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The Empty House  By  cover art

The Empty House

By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Narrated by: Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson
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Publisher's summary

From an original story entitled "The Adventure of the Empty House", the motto "dead men tell no tales" is proved untrue when Holmes returns to dispense justice to the last of the Moriarty gang.

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
  • Radio/TV Program

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Too much background noise

This recording sounds old and scratchy. No wonder it’s on the free plus catalog. The Watson and Holmes actors sound as if they’re speaking with a mouthful of marbles. This takes a different mindset to enjoy the Sherlock Holmes writings. I really found this story rather boring. It didn’t hold my attention. The fascination with these characters should be over. The boring classical music is horrible.

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