Clerkenwell in 1860, was the fifth of nine children; his brothers Henry Marriott Paget and Walter Paget were also illustrators.

Which piece of Holmes's famous headgear came from Paget's drawings, not Doyle's text?

Paget drew Holmes in a deerstalker for 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' (1891), taking his cue from Doyle's 'ear-flapped travelling cap'; the word deerstalker never appears in the stories.

The star of the 1939-46 Holmes films was born in 1892 in which city?

The star was born in Johannesburg in 1892 to British parents, who took him to England as a small boy after his father was accused of spying for Britain in the run-up to the Boer War.

Which two swashbucklers did the fencing-champion star of the 1940s Holmes films duel on screen?

The star crossed swords with Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power on screen: Flynn in Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Power in The Mark of Zorro (1940).

In Nicholas Meyer's pastiche The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, who helps Holmes beat his drug addiction?

Watson lures Holmes to Vienna, where Sigmund Freud hypnotises him out of his addiction; the 1974 novel, framed as a lost Watson manuscript, was filmed in 1976 with Alan Arkin as Freud.

Which animals populate the 1984–85 Holmes anime partly directed by Hayao Miyazaki?

Sherlock Hound, a Japanese–Italian co-production, casts its Holmes, Watson and nearly everyone else as dogs; Hayao Miyazaki directed six episodes before a dispute with the Doyle estate halted production.

Who directed The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), starring Robert Stephens as the detective?

Billy Wilder directed and co-wrote it with I. A. L. Diamond; the affectionate parody contrasts the 'real' Holmes with the hero of Watson's Strand stories, with Colin Blakely as Watson.

What is the twist in the 1988 comedy Without a Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley?

Kingsley's Watson invents the detective for his Strand stories and hires Caine's actor to play him to protect his medical reputation.

Hammer's 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles with Peter Cushing was the first version of the novel filmed how?

Hammer's 1959 film was the first Holmes adaptation shot in colour (Technicolor); Terence Fisher directed, André Morell played Watson and Christopher Lee was Sir Henry Baskerville.