Solving Real Life Crimes

Hello and welcome. I am Josh Whittdakomb. For today I'm the curator of a place of incredible artifacts and exhibitions, a place that stores the greatest thing on Earth. This is my archive of pop culture. Welcome back to part two of the story of Sir Arthur Conandoyle. Coming up in this episode, Sherlock Holmes is killed, but thankfully he's also resurrected by our friend, Sir Arthur Conandoyle. and we discuss other instances where famous celebrities have solved crimes. No, really, including Courtney L. Kinda I thought it might be nice to start this episode, Tom, with authors that hated their own creations. Okay, great. I'm not going to ask you because it's unfair to say. So Louisa May Allcotch, she wrote Little Women, huge book She fucking hated it. Huge book about littleittle women. She was already a fairly established writer, right? And a publisher pressed her in the late eighteen sixties so Cona Doyle's era slightly before when he was writing Hmes for a girls story. Right and her family finances were strained, so she grudgingly took on the job knocked out little women in ten weeks. Corructing me took on book you wrote one of most successful books. It's mad, isn't it? She says in her journal, I begin little women. so I plod away though I don't enjoy this sort of thing, neverever liked girls or New M. But the book becomes an immense success, sells out in just a matter of weeks, and she has to do three more. By the time she writes the final b medium women, wasn't it? Yeah It's all wom we ex there. Great series. The final book in eighteen eighty six, she writes, It's a strong temptation to close the present tale with an earthquake which should engulf Plalmfield and its environment so deeply in the bowels of the earth that no youthful Selman can ever find a vestige of it. So she hates it. Yeah. I'm getting the feeling that she really isn't a fan But she, I suppose different from Sherlock Holmes. She's actively been asked to do that. Yeah, yeah, I suppose it'll be what it represents to her creatively, isn't it? And thats that still happens. I was talking, I won't obviously name who this person was But I was talking to someone about writing books and she's like a person in the b. public eye. So they Cuto and said, We've come up with an idea for this children's book series. Okay, o that's interesting. I think this is a good idea Would you write it for us, put your name in it and publicize it for us? Okay, yeah. So that's kind of does still happen Well, I think there's an even more extreme version of that, which is where we've come up with this idea, would you basically put your name to it and someone else will ghost write it for you? That is often what happens is where people are They don't even have to be involved that much in the creation of thing, but the nameames attached to a project, they don't. So that must be a weird thing. It's kind of how you feel about that, what that represents, what you Totally even you. Totally. But amazing in ten weeks she's written Little Women and that'. And it ruined their life. Yeah. Franz Kafka's a more extreme version. so he wrote loads of things of metamorphosis is kind of his most famous thing maybe. But he was I'm going to describe it, Tom, a troubled artist. Yes, I'd guessed that. So he burned many of his works in progress. like in his diaries, he writes that he's thrown these old disgusting papers on the fire. so there's loads of France Kafrica that obviously no longer exists. He writes at bottom I am an incapable, ignorant person who if it had not been compelled go to school would only be fit to crouch in a kennel to leap out when food is offered him to leap back when he swallowed it So I'm gonna say it, he'd probably these days be people would say he's got mental health issues. Right, okay. ye. But he hates his own work despite its brilliance. Really sadly, he dies at the age of forty tuberculosis. reallyally. I never achieved success during his lifetime, the Vang Gogh effect. Yeah. So he asks his friend and fellow author Max Brod to burn the last of his unpublished works after his death, but they don't do it and they're published postherously and to considerable acclaim So there's loads more that he bed himself that could have been Yeah, But you know, not a happy home life, as they say in the office. That really is a choice, isn't it at that point? because now you could delete something, but you know it's been uploaded to the cloud So it will be there somewhere. it's sort slightly performative Yeah this is dropping that in the bin there. to beolding it. It's like, yeah, exactly. yeah But Burnie, it really is now. that's gone forever. Yeah. Yeah But then maybe can I argue that creatively, maybe that's actually a really important gesture and decision, actuallyually. it's like Right, I'm just going have a confidence to restart or whatever Yeah rather than getting trapped in some middle ground where you're trying to tinker But you'd be annoyed if I said, Sh we delete episode one and re reccord it that's fair point because I