Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare?
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce take on murder in the moonlight, the Fifth of November and Christmas at Baker Street. Richard Burton goes to Agincourt. Orson Welles tackles Twelfth Night and Hamlet. Leslie Howard and Rosalind Russell bring us Much Ado About Nothing. Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson enter the world of Richard III. And the BBC returns to two of the greatest Sherlock Holmes stories ever written.
In this Chesterton Radio Deep Dive, we count down eleven listener favorites—from #11, Murder in the Moonlight, to #1, A Study in Scarlet—and explore why Sherlock Holmes and Shakespeare work so remarkably well on radio.
What do Baker Street and the Globe have in common? Why can voices, footsteps, music and silence sometimes create a world more vivid than anything on a screen? And what does this listener countdown tell us about the stories and performances people still want to hear decades later?
Along the way, we encounter Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Burton, Orson Welles, Leslie Howard, Rosalind Russell, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson—and discover more than a century of storytelling behind the broadcasts.
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Listener Favorite Count-Down!
11. Murder in the Moonlight - Sherlock Holmes - Basil Rathbone - Nigel Bruce - Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a “consulting detective” in the stories
10. Henry At Agincourt - Henry V - Shakespeare - Richard Burton
Henry at Agincourt is a sequence from Shakespeare’s Henry V featuring Richard Burton and John Neville
9. The Fifth of November - Sherlock Holmes - Basil Rathbone - Nigel Bruce
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a “consulting detective” in the stories
8. Twelfth Night - Orson Welles - Shakespeare - Columbia Presents
Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night’s entertainment for the close of the Christmas season
7. The Night Before Christmas - Sherlock Holmes - Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce
A series of fourteen films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories was released between 1939 and 1946; the British actors Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively
6. Much Ado About Nothing - Leslie Howard & Rosalind Russell - Streamlined Shakespeare - Comedy
Streamlined Shakespeare, which featured a series of one-hour adaptations of Shakespeare plays
5. Murder in the Casbah - Sherlock Holmes - Basil Rathbone - Nigel Bruce
Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard
4. Hamlet - Orson Welles - Shakespeare - Columbia Workshop
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
3. The Hound Of the Baskervilles - Sherlock Holmes - BBC Saturday Night Theatre
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes.
2. Richard III - Olivier - Richardson - Shakespeare - Columbia Workshop
The Old Vic Theatre Company presentation of Shakespeare’s Richard III featuring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson
1. A Study in Scarlet - BBC Saturday Night Theater - 1st Sherlock Holmes Story
A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson,
