221 BBC: Writing for the World's First Complate Dramaticised Canon

by Bert Coules

An account of the creation and writing of the adaptation of all the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories for BBC radio, the only time all the stories have been adapted for other media. The book was written by Bert Coules, who created the series.

Genres: Nonfiction

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Bert Coules is an English writer, and dramatist, who has produced a number of adaptations and original works. He works mainly in radio drama but also writes for TV and the stage.

Coules specializes in mystery and science fiction audio and radio drama, and has written a number of adaptations, most notably as the head writer of the Sherlock Holmes radio series (1989–1998) starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson (the first time the entire canon had been adapted with the same two lead actors throughout). He also wrote original Sherlock Holmes scripts for the following BBC radio series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, each based on a reference from the original stories. These were first broadcast between 2002 and 2010, and starred Merrison and Andrew Sachs as Watson, following Michael Williams' death in 2001.

He has also written adaptations of several of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael novels, and of works by Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Isaac Asimov and other best-selling genre authors.

[with thanks to Wikipedia]

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of the creation and writing of adaptations of all the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories for BBC radio, the only time all the stories have been adapted for other media with the same actors in the lead roles. The book was written by Bert Coules, who created the series.

Unfortunately, the series padded Conan Doyle to 45 minute time slots by adding a psychological "realism" to Holmes and Watson that was not in the least realistic, and worse, untrue to the Victorian era characters. Coules essentially reimagined them at 1980-90s characters, yet kept the stories in the past. Every episode featured conversations these characters would never have. Listeners lapped it up, however. Holmes fans will consume everything featuring their hero, and those who don't know better don't know better. I found these shows painful to hear. The series was two-star all the way.

I give three stars to Coules tone deaf account not because it is three-star good, it isn't, but because of the background information not available any where else. It is galling that Coules is so blind to all he did wrong, but this is the place to find the story of what he did and why he thinks it was right.