really enjoyed it. Okay going, Oh god, I've got to rewrite that now that's going to add a doubt to my day I've got to do the school pickup at three. Yeah, exactly. And I won't be surprised by the facts this time because I've heard How do you want me to? Yeah. So the other classic, we've already mentioned her, I think, in last episode, Agatha Christie hates Puiro No Wow. She hates him as a person. She says a detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego centric little creep. I can see an element of that. But isn't that just part of the experience of writing characters that are uncomfortable and have difficult you know, that's what it is,'s what. But she feels he hampers her opportunities to come up with new characters and material.. So she's kind of caught on this kind of gravy train, I suppose. Yeah. it also speaks to how real these characters feel to the authors themselves. We talked about the fact that Slot Holes felt real to the readers. once you're that deep into writing something for that long. I've experienced that actually to be fair When you write scripted stuff, you do get a real sense that these people start to exist. Yeah. They take of true form to you, I suppose. And I haven't written the character as long as she wrote Puiro for. No. So yeah, it seems to me the language around it is so like this person exists properly Totally. I think you have to, if you're a good writer, you have to. Ctely leave it. Yeah,. The last novel, Curtain in nineteen seventy five, she kills him off. but this is how long she's been feeling that way curtain was written over thirty years before that Wow, during the Second World War, she wrote that. So she'd been sitting on his death thirty years ready to kill him off But you know, the gravy betweenin. I suppose it's the equivalent these days of a kind of someone who's trapped in a soap. Do you know what I mean? Yeah But it can't It's the Tony from Hollyx situation. h. Tony Marley exits Barro She's a really good, safe, well paid job in a dodgy industry. Yeah And also you've become defined by. I suppose the soap things worse because they become typecast. Very few people come out of soaps and do well. It's a really impressive thing if you get a kind of Saran Jones, do you know what I mean? Yeah yeah Or Sarah Lancashire, I suppose, it's the other classic. And also I think letess say if you're watching Mission Imossible seeven and then Tony from Holllyoakes is in it it' s of breaking the you'll be like, is that is that Tony I don't think a lot of the Mission Imossible seeven crowd know who Tony from Holllyoakes is. But I would would C I watch them So he doesn't like homes, right? He hates The fan mail that Sherlock Holmes receives, he feels like he's been overshadowed. He's living in Holmes' shadow And he wants fans to focus on his historical novels, right? He writes The Lost World is probably hiss most famous historical novel, but he says, I believe that if I've never touched Holmes who has tended to obscure my high work, my position in literature would be a more commanding one. And also it simply isn't true Yeah C yeah Because the other books don't catch on. and I don't think that's because I mean, I don't know enough about it, but That's not because they're overshadowed by Sherlock Holmes because surely they're going to get more readers because of Sherlock Holmes. It's almost that those types of book cannot catch on in that way. Yeah is this populist? character It's murder. It's all these things that will allow those books to become It's like it is like you've said mention soap But that is what these are kind of to some extent of the time. That is kind of what it is. So it kind be impossible for those sort of books to catch on in quite the same way. He reminds me of someone who's trapped in a band. Do you know what I mean? Yes. ye. Do you remember when Charlie Simpson left Busted because he wanted topper metal But you know what I mean? he was trapped in this I mean, he's back in busted now. and I think that's probably the kind of how you feel when you're young versus how you feel when you're old and when you're old, you appreciate what an amazing thing it is But there was a point when he was like I don't want these young fans. I don't want to be playing on topop of the pops I want to be playing in metal clubs. And I suppose I don't know if that's the first time Arthur Conondor has been compared to Charlie Simpson from Busted. but I think it is Totally analogous. The good thing Jephy B is that those young fans are now thirty eight to forty three. Yeah, of course. they've got's now in busted and they're playing like megataours and they're playing with at Fly and they're loving it. And like I think a lot of people, you know, I love Bur, but like Graham Coson hated that stuff around the kind of great escape era Yeah The peace with it as you grow up, I imagine and go Yeah, he tried to jump out of a window on the night countountry house went to number one in because he was like, I don't know This isn't who I wanted to be an indie guy and now I'm wow