The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes | Free Documentary History

00:58:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB5XjdXYr2o

Zusammenfassung

TLDRThis documentary explores the complex relationship between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes, highlighting how Doyle's own life experiences influenced the character. It discusses Doyle's internal struggles with the character's overwhelming popularity, leading to his decision to kill Holmes off, a choice that provoked public outrage. The film investigates the darker influences of Doyle's childhood, including familial alcoholism and societal issues of the Victorian era, that shaped Holmes's traits. Despite his attempts to move on from Holmes, Doyle's literary legacy endured as Holmes became a cultural phenomenon, reflecting the detective's resonance in society and the celebration of intellect and deduction.

Mitbringsel

  • 🕵️‍♂️ Sherlock Holmes emerged from a mix of influences in Conan Doyle's life.
  • 📚 Doyle's decision to kill Holmes stemmed from feeling overshadowed by the character's popularity.
  • 😱 The public's emotional response to Holmes's death caused widespread outrage.
  • 💡 Doyle's personal struggles with addiction and family influenced Holmes's character traits.
  • 🏺 The character of Holmes represents a celebration of intellect and deduction.
  • 🌍 Holmes has shaped the modern detective genre and remains a cultural icon today.
  • 🖊️ Doyle's relationship with Holmes was complex, reflecting both admiration and frustration.
  • ⚖️ The detective stories provided a reflection of societal issues in the Victorian era.
  • 🤝 Holmes's partnership with Watson set the standard for future detective duos.
  • ⚔️ Doyle sought to be remembered for more than Holmes but ultimately found immortality through his creation.

Zeitleiste

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Arthur Conan Doyle created the iconic character Sherlock Holmes, becoming the highest paid author of his time. However, despite Holmes's immense popularity, Doyle abruptly ended the series in 1891, raising questions about his motivations for killing off a character that had become a national obsession.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Doyle's personal experiences and troubled relationship with his own life may have influenced his decision. Observations suggest he embedded inconsistencies into the stories, potentially as a form of emotional expression or self-revelation about his life.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Doyle's love-hate relationship with Holmes is explored, as well as the recognizable traits Holmes shared with various people in Doyle's life, hinting at deeper truths about Doyle's character and inspirations for Sherlock Holmes beyond literary invention.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    While Holmes is famously associated with London, it is Edinburgh where Doyle grew up, and the influences of his life there likely shaped his ideas. The darker aspects of Doyle's family background bear resemblance to elements present in Holmes's stories.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Doyle's early life, marked by instability due to his father's alcoholism and his family's socio-economic struggles, left a significant imprint on his writing, especially concerning themes of addiction and violence that recur throughout Holmes's tales.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    The character of Holmes is further shaped by Doyle’s experiences in medical school, particularly by Dr. Joseph Bell, whose keen observation skills served as a model for Sherlock's deductive reasoning. Bell's authoritative presence greatly influenced how Holmes's character was constructed.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    While Dr. Bell provided inspiration, darker figures, like Dr. Brian Charles Waller, also left a mark on Holmes's character, suggesting a blend of various influences that created the complex detective we know today.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Holmes embodies struggles with addiction and mood disorders that reflect Doyle's early life challenges, including familial instability and the societal pressures of Victorian England.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    The Victorian era’s tension between stability and fear of social upheaval framed the stories, where Holmes serves as a reassuring figure for readers amidst a rapidly changing world, made worse by tragedies like the Jack the Ripper murders.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:50:00

    Doyle's writing process led to his fame and fortune but came with frustration as he sought to pursue more serious literature beyond detective fiction. Ultimately, Doyle found himself overwhelmed, which influenced his desire to end Holmes's narrative seemingly in a bid for creative liberation.

  • 00:50:00 - 00:58:05

    Despite Doyle’s attempts to dispose of Holmes, the detective’s popularity surged, causing public outcry when Doyle initially killed him off. This phenomenon led to Doyle unwittingly becoming a prisoner of his own creation, resulting in the resurrection of Holmes to satisfy public demand.

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Video-Fragen und Antworten

  • Why did Arthur Conan Doyle kill off Sherlock Holmes?

    Doyle was overwhelmed by Holmes's popularity and sought to pursue more serious literary ambitions.

  • What influenced the creation of Sherlock Holmes?

    Holmes was influenced by several people from Doyle's life, including his medical professor Dr. Joseph Bell and others with darker traits.

  • How did the public react to Holmes's death?

    The public was distraught, some wearing black armbands in mourning as they believed Holmes was real.

  • What led to the revival of Sherlock Holmes?

    Doyle later revived Holmes due to public demand and the success of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

  • What elements from Doyle's life appear in the Holmes stories?

    Elements like alcoholism, drug addiction, and family dynamics are reflected in Holmes's character.

  • What is the legacy of Sherlock Holmes?

    Holmes remains one of the most iconic literary figures, influencing modern detective fiction and pop culture.

