Do Go On - 25 - Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle

Episode Date: April 12, 2016

It's time for everybody's favourite detective Sherlock Holmes, and the one person who didn't seem to like him... his adventurous creator Arthur Conan Doyle. An over achiever, who as well as creating one of the most famous literary characters of all time, was both a Sir and a Doctor, raced cars, travelled the world, practically invented skiing and believed in fairies. Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenjai Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. Hello, and welcome to Do Go On.

My name is Dave. If you just heard of the brand-new theme song there, and you are listening to a podcast with myself. I am Dave Warnocky. I'm here with Jess Perkins, one of the lovely singers we just heard from. Hello, Jess. Hello, Dave, how are you? I am very good. How are you?

Pretty good. Pretty good. And you Matt, over there. How are you? Oh, mate. Don't even get me stuck. started about how good I am. Oh, Matt in the hat.

Is it good? I'm wearing a hat. I'm sitting on a chair. What else do you want in your life? Honestly, that's the top two things I've always wanted. I'm sitting on a chair, but I don't have a hat. So I'm halfway there to happiness. That's good.

Yeah, me too. Great. One day we hope to be as happy as you, Matt. Can you tell that we are recording this during the comedy festival? We're all a little bit delirious. You know, it's a three and a half a week festival, and my show's nearly done, but I got an email yesterday from the Comedy Festival

that says, like, hey, everyone doing a show, well done on the first week. And I was like, it's only been a week. Oh, my God. There's like two more to go. Two more to go. Let's all hang in there, everybody. But the podcast never stop.

They never stop. Party don't stop. Party, party podcasts. Party pod. Podcast part. Nothing will stop us, aside from the odd technical issue, but that's okay.

But if you haven't heard this show before, this is where we are taking in terms to research a topic and report back to the other two. And it is my turn to talk the talk today. Which is great because... Always my favourite. Yeah, me too. Dave's my favourite. Yeah, Dave's my favourite.

Did you just admit to Matt out of the two other people on the show that he's not your favourite? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm only talking in terms of the report. Like, just personally, Matt's my favourite. Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah, that's what I mean as well. That's definitely my favorite person. I just like your report's better, though.

Because then it means Matt and I get to hang out and just dick around, which we love to do. Catch up a bit. This is, well, this is good news for me and my ego and both of you because we're each a favorite and I'm also a favorite, so I don't feel offended. Yeah, okay. But then when it comes to me, who's your favorite? Who's my favorite? Because what if my favorite reporter is also my favorite friend? Is it, though?

Is it? You are, it's right, you're in luck because my favorite reports are also mine. Yay! And I also love hanging out with me. It's everyone's favourite. I'm the favoured. I am the podcast favourite. Quote me.

The Beyonce. Beyonce is definitely her favourite member of Desti's child. Yeah, big job. She's everyone's favourite. And I'm Michelle. And Michelle knows that Beyonce is Beyonce's favourite, but he's okay with it. And I'm the other one. Wait, no, I'm not Michelle.

I'm Kelly. You're Michelle. Yeah, you're the other one, Matt. Michelle Williams is. Oh, the other one's got a name, that's cool. So people know the other one's name, Michelle Williams. I know that name. Probably because you told me in a previous podcast.

I think this is the third time we've brought up this. And we haven't done a topic on them. We haven't done a report on them. Fine. Next week I'll do Destiny's Childs. But I'm not doing Destiny's Children this week. I'm doing a... I've got a report here, and we often start with a question.

And to get us in, we'll go ambiguous and we'll see if we can get it, and then we'll go a little bit tighter in on... We'll close in on the topic. But who would you say is the most famous literary character of all times? Literary character. So like it's a, this is obviously an opinion based one. Jesus Christ. Because Bible's the biggest selling book of all time.

Yeah. That's true. All right. So it's not a, I'll say that it's no one biblical. Okay. The very character. Harry Potter.

No. James Bond. Older, older than James Bond. Spot the dog. Who is younger than James Bond. Younger? Oh, you mean in age. I see.

Yes. No, no, in terms of creation. I'll create. What Spot the Dog was written after the James Bond series? I believe so. Eric Hill is the Spot the Dog creator. I just assume they were from the, like, the 1600s. Now I assume when you say most famous...