in a top of the pops battle Yeah, yeah Fascinating Anyway But it's not just Conan Doyle that thinks this. O people do think it's lowbrow. Robert Louis Stehvenson says to Conan Doyle, Sherlock is ingenious, interesting, just the class of literature I like when I have a toothache Gys. Which is the equivalent, I suppose of going, is the you know, when you're lying on the sofa ill. his h's under the hammer Was that an intental pump? Oh no, it wasn't actually It' how good you are. super God, you're talented. Yeah. So there's a really interesting thing where his' step great grandson, Richard Pooley, Conan Doyle's step, great grandson, Richard Pooley Bves there's a novel called The Man twisted lip. And he thinks this is Conan Doyle writing about his own relationship with Sherlock Holmes. So in this novel, this is a novel written by Conan Doyle, is? This is a Sherlock Holes mystery. Shher Holmes mystery, okay the man with a twisted lip. So Holmes discovers that basically there's a man who's got a very respectable job in the city of London and he goes in every day to this job, but then they find out that this guy hass actually been begging because he can make far more money begging than what he actually does. So he goes into the city and he puts on a disguise and he begs because he makes more money. Oh. And Richard Pooley, the step great grandson says that he thinks this represents how Doyle felt that by writing Sherlock Holmes stories he was begging rather than doing pro respected work. The other theory put forward by historians, This is why Doyle disliked Sherlock Holmes was that Doyle had incorporated his own kind of darkness into Sherlock Holmes and Holmes's cocaine addiction was a representative of Doyle's father's alcoholism, some people believe. And so he doesn't like that darkness. That's why he doesn't like Sherlock Holmes. Holmes got his cocaine addiction throughout there I think he kicks it. He certainly kicks it in the ITV TV series. Sherlock Holmes in the Priory. is that one of the books. Sherlock Holmes say he'll have days and days of lethargy and boredom And he'll take cocaine for something to do with his mind. Right, okay. Be he's someone who has those moments of sadness and sorrow and darkness and a lot oft He's bipolar, presumably. Yeah. abbsolutely in that he's kind of manic. Or he's depressed. Yeah, presumably wouldn't have been the term they'd used those days. So Doyle's way more into his other characters. So there's a character he has called Professor Challenger, who Doyle would dress up as, right? his own character. So someone wr in the evening after he'd been writing about him all day, he'd read parts of Challenger's stories aloud to his wife and then he gets through her presence laughing, gesturing, living the part as he read. He even got up in Challenger costume himself compleed with long back beard, two small straw hat and a heavy German accent Doyle was vastly amused by this, but some of his friends were dismayed. So that kind of represents he's desperate. He thinks this is Thisound like It's as good a character as show at Holes, I'll be honest. I'm completely cross it, but tiny straw hat. Ler than German accent. Yeah, it doesn't sound brilliant.. And so he kills him off, right? He writes in november eighteen ninety one to his mum and he says, I'm thinking of slaying Holmes and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better thingsings. His mother responds You won't, you can't, you mustn't. But he wants to stop writing and then they request more. So he asks for a huge fee, and they think he's gonna to say no. He asks for a thousand pounds. they agree and he carries on writing. He becomes one of the best paid authors of all times He kills him at the Reichenbach Falls. The Reichenbach Falls is a real waterfall in Austria which is visited and homes a Moriarty, his arch nemesis, the Napoleon of Crime They wrestle on the Reichenback Falls and fall to their deaths This is a genuine spoiler for me, by the way, as someone who hasn't read that That's okay. Okay. Sh they both fall to their death then? Well, their body's never found, Tom. Oh Which I think is quite interesting because you're going, okay, has he left the door open there? like a dirty den to use the soap opera? Yeah We just feel like that. It does feel like he's thinking On some level, I am going to try these other novels about the German guy with a big beard and the tiny hat. somehow that doesn't turn out to be successful It's nice to have the option to return. but of course it will, of course's got a tiny hat. He's got a tiny hat, yeah, exactly. So he says to the Reichkenback Falls. It was a terrible place and one I thought would make a worthy tomb for Paul Sherlock. Even if I buried my bank account along with him. And in his diary that day, he just writes two words, killed Hommes. Yeah Yet another occurrence, by the way, of A Cha Doyle and people falling into bodies of water. That seems to be basically house Overboard offff a waterfall. That's kind of his thing. Yeah So he said he didn't think it was