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Untertitel
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Automatisches Blättern:
  • 00:00:04
    sherlock holmes was a phenomenon of his
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    age
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    his creator arthur conan doyle became
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    the highest paid author of his
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    generation
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    and from the stories forged a new form
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    of popular fiction
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    and yet having produced such a character
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    beloved by a nation
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    in 1891 at the height of his popularity
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    his creator brought the series to an
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    abrupt end
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    [Music]
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    why get rid of sherlock holmes the
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    stories were actually reflecting
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    his own life much more perhaps
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    than we realized and he may have been a
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    little worried that he was giving away
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    rather too much
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    the character of sherlock holmes
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    undoubtedly um took over canada's life
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    and it irritated condole immensely he
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    decided he would do the ultimate
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    to his character and well kill him off
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    it has been suggested more than once
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    that the inconsistencies in the stories
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    were deliberately put in by the author
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    as a sort of code leading to
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    some sort of revelation
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    an investigation of conan doyle's
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    relationship with sherlock holmes
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    asks more questions than it answers was
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    there something disturbing behind the
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    story of his
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    invention what made a young doctor from
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    edinburgh
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    produce this giant of a literary
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    character a character that has been
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    performed
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    and portrayed more than any ever created
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    this is a journey into the world of
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    conan doyle
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    to discover the truth behind his
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    love-hate relationship for the detective
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    creation that would become his most
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    valuable meal ticket
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    we'll investigate the untold story of
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    the relationship between the man
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    and his creation and asked the question
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    what was it that made him determined to
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    kill off the character who had dominated
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    his life for so long in one dramatic
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    [Music]
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    episode
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    [Music]
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    we're going to track down the people and
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    the influences that lay behind the
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    creation
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    of what is without doubt literature's
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    most enduring
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    fictional character and we're going to
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    ask the question
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    why having created such a successful and
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    acclaimed detective
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    why does his creator sir arthur conan
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    doyle
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    become anxious to kill off his creation
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    why would conan doyle want to rid
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    himself of the character of sherlock
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    holmes
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    didn't he in fact give away more of
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    himself than he meant to
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    through the adventures of his famous
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    character what was he revealing about
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    his own life
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    and does this fictional murder reveal a
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    darker side
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    to an untold story behind the legend
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    it's possible that the world's greatest
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    detective is based on a cocktail of
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    disturbing influences in the author's
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    early life
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    well i'm absolutely convinced myself
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    that yes indeed sherlock holmes is based
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    on a real
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    character to a large extent when you're
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    doing your first novel
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    you generally want to base it on either
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    yourself or somebody you know very well
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    he's also been described as not so much
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    a character as a collection of
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    characteristics
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    but it's those characteristics which
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    bring him to life
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    dr watson does write of him in
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    convincing detail does this therefore
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    mean
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    that there's a lot of a real person in
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    him well
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    actually yes it probably does the sense
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    of a real person in the sherlock holmes
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    character
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    is what leads many to this day to
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    believe that he really existed
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    [Music]
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    well i've just left faker street station
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    and i'm walking along one of the most
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    famous streets in the world
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    baker street in london and here on the
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    left is one of the world's best known
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    addresses
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    221b baker street
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    this is the address conan doyle gave to
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    his character and where people
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    despite him being fictional still come
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    today caught up in the myth
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    condole once said that he'd never been
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    to london when he started writing the
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    sherlock holmes stories
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    in fact he had been to london when he
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    was a boy of about
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    seven or eight as a child he visited
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    family in london and they went
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    to visit he records it in letters to his
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    mother they went to visit madame
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    tussauds
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    which at that time was not in marylebone
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    road it was in baker street
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    if you go to his library you will find
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    tourist map of london
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    and from that i very much suspect he
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    just picked a street at random
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    and said this is where my my character
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    will live
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    in truth there never actually was a 221b
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    baker street albeit today
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    here on the west side of the street
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    there is a museum dedicated to sherlock
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    holmes
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    but in all honesty the address the
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    location
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    the rooms even the bay window from which
