Welles explains the Mercury got the idea to perform this when doing Too Much Johnson by William Gillette, who also wrote a Holmes play (basically Holmes vs Moriarty). This is a radio version of the play, sometimes too obviously so – there’s lots of scenes of people fighting, which doesn’t always work well on radio. An adaptation of the stories might have been more effective.
Welles does Holmes of course – he’s got such a great voice for radio, with that casual aplomb so familiar from Charles Foster Kane, that you can see why Welles never really became a really great actor. He didn’t have to – he was a great presence, with the fantastic voice.
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