murder, killing Holmes. He thought it was a justifiable homicide and self defense because he says if I had not killed him, he would have killed me A Okay it's nice th, isn't it? Yeah So kind of forget he's a kind of high achieving buffoon. Do you know what I mean? Yes. You forget obbviously he's a brillant writer Because another analogy he uses, this is good, is he says I've had such an overdose of him that I feel towards him as I do towards Pate de Far gras which I once hate too much. So even the name of it gives me a sickly feeling to this day Readyio I have the same about Capri's son, by the way I drunk ate Capri Sun, a full rectangular box and it gave me the worst hangover I've ever had in my entire life, much worse than any alcohow ever, so much sugar. And still if I see Capri Sun or I hear the words Capri suun, I immediately feel sick. Oh my word. I had a caramelized onion and goats cheese tartlet on the day I contracted Was it swime flu or bird flu or whatever the flu I got whatever that flu that was in Edinburgh? That was swime flu. Yeah. It's when we were doing super clamp the sketcherers Yeah yeah. It's the day I got swime flu Yeah h'd already in there so I threw it up and then it's just game over. It's like when you throw up a shot, isn't it? Like S some people can't have Sambu or whatever Yeah, absolutely So you're quite highbow,. you've got your tartler. he's got his far,'s. You've got Captis sonue. I'm the other side of the track. Well exactly. He'd hank capapr son because he'd see it as lowbrow. Absolutely. So this is a really interesting also to draw more modern analogies, fan thing, right? Be the fans are in mourning A the death of Homes. It's almost like the first thing of like fans that happenens. Y. Papers run obituaries of Homes. When it happens, Doyle is on a skiing holiday, Of course he bloody is. but more than twenty thousand readers of the strand cancel their subscriptions. That's incredible Yeah, the magazine barely survives and the staff of the magazine refer to Holmes' death as the dreadful event. So in London, apparently men were wearing black morning crepes on their hats And they were wearing black armbands ' of my death Yeah, So real, then, clearly. So real to people. Yeah. acc according to the Washington examiner, a distraught lady attacked Doyle in the street with her handbag knocking his tiny draw hat off. this moding his fake beard. So kind of fans like that didn't exist before then. so it's kind of and then obviously there's modern analogies. Obviously there's take that which I don't know what all of these are going out. We're doing a take that series. When they split up in nineteen ninety six, fans were so distraught that basically the BBC reported the Samaritans had to set up a special hel line too of fans distressed by this place. I mean it's it is a lot. comeome on, it is funny Although, I suppose their fan base was quite young Yeah sort of drformative vers, all that sort of stuff, I suppose. But yeah. have you ever felt, for example Gutted about the breaku upp of a band. No, I don't think so, because I don't think I've had a band like that that has then broken up in that sense. Okay, ye yeah. Or retirement of a footblow or anything or the death of a character in a movie or that. I always think it's an interesting one with the death of a celebrity that you didn't know. Yes. I don't know how to feel about that Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah yeah. I felt that a bit with the death of David Bowie. I felt very sad, but I also felt like I didn't know whether I had any right to feel sad. if you know what I mean? Yeah, no I get that. That's interesting. the public grief for someone you don't know feels And I don't mean this obviously I understand if it's like a horrible crime or something, you just find that awful But I mean, I was thirteen when Princess Dina died and I'd say that felt quite a weird experience the way the nation reacted to that. Yes. I don't think that'd sticking my neck out to say that, but it was tragic obviously because of her age There's something about public grief that I find quite odd. I can give you an example of a time I sh way, whichich feels like A joke, but it isn't a joke. was when was it Barry Chuckle? when he died? Yeah I really felt quite sad Pul Chuckle. Yeah, Well, of course. sort of like and we' actually worked with them. they were on a episode of a sitcom we wrote together Yeah. And we've since work with Pul Chuckle quite a few't every man. If weirdly, it was sort of like, o I felt that's one of the weird sort of seevity deaths I' had this because of the brother that was still. Yes, a lot. You know what? I know this is gonna sound insane I felt quite sad for Debbie McGee when Paul Dians died. Absolutely, ye yeah, completely. So Mahbe it's when you know the Someone's left. Yeah who's left behind. Yeah, yeah. But when you don't know them. So obviously there's people I've known who've died and then you feel affected like I don't know Seaan Locke or Steve Wright I felt quite affected by, because you've