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    homes and watson would look down
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    on the daily traffic along baker street
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    were a pure fiction
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    created by dr arthur conan doyle
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    the story of conan doyle's own life and
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    his path to the creation of homes
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    is in itself something of an enigma and
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    one which leads
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    400 miles north of london where the
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    stories are set
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    to edinburgh scotland's capital city
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    the thing is everyone thinks of sherlock
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    holmes as being a london character
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    obviously these adventures are written
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    for the streets of london but it's in
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    fact these streets that we're walking in
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    now
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    the streets of edinburgh that really did
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    provide in many ways
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    the original back cloth against which
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    conodor wrote the adventures
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    these streets the streets of the
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    infamous murderers burke and hare of
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    deacon brody
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    of major weir characters who influenced
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    robert lewis stevenson's creation of dr
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    jekyll and mr hyde
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    so it's here in the streets of edinburgh
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    that sherlock holmes was born
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    vernon doyle's early life was turbulent
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    and unsettled
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    and more little resemblance to the
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    well-off ordered world of his london
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    gentleman detective
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    cannondale was born here in edinburgh in
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    piketty place where we're now standing
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    on the 22nd of may 1859. he was the
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    third child and eldest son
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    of charles and mary conan doyle
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    his family were of anglo-irish catholic
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    descent
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    and not particularly well off his father
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    charles ultimate doyle a talented artist
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    was a chronic alcoholic
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    suffering from depression and epilepsy
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    charles anthony was a fantastic artist
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    wonderful drawings like all sorts of
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    fairies and spirits emanating from the
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    spire of saint giles cathedral
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    he was epileptic and alcohol had a very
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    fast and very debilitating effect upon
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    him
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    sometimes quite frightful he would try
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    to sell his clothes
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    he would sell anything at the house to
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    get drink the mother would find herself
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    bringing home
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    virtually an inert corpse who sometimes
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    could become violent
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    you do find the theme of drunkenness
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    constantly
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    coming into the stories sometimes
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    drunkenness accompanying great brutality
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    one story in particular which turns on
  • 00:08:02
    an alcoholic husband who murders his
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    wife
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    and her lover may have been all too
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    closely reminiscent
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    of the tragedy of common doyle's own
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    early life from that of his parents
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    in short mr holmes you would go far
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    [Music]
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    the alcoholic husband
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    turns up time and again in the sherlock
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    holmes stories
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    it's possibly the most obvious
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    effect of his own family life on
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    the sherlock holmes stories
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    charles doyle ended his days in
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    a sanatorium
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    throughout his childhood the family
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    moved from address to address as their
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    financial situation
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    and charles's condition are deteriorated
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    doyle's mother mary was desperate to
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    keep the young arthur away from his
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    father's destabilizing influence
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    in 1868 the nine-year-old doyle was sent
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    to a jesuit boarding school in england
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    his family
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    were devout catholics he grew up
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    with the catholic faith ringing in his
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    ears and he was educated
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    at harder and stonyhurst which would
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    jesuit schools
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    but another particular influence on him
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    was his mother's tales of
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    chivalry she regaled her children with
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    stories
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    of knights and fair maidens and
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    conan doyle's legendary chivalry is
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    recounted by his own children
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    while appealing to the imaginative side
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    of the future writer
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    these heroic fantasies may also have
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    been an escape for the young conan doyle
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    from the reality of his own harsher
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    environment
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    conan doyle had been brought up quite
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    poor
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    and he was the leader of a street gang
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    in edinburgh he brought that in in one
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    of the earliest church home stories
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    for the baker's treated regulars in an
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    effort to provide for his family he
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    applied for a place in edinburgh to
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    study medicine
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    while his application was successful he
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    was far from the typical student
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    while studying medicine at the
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    university of edinburgh conon doyle
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    lodged here in
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    george square now surrounded by
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    university buildings in fact they still
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    have a plaque on the wall here that
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    commemorates his tenure
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    he left here in 1880 to embark upon the
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    greatest adventure of his young life an
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    adventure that he later recalled
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    would turn him into a man
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    it was drilled into him you must do well
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    he must go into profession
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    and what better profession to go into
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    than a doctor because you'll be
  • 00:10:59
    comfortable for the rest of your life
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    and i
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    i mean he always said he hated stony
  • 00:11:03
    house he didn't particularly like
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    edinburgh
  • 00:11:05
    university and he regarded it more of a
  • 00:11:08
    drudgery to get through it but he didn't
  • 00:11:10
    actually particularly
  • 00:11:11
    like the work and didn't find it
  • 00:11:12
    particularly easy either although still
  • 00:11:14
    studying
