Lucy Worsley's Holmes vs Doyle

World famous detective Sherlock Holmes brought Arthur Conan Doyle fame and fortune. So why did he choose to kill the character off, only 6 years after he first appeared in print? Historian Lucy Worsley investigates this curious love/hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle; detective and author.

Join Arthur Conan Doyle after he has sent Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenbach Falls. While the world was reeling from a Holmes hangover, Doyle was having fun. He was learning to ski, writing ‘serious’ novels, and even running for parliament. Lucy Worsley explores who Arthur Conan Doyle was without Sherlock, and whether he was able to become the hero of his own story.

Doyle began the Edwardian age delighting in all it had to offer, but as the First World War approached, Lucy finds that the darkness of the later stories mirrored the reality of Doyle’s life. After the loss of his eldest son, he became an evangelist for spiritualism and his star declined after a public spat. Sherlock Holmes, in contrast, found a life beyond his author, on stage and screen.