met these people. But when you haven't met them it's quite weird. But obviously I Sherlock Holmes because he doesn't exist. then you have to think about the time at which people were accessing these stories. is c. We are now used to the language of movies and television and sitcom and drama and all this sort of stuff and we are so completely across The fact that these are characters. Now I've not wanted to patronise the people who would have been reading it, but it was quite a new Victoriousic. Eactly. Monic to a man. But no, the point is that it would have felt different because it was newer the way that people would get taking those stories and the fact that it would have been in the newspaper as well as a were their magazines, that weekly fl coming into your life in that way, I can completely see how it would that effect at that time in the way it would be today, but then it definitely did. Let's see whether this one you think is reasonable. Star Trek was cancellled after two seasons due to low ratings, so I didn't know that. What the original Star Trek? The original Star Trek by NBC. And then there was a national campaign by fans. There was student protests a place called Calteech, which presumably California University of Technology or something. Okay . e. Nerd Central. Los Angeles Tim Los Angeles Times reports. Students at CalTech have found little time for demonstrations, protests and draft c burnings rampant at many of the nation's campuses, i. e. they're not very politically minded. But Saturday night a throng of more than two hundred chanting, banner waving Calteech scholars conducted a torch like procession through the streets of Burbank to carry a protest to the steps of the National broadcasting compompany NBC. Yeah. One of the signs read I think this is unfair. They've described the persons whose sign it is as a bespectacled protesteror as if Is it not easier to specify the one that isnt bespectacle? Yeah spectacle. That's a hard word to say let me say that word you put it in, beespectacled. No I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. It' one of the hardest words to. Their banner Rad, Oh, it is totally illogical to cancel Star Trek Yeah Okay, nice, like that. Yeah that's something to do with Starrek isn't it? It's aunchord. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I know so little about it. but I think it's something like what is the phrase for that? I don't know I logical. You know what, normally in these things I go, we'll do a series about this one day. I don't think we will do one about our Star Trek. The campaign to save Star Trek works. NBC picks it up for a third series but airs it on ten PM on Fridays, which, according to the article, was the so called deeath slot, which is a hammer blow for me in Ukraine. That's the last leg slot Well, we're breathing life into the deaths. After Star Trek's third season is cancelled again, but seventy nine episodes, they go into syndication and then there's five spin offs and eleven movies. But yeah So the original series only did three Yeah. That's fascinating. because gener something Okay, yeah. the billion differentone. Yeah rightolutely. Well, the universe is infinite in. Of course, of course. What is that that? The OA, this is a fascinating one. twenty nineteen, a woman named Imperial Young went on an eight day hunger strike outside of the Netflix building in New York R Potesting against Netflix's decision to cancel TV show the OA. She said Enterertainment is food for the human soul And Netflix's algorithm isn't measuring that right now. And by not taking physical food, I'm saying that this show is more important food to me than actual food. Yeah. But the fact you're the only person sat there suggests the right to cancel it. Yeah. Wh? No idea? I don't know. So Conan Doyle has some time to himself away from Sherlock He gets into cricket. I mean, he's always been a keen cricketer, but he's between eighteen ninety nine and nineteen oh seven He plays ten first class, which means basically that's the equivalent of county R cricket matches for the MC Maryland Bone Cricket Club, which is based awards. Yeah. Amazing. He also plays in an Author's eleven whichich includes Arthur Conan Doyle, JM Barry, PG Woodhouse, and AA. Milln. What a f thing line up Have you seen the movie Big Fish No it is about a go who tell it's about They' be telling about. Yeah, his father's life and all these stories that they assumed were fake from his life, but then he retraces his father's steps and find out that all these things did happen. Basically, Conan Dle's life feels like that. Yeah isn't it? It' quite classic they are. There's a better example It feels like impossible these things could be true. It's amazing. Introduce skiing to Britain. Yeah is play test cricket. firstirst class cricket. So that's domestic cricket, not test. Test is international. It's the equivalent of he's played for Everton rather than England. Exactly, created one of the most important literary characters of all time. I. It's failed to set up a doctor's