  • 00:11:15
    on the morning of february 28 1880
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    conan doyle joined the crew of the
  • 00:11:20
    greenland whaler
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    hope on a voyage of several months in
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    the dangerous occupation of seal and
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    whale hunting
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    he returned to edinburgh with a 50 pound
  • 00:11:32
    share of the crew's profits
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    this period of his life was to have a
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    profound effect on the young man
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    i went on board the winner a big
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    struggling youth
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    came off a powerful well man
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    um he certainly didn't pass you know out
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    of edinburgh with with flying colours
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    he was rejected for every single
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    hospital appointment he went for
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    i was forced almost to go on whaling
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    ships and so on to earn his money
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    because there's only a certain type of
  • 00:11:58
    person who would go on a waiting ship to
  • 00:12:00
    this you know austere
  • 00:12:02
    uh hard life that he was
  • 00:12:05
    with these very different life
  • 00:12:07
    experiences under his belt
  • 00:12:08
    he returned to edinburgh to resume his
  • 00:12:11
    studies at the medical school
  • 00:12:12
    he could have no idea that his time here
  • 00:12:15
    was to give him the inspiration for the
  • 00:12:17
    creation of homes
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    [Music]
  • 00:12:19
    it was commonplace for students to
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    undertake extramural studies
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    which conan dole did in the course of
  • 00:12:25
    those studies he encountered the man
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    who more than any other become a true
  • 00:12:30
    inspiration
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    for the character of sherlock holmes and
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    that man
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    was dr joseph bell he first met
  • 00:12:38
    bell because he taught colin doyle
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    clinical
  • 00:12:41
    surgery at edinburgh university he was a
  • 00:12:44
    very popular
  • 00:12:46
    surgeon there he'd have packed audiences
  • 00:12:49
    of the students
  • 00:12:50
    and not only would he uh show them the
  • 00:12:52
    surgery techniques
  • 00:12:53
    but he'd make various deductions and
  • 00:12:55
    observations
  • 00:12:56
    about the the people he was dealing with
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    it was noted by many who knew bell that
  • 00:13:02
    the eminent lecturers physical
  • 00:13:04
    attributes were remarkably similar to
  • 00:13:05
    those of the fictional sherlock holmes
  • 00:13:09
    conan doyle has recorded his
  • 00:13:12
    memories of bell who was
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    thin high nosed
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    eagle faced and had a jerky way of
  • 00:13:21
    walking and a high
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    strident voice well holmes's voice
  • 00:13:26
    isn't mentioned in descriptive terms
  • 00:13:30
    very often but when you
  • 00:13:31
    go back to the stories it is described
  • 00:13:34
    as a high strident voice just like
  • 00:13:36
    joseph bell
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    many of sherlock holmes's other
  • 00:13:40
    characteristics seem to relate directly
  • 00:13:42
    back to bell
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    the character of the poet sportsman and
  • 00:13:47
    bird watcher
  • 00:13:51
    however most significantly in relation
  • 00:13:53
    to sherlock holmes
  • 00:13:54
    there is also the fundamental feature of
  • 00:13:56
    his famously brilliant diagnostic mind
  • 00:14:01
    joe bell was not just a medical
  • 00:14:04
    diagnostician
  • 00:14:06
    which he was brilliant at he was also
  • 00:14:09
    a master of looking at a person
  • 00:14:13
    and being able to tell their trade
  • 00:14:17
    their place of residence their status in
  • 00:14:20
    life
  • 00:14:21
    sherlock holmes is best known for his
  • 00:14:23
    deductive
  • 00:14:24
    reasoning and that was something very
  • 00:14:27
    much that came from konando's medical
  • 00:14:28
    training
  • 00:14:29
    joseph bell is known to have used that
  • 00:14:32
    sort of
  • 00:14:33
    argument he would look at clues from
  • 00:14:35
    just seeing the complaints
  • 00:14:37
    and things about the patient bell could
  • 00:14:39
    work out a lot about his background
  • 00:14:43
    doyle probably first met bell
  • 00:14:47
    now in 1878 at
  • 00:14:50
    a clinical surgery outpatient
  • 00:14:53
    class the students were present and the
  • 00:14:57
    first
  • 00:14:58
    patient was shown in before the patient
  • 00:15:01
    could open his mouth
  • 00:15:03
    bill said to the patient ah my man
  • 00:15:07
    i see you have been in the army
  • 00:15:12
    not long discharged uh non-commissioned
  • 00:15:15
    officer highland regiment
  • 00:15:17
    recently stationed in barbados
  • 00:15:20
    and when asked you know how on earth he
  • 00:15:22
    could know all of these things bell says
  • 00:15:24
    you see gentlemen
  • 00:15:25
    the man was respectful but did not
  • 00:15:27
    remove his hat
  • 00:15:28
    they do not do that in the army but he
  • 00:15:30
    would have learned civilian ways had he
  • 00:15:32
    not long been discharged
  • 00:15:33
    he has an air of authority and he is
  • 00:15:35
    obviously scottish
  • 00:15:37
    as to barbados his complaint is
  • 00:15:39
    elephantitis
  • 00:15:40
    which is west indian and not british
  • 00:15:42
    [Music]
  • 00:15:46
    well the students of course love this
  • 00:15:49
    performance well that's what it was
  • 00:15:52
    this was him showing them how to be
  • 00:15:55
    observant
  • 00:15:56
    doyle remembered all that and noted it
  • 00:15:59
    down and
  • 00:16:00
    came to use it years and years later
  • 00:16:02
    when he created sherlock holmes
  • 00:16:07
    although elements of bell are clearly in
  • 00:16:09
    holmes's behavior
  • 00:16:10
    and conan doyle seems to have
  • 00:16:12
    acknowledged this in a letter he wrote
  • 00:16:14
    to his old professor
  • 00:16:16
    there is ample evidence that holmes is
  • 00:16:18
    also influenced
  • 00:16:19
    by other people he encountered during
  • 00:16:21
    his student life
  • 00:16:22
    [Music]
  • 00:16:23
    but he actually embodied several people
  • 00:16:26
    especially
  • 00:16:27
    in the very early stages he drew on
  • 00:16:29
    these several people to make homes but
  • 00:16:31
    after he'd drawn on them
  • 00:16:33
    holmes began to move by himself
  • 00:16:38
    we're here in dean cemetery some
  • 00:16:40
    distance from the center of edinburgh
  • 00:16:42
    and the university's medical faculty and
  • 00:16:45
    over by a boundary wall of the cemetery
  • 00:16:47
    is the grave of dr joseph bell to whom
  • 00:16:50
    conan dole said
  • 00:16:51
    he owed sherlock holmes homicidal
  • 00:16:54
    scholars would seem to be in agreement
  • 00:16:56
    because in all honesty the only real
  • 00:16:57
    similarity between
  • 00:16:58
    sherlock holmes and dr joseph bell is
  • 00:17:01
    holmes's amazing
  • 00:17:02
    ability for deduction so the benign
  • 00:17:06
    character of bell
  • 00:17:07
    may not have been the strongest
  • 00:17:08
    influence in the creation of sherlock
  • 00:17:10
    holmes
  • 00:17:12
    looking further into conan doyle's life
  • 00:17:14
    more disturbing influences behind the
  • 00:17:16
    character begin to emerge
  • 00:17:19
    is there a darker side to this story
  • 00:17:24
    [Music]
  • 00:17:26
    well in 1875 a man by the name of dr
  • 00:17:30
    brian charles waller had become the
  • 00:17:32
    door's lodger
  • 00:17:33
    and seems to have been he that was
  • 00:17:34
    influential in persuading conan dole
  • 00:17:36
    to study medicine indeed brian charles
  • 00:17:39
    waller
  • 00:17:40
    would become one of the early influences
  • 00:17:42
    for the real sherlock holmes
  • 00:17:44
    sherlock holmes has a dark side to him
  • 00:17:47
    it's been suggested that this is
  • 00:17:50
    influenced by
  • 00:17:51
    a man whom conan doyle must have known
  • 00:17:55
    fairly well
  • 00:17:56
    brian charles waller as the
  • 00:18:00
    doyle's financial situation
  • 00:18:03
    worsened due to charles doyle's heavy
  • 00:18:07
    drinking
  • 00:18:08
    the rent which waller paid to the doyle
  • 00:18:12
    family
  • 00:18:13
    no doubt saved them from the workhouse
  • 00:18:16
    bran charles waller
  • 00:18:17
    who was medical doctor of pathology and
  • 00:18:20
    was seeking a
  • 00:18:21
    place in the university and called
  • 00:18:22
    himself a consulting pathologist
  • 00:18:25
    and in fact conor doyle would use that
  • 00:18:27
    initially to launch sherlock holmes
  • 00:18:29
    that holmes was a consulting detective
  • 00:18:31
    he was also
  • 00:18:32
    a very bossy individual extremely full
  • 00:18:35
    of himself
  • 00:18:36
    quite sure that he knew the answers very
  • 00:18:38
    rapid in his
  • 00:18:39
    decisions and in certain ways so aware
  • 00:18:43
    of how much he knew as to be positively
  • 00:18:45
    dislikeable
  • 00:18:46
    one of the important things that bran
  • 00:18:48
    charles waller put into the character of
  • 00:18:50
    sherlock holmes
  • 00:18:51
    was the aspects of him which are not
  • 00:18:53
    likable
  • 00:18:54
    watson begins by disliking homes quite a
  • 00:18:57
    good deal
  • 00:18:58
    and is conquered by discovering that
  • 00:19:00
    holmes actually isn't a charlatan
  • 00:19:02
    that there is a great deal in his work
  • 00:19:05
    dweller seems to have been
  • 00:19:07
    quite a good doctor a good research
  • 00:19:09
    doctor
  • 00:19:10
    although as a commentator on other
  • 00:19:12
    doctors he was vicious beyond belief
  • 00:19:14
    and in fact holmes's rudeness about
  • 00:19:17
    everybody
  • 00:19:17
    from the creations of edgar allan poe to
  • 00:19:20
    the scotland yard inspectors
  • 00:19:21
    is very much taken from waller whether
  • 00:19:24
    or not holmes was influenced
  • 00:19:26
    by walla kernendoll's relationship with
  • 00:19:28
    him appears to have been very complex
  • 00:19:30
    and possibly disturbing for him
  • 00:19:32
    i'm not sure that arthur conan doyle got
  • 00:19:35
    on very well with
  • 00:19:36
    walla he was a big big influence on the
  • 00:19:39
    family
  • 00:19:40
    what we do know definitely is that
  • 00:19:44
    mary doyle conan doyle's mother after
  • 00:19:47
    her husband died
  • 00:19:48
    moved from edinburgh in fact was
  • 00:19:51
    given a cottage in yorkshire
  • 00:19:55
    on brian charles wallace estate
  • 00:19:58
    he lived at the big house she lived in
  • 00:19:59
    the cottage
  • 00:20:01
    he may have been in love with conan
  • 00:20:03
    doyle's elder sister
