Seasonal Viewing & Listening Guide

“A few trifling points might perhaps be added”

Unlike Sherlock, we can’t be everywhere, which may help explain why our handy guide to Sherlock viewing and listening across the festive fortnight is confined to the UK and Ireland.  Needless to say, it’s all repeats of repeats. You’ll need access to Virgin or Sky or BT for most of the TV stuff but for those of you who only have Freeview, there’s a chance to catch the second of the two Guy Ritchie steampunk blockbusters on ITV 2.

Over on the good old wireless (a few of us old codgers still call it that), there’s an opportunity to listen again to Nick Utechin’s superb The Game’s Afoot special on BBC Radio 4 Extra.  

ITV 2 (Freeview 6)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011) – Friday 28 December, 9.00pm.

ALIBI

For fans of the BBC Sherlock, all four series are being shown (in order) on Alibi, starting on Thursday 27 December with series 1, episode 1, and continuing up until and including 2 January. On New Year’s Eve there are no less than 5 episodes (from series 2 and 3) showing back to back. 

TCM

The Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce films have remained firm favourites since The Hound of the Baskervilles was first shown on the big screens in 1939. It’s on Sunday 22 December at 7.20pm. Films from the Universal series, e.g. The House of Fear (1944) on Sunday 23 December at 12 noon, are showing on other days during Christmas Week.

TCM also has a double bill of Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law on New Year’s Day – Sherlock (2009) at 8.00pm and Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011) at 10.40pm. The first film is also showing the following day at 11.05pm and the second film is on Friday 28 December at 9.00pm (same time as ITV 2).

BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA

This 3 hour special from 2008, The Game’s Afoot, is being aired again on Saturday 29 December at 9.00am, repeated at 7.00pm. Presenter Nick Utechin (former editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal) looks at the incarnations of the detective on radio from 1940 onwards. You can catch it on DAB, online and the BBC Sounds app. It’s a real treat!

BBC RADIO 4

The Rivals features Inspector Lestrade investigating sleuths who were rivals of Sherlock Holmes. This is a repeat of a four part series first broadcast in 2016. Episode 1 of 4 is scheduled for Sunday 30 December at 7.15pm (and weekly thereafter?). It’s also repeated on Radio 4 Extra on Friday 4 January.

Have we left anything out?