1 9 5 4 – 1 9 5 5 (USA)
39 x 30 minute episodes
Ronald (son of Leslie) Howard linked up with Howard Marion-Crawford for 39 American-financed, half-hour episodes, which were supervised by maverick producer Sheldon Reynolds – in a studio in Paris.
A week’s location shooting had been allocated for England to try to get some authentic-looking footage for the whole series, but it rained so much that most of the material was unusable.
Howard’s Holmes – Deerstalker hat, caped coat, pipe, violin and all – was a much more human and compassionate figure than the famous Basil Rathbone characterisation. Archie Duncan co-starred as the amusingly befuddled and inept Inspector Lestrade.
Sheldon Reynolds later recycled the scripts from many of the episodes for his 1979 US/Polish coproduction Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, co-starring a deerstalkered Geoffrey Whitehead with Donald Pickering as Watson.
Sherlock Holmes
Ronald Howard
Dr John H. Watson
Howard Marion-Crawford
Inspector Lestrade
Archie Duncan
Sgt. Wilkins
Richard Larke