  • 00:20:05
    there are some signs that he was he
  • 00:20:06
    wrote a poem about her music
  • 00:20:08
    but he may also have been in love with
  • 00:20:11
    conan doyle's mother
  • 00:20:13
    walla evidently got on very well
  • 00:20:16
    with mrs doyle but
  • 00:20:19
    another curious fact is that one of his
  • 00:20:21
    sisters
  • 00:20:23
    and mark this his sisters was named
  • 00:20:26
    brian
  • 00:20:27
    could it be that the waller influences
  • 00:20:30
    in shawler cones
  • 00:20:31
    were behind doyle's murder of his
  • 00:20:33
    character but this was a fictional
  • 00:20:35
    attempt
  • 00:20:36
    to get rid of a disturbing aspect of his
  • 00:20:38
    life
  • 00:20:39
    it's conceivable that this could be one
  • 00:20:41
    of the reasons behind the murder of
  • 00:20:43
    sherlock holmes
  • 00:20:51
    accusations of adultery may have been
  • 00:20:54
    made
  • 00:20:55
    whether there was anything to it is i
  • 00:20:58
    think very doubtful but certainly
  • 00:21:00
    conan doyle may have feared that there
  • 00:21:02
    really was a physical relationship
  • 00:21:04
    between his mother and bran charles
  • 00:21:06
    waller and it certainly would account
  • 00:21:08
    for it was resenting waller more and
  • 00:21:09
    more
  • 00:21:13
    [Applause]
  • 00:21:15
    surely such family arrangements together
  • 00:21:17
    with his father's incarceration in the
  • 00:21:19
    asylum
  • 00:21:20
    must have had a profound psychological
  • 00:21:22
    effect on the younger
  • 00:21:23
    conan doyle because of such early
  • 00:21:26
    psychological experiences
  • 00:21:28
    his father's descent walla's influence
  • 00:21:31
    at the hardships of his early life
  • 00:21:34
    conan doyle unsurprisingly brought
  • 00:21:35
    darker elements to the character of
  • 00:21:37
    homes that could be found
  • 00:21:39
    disturbing holmes has been described as
  • 00:21:43
    a manic depressive and there's
  • 00:21:44
    there certainly is evidence for heavy
  • 00:21:47
    mood swings in the stories
  • 00:21:49
    a lot has been made of the fact that he
  • 00:21:51
    took cocaine
  • 00:21:53
    and occasionally morphine watson reports
  • 00:21:56
    that when holmes was bored
  • 00:21:58
    and his mind not challenged he took
  • 00:22:00
    cocaine in a seven percent solution
  • 00:22:03
    this was not a heavy dose but it was
  • 00:22:05
    clearly enough to be habit-forming
  • 00:22:07
    dr watson on several occasions warns
  • 00:22:11
    homes
  • 00:22:12
    against taking cocaine but he continued
  • 00:22:15
    to do it
  • 00:22:16
    oh yeah it's very dangerous substance
  • 00:22:18
    and it'd be very quickly addictive to it
  • 00:22:20
    this unsettling aspect of the home's
  • 00:22:22
    character has many questioning the
  • 00:22:24
    author's motives for representing his
  • 00:22:26
    hero as flawed and fallible
  • 00:22:28
    but the connections to his early life
  • 00:22:30
    seem to emerge clearly
  • 00:22:33
    there of course it's a euphemism for
  • 00:22:35
    conor doyle's father's drink
  • 00:22:37
    so for homes to be on cocaine not all
  • 00:22:40
    together surprising
  • 00:22:42
    [Music]
  • 00:22:44
    the homes had a serious addiction all
  • 00:22:46
    watson's descriptions of homes nervous
  • 00:22:48
    activity
  • 00:22:49
    makes clear the restlessness
  • 00:22:52
    the ability to work for days without
  • 00:22:54
    adequate sleep and even without rest at
  • 00:22:56
    all abrupt changes of mood and equally
  • 00:22:59
    abrupt descents
  • 00:23:00
    into a comatose state old tend to
  • 00:23:03
    suggest the extended use of a strong
  • 00:23:06
    narcotic
  • 00:23:09
    in addition to the psychological
  • 00:23:11
    influences on the shaping of the
  • 00:23:12
    sherlock holmes character
  • 00:23:13
    there is also the society itself in
  • 00:23:15
    which holmes is set and the stories
  • 00:23:17
    unfold
  • 00:23:18
    conan doyle could not have failed to be
  • 00:23:20
    aware of the darker aspects of the time
  • 00:23:23
    in which he lived
  • 00:23:27
    victorian society in the late 19th
  • 00:23:30
    century
  • 00:23:31
    was faced apparently with success
  • 00:23:34
    and yet with a constant fear of things
  • 00:23:37
    going wrong
  • 00:23:39
    the sherlock holmes stories are set
  • 00:23:40
    between 1881 and 1903.
  • 00:23:44
    during this time the latter part of the
  • 00:23:46
    victorian period
  • 00:23:47
    the british empire was at its zenith and
  • 00:23:50
    london was the centre of all things
  • 00:23:53
    however despite the apparent stability
  • 00:23:55
    of the empire
  • 00:23:56
    many felt this was the final chapter of
  • 00:23:59
    an era
  • 00:24:01
    there is a paradox about sherlock holmes
  • 00:24:04
    what is the extraordinary quality that
  • 00:24:06
    makes this eccentric 19th century
  • 00:24:08
    victorian detective
  • 00:24:09
    such a phenomenon what was it about him
  • 00:24:11
    that so gripped the victorian public's
  • 00:24:14
    imagination
  • 00:24:16
    there seems to have been something in
  • 00:24:17
    these stories that met a need in society
  • 00:24:20
    as it entered the exciting different yet
  • 00:24:22
    frightening world of the 20th century
  • 00:24:24
    a century that threatened to pull apart
  • 00:24:26
    the fabric of everything
  • 00:24:27
    that was known and everything that had
  • 00:24:29
    seemed certain
  • 00:24:33
    readers of sherlock holmes short stories
  • 00:24:35
    were drawn by the reassurance of the
  • 00:24:37
    all-knowing detective
  • 00:24:38
    who would always make things right in
  • 00:24:40
    the end
  • 00:24:42
    even then people were starting to get
  • 00:24:45
    railways the london underground had
  • 00:24:46
    started motorcar was coming in
  • 00:24:49
    later on into the new century but the
  • 00:24:51
    world of the sherlock holmes stories
  • 00:24:53
    is gas light and handsome cabs
  • 00:24:56
    trains yes steam trains but people
  • 00:24:58
    aren't looking at modern technology
  • 00:25:00
    and i think people were looking back to
  • 00:25:02
    an earlier safer
  • 00:25:04
    age when they were on the brink of
  • 00:25:06
    really quite a social revolution
  • 00:25:08
    the whom short stories took often became
  • 00:25:11
    celebrated in the 1890s a time when
  • 00:25:14
    london was mushrooming a tremendous
  • 00:25:16
    speed and very
  • 00:25:17
    frighteningly for the average reader of
  • 00:25:20
    a magazine
  • 00:25:21
    who would find within this magazine a
  • 00:25:23
    series of stories
  • 00:25:24
    about a man who could make sense out of
  • 00:25:27
    an enormous
  • 00:25:28
    howling metropolitan wilderness who
  • 00:25:30
    worked on
  • 00:25:31
    sound professional grounds and
  • 00:25:33
    professionalism was coming in more and
  • 00:25:34
    more
  • 00:25:35
    somebody who wasn't official and the
  • 00:25:37
    adventure
  • 00:25:38
    the omniscience the professionalism
  • 00:25:42
    the science all opening up an exciting
  • 00:25:45
    new world
  • 00:25:46
    while making sense of the frightening
  • 00:25:47
    one that exists
  • 00:25:49
    and so it was in the autumn of 1887
  • 00:25:53
    prior to the arrival of jack the ripper
  • 00:25:54
    on the streets of whitechapel the
  • 00:25:56
    following year
  • 00:25:58
    london was ready for the arrival of the
  • 00:26:00
    brilliant but eccentric detective
  • 00:26:02
    sherlock holmes certainly as far as
  • 00:26:05
    villains were concerned the readers
  • 00:26:07
    would be familiar
  • 00:26:08
    from the press of people like jack the
  • 00:26:10
    ripper and therefore had a belief in
  • 00:26:13
    people with ultimate evil and the
  • 00:26:15
    dreadful crimes that they could commit
  • 00:26:16
    and they would draw upon these
  • 00:26:18
    experiences when reading the sherlock
  • 00:26:20
    holmes stories
  • 00:26:21
    when when watson would write about
  • 00:26:23
    people who was the worst man in london
  • 00:26:25
    or
  • 00:26:25
    you know an evil person and so on
  • 00:26:30
    the dark and the light would have been
  • 00:26:32
    the everyday fair for colin doyle
  • 00:26:34
    now practicing as a junior doctor in
  • 00:26:36
    south sea in southern england
  • 00:26:38
    during the long wait for patients in its
  • 00:26:40
    consulting room he did write stories and
  • 00:26:42
    later recalled how he divided his time
  • 00:26:45
    between his patients and literature it
  • 00:26:48
    is hard to say
  • 00:26:49
    which suffered most there is cannon
  • 00:26:52
    doyle
  • 00:26:53
    new in his medical practice in south sea
  • 00:26:56
    not that many patients during the summer
  • 00:26:58
    months
  • 00:26:58
    mainly full in the winter months with
  • 00:27:00
    cough and colds and that that sort of
  • 00:27:01
    thing
  • 00:27:02
    so during those long periods he started
  • 00:27:03
    to write he wrote a few letters to
  • 00:27:05
    newspapers and a few short articles
  • 00:27:07
    but he had aspirations to write a novel
  • 00:27:10
    after several early rejections
  • 00:27:12
    holmes appeared for the first time in a
  • 00:27:13
    200-page novel
  • 00:27:15
    with the title a study in scarlet conan
  • 00:27:17
    doyle found an unusual outlet for its
  • 00:27:19
    debut
  • 00:27:20
    the 1887 edition of the colorful
  • 00:27:22
    beaton's christmas annual
  • 00:27:24
    it was one of the highlights of the 1887
  • 00:27:26
    annual and it was from there that he was
  • 00:27:28
    approached by
  • 00:27:30
    australian magazine to to go and
  • 00:27:32
    actually
  • 00:27:33
    make the sherlock holmes stories the
  • 00:27:36
    home stories had come
  • 00:27:37
    at the right time and the readership
  • 00:27:39
    grew rapidly setting conan doyle and his
  • 00:27:41
    creation on course to making publishing
  • 00:27:46
    history
  • 00:27:48
    well i'm walking along up the windpole
  • 00:27:50
    street off the merrily bone road and
  • 00:27:51
    here on the left is number two
  • 00:27:53
    up on wimpole street because it was here
  • 00:27:56
    that conan doyle set himself up
  • 00:27:57
    as an eye specialist but his patients
  • 00:27:59
    were conspicuous by their episodes so he
  • 00:28:01
    sat there
  • 00:28:02
    waiting for them to arrive he began
  • 00:28:04
    tinkering with the characters of
  • 00:28:06
    holmes and watson and this really is an
  • 00:28:08
    important address as far as both conan
  • 00:28:10
    doyle
  • 00:28:10
    and sherlock holmes are concerned
  • 00:28:12
    because although perhaps not the
  • 00:28:14
    birthplace of sherlock holmes this is
  • 00:28:16
    certainly the location
  • 00:28:17
    where sherlock holmes began to mature
  • 00:28:22
    the home short stories now took off
  • 00:28:25
    and very quickly the circulation climbed
  • 00:28:27
    to 500 000
  • 00:28:29
    and then the real proof emerged when
  • 00:28:32
    publisher after a publisher had to have
  • 00:28:34
    their family magazines
  • 00:28:35
    so in fact an entirely new world was
  • 00:28:39
    created by sherlock holmes in a whole
  • 00:28:40
    series of ways
  • 00:28:42
    he didn't think much of any of the other
  • 00:28:43
    murder mystery story
  • 00:28:45
    uh tellers out there and he was the
  • 00:28:46
    first one who tried to construct it
  • 00:28:48
    properly and tried to do the
  • 00:28:49
    characterization so
  • 00:28:50
    and definitely it was the public
  • 00:28:52
    feedback that just grew and grew and
  • 00:28:54
    grew and made him so popular
  • 00:28:56
    by the time conan doyle was serializing
  • 00:28:58
    sherlock holmes in the strand
  • 00:29:00
    the hound of the baskervilles in 1901
  • 00:29:02
    and then later with the valley of fear