practice in Portsmouth. I don't. Well it gets better. also there's more Also, this is another mad thing that happens. He's an occasional bowler when he plays cricket. He only takes one wicket Okay, that is the wicket of WG Grace The greatest batsman in the history of English Yeah Oh, I love it. Is it so great? Yeah He writes a poem about the achievement, bit arrogant. Yeah, that's a bit much. I think you need to be more chilled about it If that happens, you need to act a bit more in the clubhouse like, yeah, that happens all the time. Yout be writing a poem about it. James Anderson's not writing five hundred and sixty poems or whatever about his international wickets. So then the Ber War comes along and he serves as a volunteer physician in the Ber War in Bloom Fontaine And he's quite annoyed at the British troops' abilities as marksmen Okay. so he founds the Undershore Rifle Club at his home. constructing a hundred yard rifle range providing shooting for local men. He then stands for Parliament twice as a liberal unionist in nineteen hundred at Edinburgh Central, nineteen oh six. He doesn't win either of them But he's got so much intoland, is he insane? So much energy as well. Yeah And then this is one of my favorite stories. In nineteen oh one, he's one of the three judges in the world's foot. ser to brim Cotown He'd have been a great judge on Britain's gottalent, though he wouldn't consider it too low Br, wouldn't he? I in the golden buzz of a George Ford, he was around then. No I don't know. I don't care. No. I don't care about ide yet. No, he's one of the three judges on the first world's major bodybuilding competition didid not see that coming. to be honest. Yeah. So this is organized by the father of bodybuilding, Eugene Sando Wh Doyle knows because Eugene Sando's been like training him.. And the events' held at the Royal Albert Hall. The other two judges are the sculptor Charles Laws, Whitterong and Eugene Sando himself. So this is How has he ended up like that's a what are He's a celebrity judge isn't he? I I suppose that is what it isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, you're right, that is. He is a big celebrity of his day So there's eighty competitors, right? And they basically all stand on a pedestal and they get whittled down, right? And then when the party's over after the show Doyle leaves and he sees Mr. Murray, who's the winner just walking along the street carrying his golden statue under his arm. Right. And Doyle runs after him and asks where he's going and he says, Oh, I haven't got any money and I've got to go back to Lancashire, either Black Bolton or Blackburn door doesn't they I've got a return ticket, but haven't got money so I'm just going to walk the streets. We've all done it until the first train. Yeah. And Doyle wass like, you can't do that. You're the world's number one bodybuilder. So he brings him back to his hotel Yeah findinds a room for him pace for himself. Wow. And next morning he woakeses up to find the word is spread that the number one bodybuilder is in the hotel. Yeah. And he goes into his room and like everyone's crowded around, all the maids and waiters are paying homage while he lays in bed with the statue beside him. Amazing And then the guy says to Dor, what should I do with this statue? Because the guy's got no money. and he's like, this statue is I'm just gonna to sell it because I need the money Doyle says, start a gym and put it in the corner and he does that and runs a very successful gym. So that's another another achievement of Arthur Con and Doyle I dont know how I'm feeling if I'm the world' strongest man all the maids and everyone works in the hotel is gathered around my bed. As he missed checkout? what's going on there? It's half eleven, they're going, come on guys. Come on, you need to get out. I know you're the strongest man in the world, but rules of rules. So in nineteen oh one Doyle has an idea for a story, o O it's about a hound that's terrorizing people, which he describes as a real creeper when he goes to the publisher And he offers it to them This is eight years after the homees broak. is normal right fifty pounds per thousand words But he says, I can put homes in this story. If you pay me a hundred pounds per thousand words. Brilliant. Doublely his. Great negotiation. Yeah And he gets that And It's one of the longest Sherlock stories and it earns the exact same amount As he'd recently spent building his fourteen bedroom mansion. Wow, wow, that's amazing And so he's written a lot of it. I think I might be wrong on this, but in Hound of the Basketvills, this is right that Sherlock Holmes isn't in a lot of it because Watson goes and investigates and Sherlock Holmes is working on another case. I wonder if that's because he's kind of levered Holmes into the story. I don't know.erest I don't know if that's true But the way he gets around the fact Homes has died is this is a prequel So this is a book Watson telling an old story from before when Sherlock Holmes had died. That's nineteen oh one, nineteen oh