BBC opens the book on Arthur Conan Doyle with docuseries & ‘Lot No. 249’ adaptation

Lucy Worsley

UK pubcaster the BBC has ordered a new docuseries about Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle and an accompanying one-off drama adapting Doyle’s short story Lot No. 249.

BBC Arts has commissioned the 3 x 60-minute Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley On The Case Of Conan Doyle, from BBC Studios, to air on BBC Two and iPlayer in December, as well as PBS in the US. The series explores how Doyle, who created the world’s most famous fictional detective, came to hate his influential character.

Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him.

Worsley unearths Sherlock’s origins in Conan Doyle’s early life as a medical student, unpicking his early stories and revealing the dark underbelly of late Victorian Britain – from drug use to true crime.

She explores Doyle’s growing disenchantment with his detective creation and desire to distance himself from Sherlock, taking on the role of detective himself, in one of the most important legal cases of the twentieth century; and investigates the darkness of his later stories, mirroring the reality of Doyle’s life after the loss of his eldest son, his turn to spiritualism and declining public appeal and spat with a very famous magician.

Amanda Lyon, executive producer, BBC Studios, said: “Examining the dual biographies of Holmes and Doyle is a fascinating way to re-consider these detective stories, and Lucy is the ideal investigator.”

The producers are Rachel Jardine and Laura Blount, the series producer is Linda Sands and the executive producer is Amanda Lyon.

Sherlock

Chilling companion piece

Accompanying the docuseries is an adaptation of Doyle’s short story Lot No. 249, from Mark Gatiss, who co-created the BBC series Sherlock. It was commissioned for BBC Arts and will be distributed internationally by BBC Studios.

Starring Kit Harington and Freddie Fox, the 1 x 30-minute drama is produced by Isibéal Ballance for Adorable Media and will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer this Christmas.

The story revolves around a group of Oxford students, one of whom undertakes research into the secrets of Ancient Egypt which become the talk of the college.

Writer and director Mark Gatiss said “It’s a serious delight for me to delve once again into the brilliant work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this time for the Christmas Ghost story. Lot No.249 is a personal favourite and is the grand-daddy (or should that be Mummy?) of a particular kind of end of Empire chiller: a ripping yarn packed with ghastly scares and who-knows-what lurking in the Victorian closet…”

Lot No. 249 will be the latest in what has become an annual tradition in which Gatiss writes and directs a ghost story for Christmas, having previously worked on titles including A Tractate Middoth, The Mezzotint and last year’s Count Magnus.