  • 00:29:04
    people were so hooked they made sure
  • 00:29:06
    they didn't miss an episode
  • 00:29:08
    in that sense really conan doyle
  • 00:29:11
    some of the modern soaps not only had
  • 00:29:14
    conan doyle arguably created the soap
  • 00:29:16
    opera but he had also definitely created
  • 00:29:19
    a new kind of fiction
  • 00:29:20
    the sherlock holmes stories were the
  • 00:29:23
    beginning
  • 00:29:24
    of detective stories as a genre
  • 00:29:28
    and they were in their way
  • 00:29:31
    the beginning of what we see now mostly
  • 00:29:34
    on television
  • 00:29:35
    the modern day detective fiction novel
  • 00:29:38
    and
  • 00:29:39
    play or television series is mainly
  • 00:29:41
    based on the formula put forward by kern
  • 00:29:43
    doyle
  • 00:29:44
    not just the fact that it's two
  • 00:29:45
    characters it's also the fact of the
  • 00:29:47
    deductive reasoning and so on
  • 00:29:49
    uh without that you probably wouldn't
  • 00:29:50
    have the very popular csi series
  • 00:29:55
    it certainly wouldn't be unfair to say
  • 00:29:57
    that conan doyle
  • 00:29:58
    is the father if not the godfather of
  • 00:30:01
    all
  • 00:30:02
    modern detective fiction the new
  • 00:30:04
    innovation of the detective story was
  • 00:30:07
    taking the literary
  • 00:30:08
    world by storm in a world filled with
  • 00:30:10
    the likes of edgar allan poe
  • 00:30:12
    and robert louis stevenson they may have
  • 00:30:15
    all used detective characters
  • 00:30:17
    and the mystery story to bring their
  • 00:30:19
    works to life yet many are now forgotten
  • 00:30:22
    it was the original quality of sherlock
  • 00:30:23
    holmes that would give birth to the
  • 00:30:25
    coming revolution in literature
  • 00:30:27
    based on mystery and detective work
  • 00:30:31
    watson and holmes were the first
  • 00:30:33
    detective pair
  • 00:30:34
    and since then virtually every other
  • 00:30:36
    successful
  • 00:30:37
    detective has been a pair puerto and
  • 00:30:39
    hastings
  • 00:30:40
    and police often say no they must be
  • 00:30:42
    descendants of homes and
  • 00:30:45
    and watson generally the formula these
  • 00:30:49
    days is to have a detective pair
  • 00:30:51
    one clever one not so clever
  • 00:30:54
    however conan doyle's likable and
  • 00:30:56
    believable characters
  • 00:30:58
    are matched by equally unlikable
  • 00:31:00
    characters
  • 00:31:01
    careful studies of the darker
  • 00:31:03
    manifestations of human nature
  • 00:31:07
    what was it in victorian society or
  • 00:31:09
    indeed conan doyle that created
  • 00:31:11
    characters like moriarty
  • 00:31:13
    were they based on some perceived evil
  • 00:31:15
    in society that the writer
  • 00:31:17
    had identified these are villains that
  • 00:31:20
    are as full-blooded and
  • 00:31:21
    life-like as the hero himself it's also
  • 00:31:25
    very significant
  • 00:31:26
    that the villains are normally
  • 00:31:28
    middle-class or aristocratic figures
  • 00:31:31
    the ruffian with the blunderbuss is not
  • 00:31:33
    the problem
  • 00:31:34
    it's figures who should be helping to
  • 00:31:36
    make society
  • 00:31:38
    keep society safe who are in fact
  • 00:31:40
    exploiting and destroying it
  • 00:31:42
    [Music]
  • 00:31:43
    moriarty is something of a
  • 00:31:46
    mythical figure he's always
  • 00:31:49
    there on the edge but
  • 00:31:53
    he's not evil although holmes
  • 00:31:57
    i think describes him as evil what
  • 00:31:59
    really seems to have
  • 00:32:01
    inspired conan doyle to depict
  • 00:32:05
    thoroughly bad characters
  • 00:32:08
    is actually domestic violence the
  • 00:32:11
    probable
  • 00:32:11
    influence of his own father's alcoholism
  • 00:32:16
    and any violence that that might have
  • 00:32:18
    given rise to within his own family
  • 00:32:22
    and we do see that in the the stories
  • 00:32:24
    and that
  • 00:32:25
    is actually more horrifying
  • 00:32:28
    certainly to the the present day reader
  • 00:32:31
    than
  • 00:32:32
    professor mariarty is ingenious
  • 00:32:35
    schemes i do think there is certainly
  • 00:32:39
    a better link there because people in
  • 00:32:41
    those times they weren't so
  • 00:32:43
    sophisticated
  • 00:32:44
    and there was great superstitiousness
  • 00:32:46
    among
  • 00:32:47
    the general public who wanted to believe
  • 00:32:49
    in things like
  • 00:32:50
    ghosts and spectral hounds and so on so
  • 00:32:53
    there i think it did feed upon
  • 00:32:55
    what the public either expected existed
  • 00:32:58
    or hoped might exist
  • 00:33:02
    it seems then that what made him such a
  • 00:33:04
    phenomenon as the
  • 00:33:05
    edwardian age dawned was that the
  • 00:33:07
    stories had captured a popular mood
  • 00:33:09
    and that most could identify strongly
  • 00:33:11
    with the adventures
  • 00:33:13
    of holmes and watson there was certainly
  • 00:33:16
    an appetite
  • 00:33:17
    in the public for horrible murders
  • 00:33:21
    the horror the apparently motiveless
  • 00:33:25
    evil
  • 00:33:27
    of the jack the rip murders holmes
  • 00:33:30
    was present not as an escapist figure
  • 00:33:34
    not telling escapist stories but saying
  • 00:33:36
    there are bad things
  • 00:33:38
    happening but they can be dealt with
  • 00:33:41
    and the stories are full of social
  • 00:33:43
    tragedy things which holmes can only
  • 00:33:45
    explain
  • 00:33:47
    and tragedies which he cannot remedy
  • 00:33:50
    that's one of the great things about the
  • 00:33:51
    stories
  • 00:33:52
    they don't try to give you simply
  • 00:33:55
    an entry into a world which doesn't
  • 00:33:57
    exist and you have
  • 00:33:59
    a whole host of villains all of which
  • 00:34:01
    are
  • 00:34:02
    perfectly characterized and perfectly
  • 00:34:04
    painted for the reader so they can
  • 00:34:05
    actually believe in these characters
  • 00:34:06
    and again it's because they were so
  • 00:34:08
    believable that when he was killed off
  • 00:34:10
    that people thought he was a real person
  • 00:34:12
    and wore the armbands in the street in
  • 00:34:14
    his memory
  • 00:34:21
    it's not difficult to imagine the
  • 00:34:22
    readership of the strand magazine
  • 00:34:25
    walking around their london picking up
  • 00:34:27
    their latest history
  • 00:34:29
    to read holmes's latest adventures in a
  • 00:34:31
    familiar
  • 00:34:32
    setting that they knew and understood
  • 00:34:35
    [Music]
  • 00:34:36
    [Applause]
  • 00:34:38
    and such was his popularity that within
  • 00:34:40
    a matter of months
  • 00:34:42
    holmes had eclipsed his creator and it
  • 00:34:44
    would be the fictitious sherlock holmes
  • 00:34:46
    who would go on to achieve immortality
  • 00:34:49
    leaving his
  • 00:34:50
    author with a dilemma
  • 00:34:53
    the question is having created this
  • 00:34:55
    whole world of characters
  • 00:34:57
    and in particular having created the
  • 00:34:59
    character of sherlock holmes
  • 00:35:00
    why did he choose to kill him off to
  • 00:35:04
    murder his own creation
  • 00:35:07
    doyle was enjoying the newfound fame and
  • 00:35:10
    financial success
  • 00:35:11
    yet as a writer was frustrated that his
  • 00:35:13
    life was being devoted to
  • 00:35:15
    and overwhelmed by the all-powerful
  • 00:35:17
    holmes character
  • 00:35:19
    he wanted to write serious fiction
  • 00:35:22
    by late 1891 conan doyle was growing
  • 00:35:25
    tired of his creation
  • 00:35:27
    and the parallel existence of the
  • 00:35:28
    sherlock holmes character with his own
  • 00:35:30
    life
  • 00:35:31
    perhaps feeling that holmes was
  • 00:35:32
    overshadowing his more serious work
  • 00:35:35
    i mean the character did take over
  • 00:35:37
    calendar's life without a doubt
  • 00:35:39
    conan doyle certainly had higher
  • 00:35:40
    aspirations for his writing
  • 00:35:42
    the character of sherlock holmes
  • 00:35:44
    overtook the life of karndar
  • 00:35:46
    for some conan doyle was perhaps not a
  • 00:35:49
    writer in the grand
  • 00:35:50
    tradition and his home's creation had
  • 00:35:52
    led him into the pulp fiction category
  • 00:35:55
    in this sense it's not hard to
  • 00:35:56
    understand how holmes could have become
  • 00:35:58
    bigger than he
  • 00:36:00
    in fact i would say again i'll be
  • 00:36:02
    contentiously
  • 00:36:03
    that he wasn't a literary person i don't
  • 00:36:05
    think he hardly read any other books at
  • 00:36:07
    all
  • 00:36:07
    even though he had library i'm not
  • 00:36:09
    actually sure he read anything i don't
  • 00:36:10
    think he was well read person
  • 00:36:13
    from what is known of his life and his
  • 00:36:14
    influences three possible reasons
  • 00:36:17
    emerge for the writer's motivation in
  • 00:36:19
    removing homes from his life
  • 00:36:22
    the simple answer would perhaps relate
  • 00:36:23
    to his feelings about himself as an
  • 00:36:25
    author
  • 00:36:26
    the first reason being his ambition to
  • 00:36:28
    do something a little more interesting
  • 00:36:30
    the second could be about his need to
  • 00:36:32
    confront his own
  • 00:36:34
    possible shortcomings as a truly great
  • 00:36:38
    writer
  • 00:36:40
    doyle wants to be remembered not for his
  • 00:36:42
    fictional creation
  • 00:36:43
    but more for his historical novels his
  • 00:36:45
    historical writing his more serious work
  • 00:36:48
    and i think that's probably why he
  • 00:36:49
    wanted to kill him off and he was quite
  • 00:36:51
    ambitious for himself
  • 00:36:52
    so although these books had made him a
  • 00:36:55
    good career of money he then wanted to
  • 00:36:56
    go on and had high aspirations
  • 00:36:58
    kenandoa was very pleased with his
  • 00:37:01
    creation
  • 00:37:01
    but he felt certainly from halfway
  • 00:37:05
    through
  • 00:37:06
    the first series of short stories that
  • 00:37:09
    the home stories were hack work they
  • 00:37:11
    brought in the money what he
  • 00:37:13
    really wanted to do was to write
  • 00:37:16
    stories of chivalry of daring do
  • 00:37:19
    this is the sort of thing that he
  • 00:37:21
    thought was really important
  • 00:37:26
    the third argument is perhaps more
  • 00:37:28
    complex than the obvious
  • 00:37:29
    namely that he was tired of the
  • 00:37:31
    character could it be that the
  • 00:37:34
    darker aspect of his life was somehow
  • 00:37:36
    bound up with his home's character
  • 00:37:38
    in a way that his creator could no
  • 00:37:40
    longer tolerate
  • 00:37:42
    overwhelmed by the sherlock holmes
  • 00:37:44
    phenomenon conor dull was finally
  • 00:37:46
    rejecting his dark
  • 00:37:47
    alter ego and his early life experiences
  • 00:37:50
    [Music]
  • 00:37:52
    there was perhaps just one other reason
  • 00:37:56
    there was i think nothing in sherlock
  • 00:37:58
    holmes which conan doyle
  • 00:38:00
    really disliked but the stories are
  • 00:38:03
    written
  • 00:38:04
    unbelievably close to the surface
  • 00:38:09
    conan doyle wrote them at full steam
  • 00:38:13
    he made very few alterations in most of
  • 00:38:16
    them
  • 00:38:16
    after he had written them that means
  • 00:38:18
    that they were actually reflecting
  • 00:38:20
    his own life much more perhaps
  • 00:38:24
    than we realized it's apparent that
  • 00:38:27
    conan doyle was writing about the more
  • 00:38:28
    difficult sides of his own life when he
  • 00:38:30
    writes of alcoholism
  • 00:38:32
    drug addiction and violence it's not
  • 00:38:34
    surprising therefore that having spoken
  • 00:38:37
    of them he should wish to dispose of