two. he's knighted and then nineteen oh three due to the success of the Hound of the Baskervilles He's kind of forced to bring back homes. Right I wonder how he felt about that. That's fascinating Yeah, and it's the adventure of the empty house. And Sherlock Holmes comes back. He goes to Watson Watson's treating a patient who's in disguise. And Holmes is a master of disguise And then Holmes reveals that he is the patient. And he threw Moriarti off the Reichenback Falls using his knowledge of Japanese wrestling And and then he had to go into hiding for a couple of years so that Moriarti people didn't get it. Hm Henchmen That's a great start to a novel, isn't the idea of the main character themselves being the person who's in disguise and on the table Yeah, so he's often in disguise Sherlock Holmes. And he always does feel a bit like, come on, mate how good he this guy like? Well they had that tiny straw hat on Jo Yeah and the big beard. I mean, I'm not saying he's running short of ideas at this point, but he goes to the editor of the Strand magazine he says, I've got a really good idea. What if we let some of my fans send in ideas for Sherlock Holes stories then I'll write them And the guy says, no, we're not doing that. That feels like the sort of death rattle of a TV show that's trying to sort of stay on with the channel, doesn't it? Let's just try one more series where people saynd Let's just give it a go. I reckon it we find it really help. Yeah. So he almost dies the year after this, right? He's driving home And he clips the gatepost, flips over the car and it pins him face first to the ground. presumably it's an open top car, obviously in those days. Right ye yeah pins him face down to the ground. He says, I felt the weight getting heavier moment by moment and wondered how long my vertebrae could stand it. Oh it's aroundoundous. Ever they did so long enough to enable a crowd to collect and the car to me leave it off me I should think there are a few who could say they've held up a ton weight across their spine and lived unparalyzed to talk about it Oh, that's horrendous. So he attributes this to the muscle conditioning programm he's done with Eugene Sando, the bodybuilder Oh, Okay G. Also this is the second accident in the same car. He's previously while driving his mother crashed into a turnip wagon We've all done it. So Conan Doyle would rip them. Conan Doyle was ripped. Yeahah. That's a great little s fact.'. He was a skier. Yeah. He was judging the bodybuilding. He's a job. It's an absolute hunk. He was a goalkeeper. And then in nineteen oh six, he starts solving crimes himself. What What do you mean? So George Adalgry, right, who was born in eighteen seventy six in Staffordshire. So he's the son of Charlotte and Reverend Shepgie Adalgry, who's the first South Asian to be a vicar in an English parish. So obviously George' agent, right? And then in nineteen oh three, around their parish of Great Riley. A number of animals, horses, sheep and cows are kind of slashed and mutilated. Right. The Great Wiley outrages they're called, and he's George, the son of the vicar, is tried and convicted of the eighth attack on a pit pony, sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labour. And a lot of people doubt this. they think he's basically as a race thing that he's been, you know, it's a racist conviction or accusation conviction yet. So who goes to investigate? Arthur Conan Doyle, who turns detective and starts a long campaign for aowgie's release? Amazing And he kind of gets all this evidence, like the dowge' short sighted and they happened at night so he couldn't have navigated across the fields, the lack of physical evidence, the timings don't add up. Brilliant. And eighth month later, he gets enough evidence and along with others, they plead George's case. That's amazing. I wonder if that is that because he has the sort of brain, which is good at that do you think there's also a thing that to some extent, he might have trained himself As a result of writingort of story forcing himself to think in that way. It's fascinating, isn't it? Yeah. And'sazing It's a groundbreaking case and it basically helps establish the Court of Criminal appeal in nineteen oh seven the year after. That's amazing. Yeah. What a legacy this guy has. I'd say it's the maddest life of anyone who's ever lived here. Yeah. completely weird. That's not the only case he gets involved in Yeah. So there's a woman who's murdered in Glasgow in a flat and her papers been ransacked and only one item iss missing a diamond brooch. And this guy's accused of it Oscar Slater. He's a German Jew. He runs an illegal gambling den and he's probably a pimp. but he hasn't done it, right? Okay But he gets done for it because he's attempted to sell a porn ticket for a diamond broch and he's escaped America, so people assume it's him. At the trial, there's inconsistencies. The porn brooch is discovered to have belonged to his girlfriend. But it comes to the attention of Conan Doyle, this case again, and he uncovers new evidence, uncall