  • 00:38:38
    them permanently
  • 00:38:39
    through his fictional character even
  • 00:38:43
    before he finished writing the first
  • 00:38:45
    dozen stories he told his mother that he
  • 00:38:47
    wanted the last one to be
  • 00:38:49
    absolutely the last he wanted to kill
  • 00:38:51
    holmes off in his mother's day
  • 00:38:53
    you can't you mustn't you
  • 00:38:57
    she knew a good thing when she saw one
  • 00:39:01
    however his mother's words went unheeded
  • 00:39:04
    his creator was about to make the
  • 00:39:06
    biggest decision of his career
  • 00:39:10
    conan dole was rapidly coming to the
  • 00:39:12
    conclusion that he must kill
  • 00:39:13
    sherlock holmes but how would he carry
  • 00:39:16
    out the murder
  • 00:39:17
    deciding on a radical solution to his
  • 00:39:19
    dilemma
  • 00:39:20
    conan doyle wrote to his mother
  • 00:39:22
    informing her how he intended
  • 00:39:24
    winding him up for good and all he takes
  • 00:39:27
    my mind
  • 00:39:28
    from better things conan doyle did in
  • 00:39:30
    fact write a second
  • 00:39:32
    series and at the end of it he was
  • 00:39:35
    absolutely determined to get rid of
  • 00:39:38
    sherlock holmes
  • 00:39:40
    in the final problem published in the
  • 00:39:42
    strand in december 1893
  • 00:39:44
    holmes encountered professor moriarty
  • 00:39:46
    his arch enemy
  • 00:39:47
    for the last time in a mutually fatal
  • 00:39:50
    showdown
  • 00:39:52
    having been on holiday to switzerland
  • 00:39:55
    he was introduced to the famous pauls at
  • 00:39:58
    breikenbach which he thought would make
  • 00:40:00
    a splendid
  • 00:40:01
    resting place for poor sherlock
  • 00:40:10
    getting rid of holmes was not to prove
  • 00:40:12
    as easy as he had first planned
  • 00:40:14
    he said that he fully intended to leave
  • 00:40:16
    him there
  • 00:40:17
    quote even if i buried my banking
  • 00:40:19
    account along with him
  • 00:40:20
    and the public of course were not happy
  • 00:40:22
    with that at
  • 00:40:24
    all the decision was to rob the
  • 00:40:26
    victorian public to the core
  • 00:40:28
    after the final problem had gone to
  • 00:40:30
    print doyle received letters from
  • 00:40:32
    distraught readers in tears
  • 00:40:34
    they could not let homes go when holmes
  • 00:40:38
    was killed off in the final problem
  • 00:40:39
    uh actual some of the city workers went
  • 00:40:41
    around london wearing black armbands
  • 00:40:43
    in memory of sherlock holmes thinking
  • 00:40:45
    that he was a real character
  • 00:40:47
    and the sales australian magazine then
  • 00:40:49
    plummeted
  • 00:40:51
    members of the royal family were said to
  • 00:40:53
    be distraught
  • 00:40:54
    there was a mass revolt from the general
  • 00:40:56
    public with the slam magazine
  • 00:40:58
    and conan doyle as their targets what is
  • 00:41:01
    certainly true is that the publisher the
  • 00:41:04
    editor
  • 00:41:04
    and the author received angry letters
  • 00:41:08
    from readers
  • 00:41:09
    conan doyle gleefully quotes one in his
  • 00:41:12
    autobiography
  • 00:41:13
    from a lady it began you
  • 00:41:18
    brute
  • 00:41:21
    the fears of conan doyle's mother was
  • 00:41:22
    soon realized as 20
  • 00:41:24
    000 readers cancelled their strand
  • 00:41:26
    magazine subscription
  • 00:41:28
    outraged by the death of their detective
  • 00:41:30
    hero
  • 00:41:31
    conan doyle was overwhelmed by the
  • 00:41:33
    reaction
  • 00:41:34
    i was amazed at the concern expressed by
  • 00:41:37
    the republic
  • 00:41:38
    [Music]
  • 00:41:41
    however he was soon to be distracted
  • 00:41:43
    from this public uproar by personal
  • 00:41:45
    tragedy which would shake the author's
  • 00:41:47
    world to its
  • 00:41:48
    foundations his wife louisa was
  • 00:41:50
    diagnosed with tuberculosis
  • 00:41:53
    conan doyle chose to nurse her himself
  • 00:41:55
    and his dedication and devotion
  • 00:41:57
    kept her alive into the 20th century
  • 00:42:00
    but this will be only the first in a
  • 00:42:01
    series of blows for the writer
  • 00:42:04
    with the death of his father charles and
  • 00:42:06
    later his son kingsley in the great
  • 00:42:08
    1914-18
  • 00:42:09
    war it may have been these combined
  • 00:42:12
    stresses that sowed the seeds for the
  • 00:42:13
    author's new passion for the occult and
  • 00:42:15
    spiritualism
  • 00:42:17
    the belief that the spirits of the dead
  • 00:42:18
    can communicate with living
  • 00:42:21
    or as he turned it life beyond the veil
  • 00:42:26
    seeking comfort for these personal
  • 00:42:28
    tragedies he became one of its greatest
  • 00:42:30
    exponents
  • 00:42:34
    but the next development of his life was
  • 00:42:36
    to prove that he was still on top of his
  • 00:42:38
    game
  • 00:42:39
    as the supreme writer of detective
  • 00:42:42
    fiction
  • 00:42:45
    for the next eight years doyle excluded
  • 00:42:47
    homes from his life and concentrated on
  • 00:42:49
    his other work
  • 00:42:49
    but in 1901 he had an idea for perhaps
  • 00:42:52
    his most legendary work to date
  • 00:42:54
    one that would leave its mark for
  • 00:42:55
    generations to come
  • 00:42:57
    but this novel needed a detective he
  • 00:43:00
    didn't want to create a new character
  • 00:43:01
    why not use homes the hound of the
  • 00:43:05
    baskervilles was a landslide success
  • 00:43:07
    and remains one of the most frequently
  • 00:43:09
    performed stories today
  • 00:43:12
    what he didn't do then was bring homes
  • 00:43:14
    back to life
  • 00:43:16
    he presented the hound of the
  • 00:43:17
    baskervilles as an adventure that had
  • 00:43:20
    occurred before
  • 00:43:22
    the events at reichenberg falls
  • 00:43:26
    an american publisher said name your
  • 00:43:29
    figure so conan
  • 00:43:30
    named a figure that he thought was way
  • 00:43:31
    too high and would just send the
  • 00:43:33
    american publisher packing
  • 00:43:35
    and the publisher turned around and said
  • 00:43:36
    fine when are you going to send the
  • 00:43:37
    first one
  • 00:43:38
    this may current kernel i think it's
  • 00:43:40
    still true today the highest paid author
  • 00:43:42
    per word in existence uh he might have
  • 00:43:45
    been overtaken
  • 00:43:46
    i guess by jk rowling but there's very
  • 00:43:49
    few others
  • 00:43:49
    who can make that claim the hounds
  • 00:43:53
    reception showed that the passion for
  • 00:43:54
    this great detective was as strong as
  • 00:43:56
    ever
  • 00:43:57
    inevitably the story was so popular
  • 00:44:00
    it was suggested that he might actually
  • 00:44:03
    think about
  • 00:44:04
    bringing homes back to life and after
  • 00:44:06
    all
  • 00:44:07
    as someone pointed out he provided homes
  • 00:44:10
    with a death
  • 00:44:11
    that didn't require a body to be
  • 00:44:14
    produced
  • 00:44:18
    finally conan doyle surrendered to the
  • 00:44:20
    public demand for more home stories
  • 00:44:23
    in 1903 he resurrected homes in the
  • 00:44:26
    empty house
  • 00:44:28
    with an explanation of how homes had not
  • 00:44:30
    really plunged into the falls after all
  • 00:44:33
    well there's one or two opinions on the
  • 00:44:35
    significance of the the mystery years or
  • 00:44:37
    the great hiatus as it's known
  • 00:44:38
    but to explain the absence konando had
  • 00:44:42
    homes going off by himself meeting the
  • 00:44:45
    dalai lama
  • 00:44:46
    and doing various other things for crown
  • 00:44:48
    heads of europe and so on
  • 00:44:50
    and basically we could say going to find
  • 00:44:53
    himself having a
  • 00:44:54
    sabbatical for a few years but in
  • 00:44:57
    reality
  • 00:44:58
    holmes had never really gone away
  • 00:45:01
    shortly before his re-emergence an
  • 00:45:03
    entrepreneurial american actor william
  • 00:45:05
    gillette
  • 00:45:06
    expressed an interest in reviving the
  • 00:45:08
    home's character by playing the part on
  • 00:45:11
    stage
  • 00:45:12
    however gillette wanted to update the
  • 00:45:14
    story and with some apprehension he
  • 00:45:17
    wrote to conan doyle
  • 00:45:18
    humbly putting forward some minor
  • 00:45:20
    changes
  • 00:45:22
    william gillette actually wrote to
  • 00:45:23
    cullendale and said
  • 00:45:25
    may i marry sherlock holmes off condor
  • 00:45:28
    was so disinterested by this time he
  • 00:45:29
    said
  • 00:45:30
    you may do with him you know whatever
  • 00:45:31
    you want to and
  • 00:45:33
    he did this reaction to gillette seems
  • 00:45:36
    to suggest the continuing
  • 00:45:38
    complex relationship which conan doyle
  • 00:45:40
    had with the character he had
  • 00:45:45
    when the created arrived in england and
  • 00:45:47
    met with doyle to read the almost
  • 00:45:48
    completely revised play to him
  • 00:45:51
    conan doyle gave him his full attention
  • 00:45:53
    and as the meeting drew to a close
  • 00:45:55
    spent a moment in thought his
  • 00:45:57
    announcement is as revealing
  • 00:45:59
    as it is contradictory it's good to see
  • 00:46:02
    the old chap again
  • 00:46:04
    i think kanindor's relationship with his
  • 00:46:06
    his character certainly towards the end
  • 00:46:08
    of his life was more of a jekyll and
  • 00:46:10
    hyde relationship
  • 00:46:11
    on the one side he probably quite loved
  • 00:46:14
    the character because
  • 00:46:15
    it gave him power it made him well known
  • 00:46:17
    it gave him money of course
  • 00:46:18
    but on the other side it detracted from
  • 00:46:20
    what he really wanted to do which was
  • 00:46:22
    the spiritualism and his historical
  • 00:46:23
    writings and so on
  • 00:46:24
    so it was very much a double-edged sword
  • 00:46:26
    for him and a love-hate relationship
  • 00:46:30
    this was 1914 conan doyle could not have
  • 00:46:33
    known
  • 00:46:33
    that the fictional world he had created
  • 00:46:35
    was soon to be eclipsed by tragedy
  • 00:46:37
    and the old order that the writer had
  • 00:46:39
    known was to be lost in the trenches of
  • 00:46:41
    northern
  • 00:46:42
    france
  • 00:46:45
    with the outbreak of world war conan
  • 00:46:47
    doyle's personal life was to be
  • 00:46:49
    tragically changed
  • 00:46:50
    it was to the spiritualist movement that
  • 00:46:53
    conan doyle would turn again
  • 00:46:55
    conan doyle's interest in spiritualism
  • 00:46:57
    didn't really flourish i suppose until
  • 00:47:00
    after the great war
  • 00:47:01
    when both his son kingsley and his
  • 00:47:03
    brother innis
  • 00:47:05
    were killed particularly he became a
  • 00:47:07
    spiritualist because after world
  • 00:47:10
    war one he was so much aware of the
  • 00:47:12
    people who had died because of it
  • 00:47:14
    including his son and his brother
  • 00:47:15
    he did a lot of travelling for
  • 00:47:17
    spiritualism he went to australia to
  • 00:47:20
    america giving lectures he could write a
  • 00:47:22
    story get a good income
  • 00:47:24
    from it and then plow it back into what
  • 00:47:26
    he really believed was his
  • 00:47:28
    main purpose in life to extend the
  • 00:47:30
    message of spiritualism
  • 00:47:35
    conondor's legacy was to extend far
  • 00:47:38
    beyond that which he could have imagined
  • 00:47:39
    in creating the home's character
  • 00:47:41
    through just a series of short adventure
  • 00:47:43
    stories he had given birth to a new
  • 00:47:45
    popular culture
  • 00:47:46
    brought one of the most enduring heroes
  • 00:47:49
    to a new generation of readers
  • 00:47:51
    and brought the science of deduction
  • 00:47:53
    into the 20th century
  • 00:47:56
    had this resolved his demons could
  • 00:47:58
    holmes now be left to fade away
  • 00:48:00
    into obscurity when he
  • 00:48:04
    said that holmes had retired to sussex
  • 00:48:07
    to keep
  • 00:48:08
    bees conan doyle himself received
  • 00:48:11
    letters
  • 00:48:12
    addressed to sherlock holmes care
  • 00:48:15
    of arthur conan doyle
  • 00:48:20
    calendar continued writing sherlock
  • 00:48:21
    holmes stories from time to time
  • 00:48:23
    almost to the end of his life it was a
  • 00:48:26
    mood of resigned acceptance
  • 00:48:28
    he would write a story and accept
  • 00:48:30
    whatever figure
  • 00:48:32
    slightly deranged publishers were
  • 00:48:33
    willing to give him for it
  • 00:48:36
    having murdered holmes in the final
  • 00:48:38
    problem then resurrecting him
  • 00:48:40
    and restoring him to public adoration he
  • 00:48:43
    decided simply to let his hero retire
  • 00:48:46
    gracefully from london
  • 00:48:48
    mirroring the author's own life at this
  • 00:48:50
    time
  • 00:48:51
    for the world's greatest detective long
  • 00:48:53
    walks on the sussex downs
  • 00:48:55
    and beekeeping would become the
  • 00:48:57
    activities of holmes's later years
  • 00:49:00
    and by 1927 conan doyle had decided that
  • 00:49:04
    it was time for his creation
  • 00:49:05
    to take his last bow as he penned the
  • 00:49:09
    last lines of the adventure of shoshkom
  • 00:49:11
    old place it was clear that he had
  • 00:49:14
    finally
  • 00:49:15
    wearied the great holmes adventure
  • 00:49:18
    he broke it off leaving the public
  • 00:49:20
    wanting much more
  • 00:49:21
    he wasn't going to become a soap
  • 00:49:23
    manufacturer
  • 00:49:25
    he wanted to go into new ways of writing
  • 00:49:26
    and indeed when the final stories were
  • 00:49:29
    published in book form as
  • 00:49:30
    the case book of sherlock holmes conan
  • 00:49:33
    doyle added his own farewell
  • 00:49:35
    to his creation i fear that mr sherlock
  • 00:49:38
    holmes
  • 00:49:39
    may have become like one of those
  • 00:49:40
    popular tennis who having outlived their
  • 00:49:42
    time
  • 00:49:43
    are still tempted to make repeated
  • 00:49:45
    farewell vows to their indulgent
  • 00:49:47
    audiences
  • 00:49:48
    this must cease and he must go the way
  • 00:49:50
    of all flesh
  • 00:49:52
    material or imaginary he died on july
  • 00:49:56
    the 7th
  • 00:49:57
    1930 a new york newspaper
  • 00:50:00
    devoted its front page to him and
  • 00:50:01
    treated its readers to the
  • 00:50:03
    unintentionally humorous headline
  • 00:50:05
    colon doyle dies of sherlock holmes fame
  • 00:50:10
    but it was hero that delivered the most
  • 00:50:12
    memorable announcement
  • 00:50:14
    confirming for many the extraordinary
  • 00:50:16
    relationship that had now been
  • 00:50:18
    established between author and creation
  • 00:50:20
    sir arthur conan doyle is dead
  • 00:50:24
    long live sherlock holmes
  • 00:50:29
    doyle had left behind him an enduring
  • 00:50:31
    and substantial legacy
  • 00:50:33
    the four novels and 56 short stories
  • 00:50:36
    about his fictional detective
  • 00:50:38
    ironically his other writings are for
  • 00:50:40
    the most part forgotten
  • 00:50:42
    [Music]
  • 00:50:44
    it is perhaps significant that when
  • 00:50:46
    edinburgh wanted to honor the birth of
  • 00:50:47
    its favorite son here on pickety place
  • 00:50:49
    they chose
  • 00:50:50
    not a statue of arthur conan doyle but a
  • 00:50:52
    statue of his creation sherlock holmes
  • 00:50:54
    in death as in life conan doyle was
  • 00:50:57
    overshadowed or eclipsed
  • 00:50:58
    by his famous creation indeed with a
  • 00:51:01
    cruel twist of irony given that
  • 00:51:03
    charles's childhood was blighted by his
  • 00:51:05
    father's
  • 00:51:05
    alcoholism the only true memorial to the
  • 00:51:08
    birth of
  • 00:51:09
    conan doyle here aside from the rather
  • 00:51:11
    non-descript plaque on the wall
  • 00:51:12
    is on the other side of the road where
  • 00:51:14
    we have a pub called
  • 00:51:16
    the conan doyle we're still faced with
  • 00:51:19
    the fact
  • 00:51:20
    that today people will think of sherlock
  • 00:51:23
    holmes without thinking of conan doyle
  • 00:51:25
    it is unfair without
  • 00:51:28
    conor doyle there would have been no
  • 00:51:30
    sherlock holmes
  • 00:51:32
    what is about this eccentric 19th
  • 00:51:35
    century detective
  • 00:51:36
    that made him so unique what is that
  • 00:51:39
    extraordinary quality that makes him
  • 00:51:41
    such a phenomenon and why is he still
  • 00:51:44
    relevant
  • 00:51:44
    even today what is it about him that
  • 00:51:47
    still has the ability to
  • 00:51:48
    hold our attention and pull in 21st
  • 00:51:51
    century audiences with blockbuster
  • 00:51:52
    movies and tv
  • 00:51:53
    programs all over the world it's curious
  • 00:51:57
    i suppose that a character who was
  • 00:51:59
    created
  • 00:52:00
    more than 120 years ago should still
  • 00:52:04
    be popular and still considered relevant
  • 00:52:09
    he's something of a bohemian which
  • 00:52:12
    appeals to the rebel in all of us
  • 00:52:14
    for the victorian audience sherlock
  • 00:52:16
    holmes was seen in advance of his his
  • 00:52:18
    time ahead of his time
  • 00:52:19
    in his deductions and his mannerisms and
  • 00:52:21
    so on for an audience in the 21st
  • 00:52:24
    century
  • 00:52:24
    it's very much the reverse he's seen as
  • 00:52:26
    a link back in time
  • 00:52:28
    to a another perhaps better time as
  • 00:52:30
    people would perceive it
  • 00:52:32
    but where his values and where his
  • 00:52:34
    instincts and
  • 00:52:35
    where his deductions are equally valid
  • 00:52:37
    now as they were then
  • 00:52:40
    despite the passions that sherlock
  • 00:52:42
    holmes raised over his fictional
  • 00:52:44
    lifetime
  • 00:52:45
    in the years that have followed and as
  • 00:52:47
    interesting stories have grown
  • 00:52:49
    a growing number of made claims that
  • 00:52:51
    there was a real homes
  • 00:52:54
    the man of course is fictional this at
  • 00:52:57
    least seems certain although there is a
  • 00:52:59
    world that wills him to exist
  • 00:53:03
    we're attracted i think
  • 00:53:07
    to something that's safely dangerous
  • 00:53:11
    safely because it's back in the past
  • 00:53:16
    safely also because we know that
  • 00:53:18
    sherlock holmes is there and he'll get
  • 00:53:20
    us out of it
  • 00:53:23
    whilst mystery and intrigue still
  • 00:53:25
    surrounds the legend of
  • 00:53:26
    sherlock holmes there is something in
  • 00:53:29
    these stories
  • 00:53:30
    that makes the reader try to dig
  • 00:53:33
    beneath the surface to discover for
  • 00:53:36
    themselves
  • 00:53:37
    something larger than the stories
  • 00:53:40
    perhaps the reason is simple doyle
  • 00:53:43
    or watson was a marvelous storyteller
  • 00:53:47
    the original homes adventures are still
  • 00:53:49
    best sellers
  • 00:53:50
    and have been translated into more than
  • 00:53:52
    50 languages
  • 00:53:54
    the legend has evolved and taken on a
  • 00:53:57
    life of its own
  • 00:53:58
    at the same time ensuring an unusual
  • 00:54:00
    afterlife
  • 00:54:01
    for both homes and his creator
  • 00:54:03
    [Music]
  • 00:54:04
    tourists still make their pilgrimage to
  • 00:54:07
    baker street
  • 00:54:08
    searching for the actual home of the
  • 00:54:10
    great detective
  • 00:54:12
    but why do they still come and pay
  • 00:54:14
    homage to homes
  • 00:54:16
    and by default conan doyle there is the
  • 00:54:19
    fact that for modern audiences and
  • 00:54:21
    modern readers and scholars
  • 00:54:22
    they will use it as a window looking
  • 00:54:24
    back in time at the almost perfect
  • 00:54:26
    characterization of the victorian period
  • 00:54:29
    the types of characters places
  • 00:54:32
    and how things actually worked in
  • 00:54:33
    victorian society
  • 00:54:35
    modern life over the last century or so
  • 00:54:38
    has lost a lot of the certainties that
  • 00:54:41
    we had before
  • 00:54:42
    now you don't know what's going to
  • 00:54:45
    happen in the next year five years
  • 00:54:47
    and you don't really know who you can
  • 00:54:49
    trust either
  • 00:54:50
    and moving back to look for sherlock
  • 00:54:52
    holmes who is going to solve
  • 00:54:54
    the problem and save the world is
  • 00:54:57
    quite a comforting thing to do
  • 00:55:00
    there is clearly something of conon
  • 00:55:02
    doyle about sherlock holmes
  • 00:55:03
    maybe it's just his humanity the
  • 00:55:05
    combination of the light and the dark
  • 00:55:07
    together
  • 00:55:07
    something perhaps central to the makeup
  • 00:55:09
    of every human
  • 00:55:12
    there is a little bit of sherlock holmes
  • 00:55:13
    in us all and there's also a little bit
  • 00:55:15
    of us that would like to be transported
  • 00:55:17
    back
  • 00:55:17
    to this victorious of the fog filled
  • 00:55:21
    streets and so on when everything was
  • 00:55:23
    exciting we had a
  • 00:55:24
    british empire was in its full stream in
  • 00:55:26
    this little veneer
  • 00:55:28
    as it were of victorian respectability
  • 00:55:31
    that they would like to inhabit
  • 00:55:33
    but would conan doyle have been
  • 00:55:35
    gratified by the immortality of his
  • 00:55:37
    character
  • 00:55:38
    in the face of his attempts to dispose
  • 00:55:40
    of him i wouldn't know the answer to
  • 00:55:42
    that
  • 00:55:42
    but there is something endearing about
  • 00:55:45
    holmes i suppose and
  • 00:55:47
    and watson too a couple of
  • 00:55:50
    good friends who solve problems and it
  • 00:55:52
    seems
  • 00:55:53
    that it's a formula that
  • 00:55:56
    dial stuck on and it worked
  • 00:56:00
    but the main relevance really is in the
  • 00:56:02
    character of sherlock holmes
  • 00:56:05
    as i've said the the bohemian the man
  • 00:56:09
    we would perhaps all like to be
  • 00:56:14
    whether he was aiming for such a close
  • 00:56:16
    relationship is debatable
  • 00:56:18
    however some do see sherlock holmes as
  • 00:56:20
    conodor's voice on humanity whether the
  • 00:56:22
    author
  • 00:56:23
    liked it or not sherlock holmes
  • 00:56:25
    continues to live
  • 00:56:27
    i think most of all because when you get
  • 00:56:30
    right down to it
  • 00:56:31
    human beings know that what
  • 00:56:33
    differentiates them from animals
  • 00:56:35
    are their mind and sherlock holmes is
  • 00:56:38
    the celebration of
  • 00:56:40
    mind it is turning mind into
  • 00:56:43
    a fascinating believable
  • 00:56:46
    likable admirable figure so long as we
  • 00:56:50
    are going to be able to maintain
  • 00:56:51
    ourselves as human beings
  • 00:56:53
    sherlock holmes seems justifiably likely
  • 00:56:56
    to endure
  • 00:56:58
    when we respond to sherlock holmes
  • 00:56:59
    perhaps the truth is that we are
  • 00:57:01
    responding to
  • 00:57:02
    conan doyle
  • 00:57:03
    [Music]
  • 00:57:07
    kanando may have been the man who
  • 00:57:09
    murdered sherlock holmes
  • 00:57:10
    but both character and author live on in
  • 00:57:13
    the minds of those who continue
  • 00:57:15
    to read his works
  • 00:57:25
    [Music]
  • 00:57:44
    [Music]
  • 00:58:02
    [Music]
  • 00:58:04
    you
Tags
  • Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • Detective Fiction
  • Victorian Era
  • Literary Legacy
  • Character Analysis
  • Public Reaction
  • Storytelling
  • Drug Addiction
  • Cultural Impact