witnesses. and in nineteen twenty seven, they authoriz his release Becauseuse this is way the Scottish legal system works. He's kind of never cleared of it. Okay. And he kind of he's always bitter, but Conanor was involved in that as well. That's amazing Do we know if he was representing them in court? No, it doesnt he was. is cool you are being accused of something and then your lawyer stands up and it'srthur Gonan Doyle, the creator of Sherlotte Holmes. I think I'm winning this. Whatever happens, I'm winning this. This can't. This can't go roll. I love this same guy who has achieved all these things. He's also Mega Ritt. is also the sort of man that drove to the back of a turnip truck Yeah, I love course.'s mrter Bean but he's a great achiever. Yeah yeah. Let's end this episode with some celebrities that have cleared people's names. Okay, Larry David. I didn't know this has cleared a man's name. So season four the carpool lane. Yeah of Kb, your enthusiasm. I know what this is about. Do you know this story? I do because I've seen documentary on it but it's to tell your listeners because it's You tell me what you know. I've not seen the I'll tell you what I can remember So my understanding is there's a game of baseball being played, maybe the Cubs or something of that I don't know who it is. LA Dodgers. LA Dodgers. there you go. And one of the fans is accused of attacking or killing someone. Murder yeah. Murder, yeah, that particular night But he claims he was at the game watching the baseball The way that he is basically saved is the fact that Kirber enthusiasm was also filming there that night and Larry David walks down the steps. Is that right? J just beside him and you see him in shot this guy could not have been at the murder scene and that's his alibi. It's unbelievable. And it slowly comes out. They have to try and find the footage and then I think it's just they're watching it back and they realize he's in shot. it's amazing This redemption for this guy who's clearly lovely as well. Yeah. Amazing story, well worth watching. Yeah, and are you safe from that There's a bleaker one, which is not someone who' solved it, but you know, Les Battersby from Coronation Street Yes. Bruce Jones who played him, he found one of the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper. Oh wow Isn't that wild? So here's a bleak episode Well Coron Stet is quite absolutely and gritty. He was arrested as a suspect for fourteen hours because he was working on an allotment And they thought because he had a wheelbarrow and likek stuff, like he was the Orchra Ripper. Oh wow. So he found that. And in a lighter note, Courtney Love thought she'd found the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH three hundred seventy Right. Where How I'll be honest, that's not what the Courney L love story you're expecting. Well Of course ye. There is a crime you can solve, Courtney. So she announced a theory. She basically took a screenshot of the sea and annotated the screen's on Google maps or what mean Yeah, presumably. This is incredible She annotated it to show where she thought there was an oil slick and evidence of an aircraft. She wrote with it. I'm no expert, but close up this does look like a plane and an oil slick. Pairs go out to the families of hasashtag MH three hundred and seventy. It's like a mile away from Pulau Parec where they last tracked it What a decision that is If you're starting with I'm no expert. Yeah. and it's about I I had to break it to you, but she was not correct Okay Sh Cara She's no Arthur Konador. So in the final episode of it Conan Doyless live takes an insane turn I see it doesn't just So you're saying at this point it's yet to take an insane turn. You're say Okay, we haven't reached the insane turn yet. becomes Further, involved in the world of spiritualism, And he thinks that he proves that fairies are real Wow And he also scores one hundred and fifty goals for Realm Madrid. Yeah of course. ye wins the Champions League final because he's in all action on own. Exactly. If you want to listen to that now, join the fang club. Oh, you get all the bonuses. Do listen to the Balloon Fest episodes on that. if you haven't joined the fang Club because that is one of the great stories. If you think this is mad, that is a mad story. And there's various other episodes on there. plus you get all the new series on the day of release No ads no boring adverts. We'll see them Bye bye That's it for part two, coming up in part three. Sir Arthur Candle faces a series of tragic life events before he finds himself embroiled in multiple controversies and scandals surrounding clairvoyant, fake fossils, and the counterfeit photographs of fairies. Remember, you can get all the episodes of this series right now at museum of popculture d. supportingcast dot fm Please follow us on social media because it's a glorious place. At Archive of Pop Culture Underscore Pod, to see links and clips to some of the things we discussed in the episodes as well as being the ultimate home of pop culture nostalgia