Spot the Dog's 500 years old. I thought so, yeah. I thought it was like Canterbury Tales sort of time frame. All right, what's another... Well, when you say literary character of... I'm assuming... Sherlock Holmes. It is Sherlock Holmes.

Well done. I love Sherlock Holmes. Oh my goodness. And I just looked up to Spot the Dog first published in 1980. There you go. So I was going to say I'm assuming a series. So you were correct there. Are you, wow.

You keep. Have you thought about this one, too? Yes. Have you really? I feel like we're just the same person. You are the same person. That's so good. I love Sherlock Holmes.

You love Sherlock Holmes? I'm a big fan. So, all right, I was just going to ask if you ever read or seen my... I've never read. I've seen one of the ones with the guy who plays Iron Man, Charlie Sheen Jr. Robert Dan. Charlie Sheen Jr.

Charlie Sheen Jr. Wow. Matt's been broken by his own slipper. Matt, your show hasn't even started the comedy festivals. I don't know what your excuse is over there. Charlie Sheen Jr. I mean, you know, they're sort of similar. No, they're not.

Well, they've both been bad boys in the time, but Charlie Sheen hasn't bounced back the way that Robert Downey has. That's true. Good point. Definitely not. So, all right, so you've seen the movie, perhaps, That movie? I've seen that movie, yeah. Him and his sidekick, which I'm not going to have to say it.

Jude Law. He's a very good Watson. I quite like Jude Law as Watson. But I've also watched Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, which is fantastic. I've heard that's very good. Oh, it's brilliant. Brilliant series. And there's a Lucy Lou one as well?

Yeah. It's called Elementary. It's not as good. I don't mind it, but it's not as good. I haven't seen the Lucy Lou one. But do you know much about, so have you read any of the short stories? Yeah, I did as a... kid, which is strange. Did you ever have, what was it called?

Oh shit, it was like this program, it was outside of school. After school care? No, it wasn't. It was like a, it was a special day thing. Like you could get, your teachers would select you to go off to this. Was it called gateways? Thank you. Gateways. Oh, my God.

We are the same person. Did you go to Gateways? I went to Gateways. But because I was very good at maths. I was going to say you would have been in the maths on. I was always the English one, because I'm shit at maths, but very good at English. I was as a kid. So I don't want to blow your mind the amount out, but Gateways is for gifted children.

Yeah. Ah. So it's kind of... Is that why I've never heard of it? Yes, that is definitely why. That is why. So, yeah, I did one that was a Sherlock Holmes kind of themed one when I was about grade five.

Oh, what happened in the gateways there? I just remember, we looked at one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, The Hand of the Baskervilles in particular. So I remember a bit about that one. And that was also adapted to the Sherlock series. Oh, my God. I'm so excited. Okay, this is great.

Do you know much about the creator of the creator of it? of Sherlock Holmes. No, not a lot. Not a lot. Because I will say that Sherlock Holmes features heavily in this segment. I'm more focusing on,

do you know the name of the writer? I'm going to know what as soon as you say. Arthur Conan Doyle. Thank you. very excited about this. You know what's a great title? And that is Arthur Conan Doyle's full name, which is Arthur Ignatius. Conan Doyle.

Oh, shit. Yeah, you two with your shitty middle name, James. I know. Fuck off. Ignatius all the way. That is way better. Way better. Ignatious.

Well, Conan is also just his middle name. He just added that professionally when he became an adult. So his name's just Arthur Doyle. He's actually Arthur Doyle. So throughout school, he was Arthur Doyle. And then he added the Conan. Which I like. I like the Conan Doyle.

Yeah. Oh, it's much. It's catchy, isn't it? ACD. Conan Doyle. I enjoy that. Have you guys seen this movie called Shanghai Knights? It's with Owen Wilson.

And Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan. Have you saying that? Yeah, I have. I watched it on YouTube. That's how good quality this movie is. Because it's actually got the origin story of... What's this thing we're talking about?

Sherlock Holmes. It's got it in there. What's this thing we're talking? There's this guy character called Artie Doyle in it. Oh, really, they did one of those. And he's like the, he's like a detective. He's like from Scotland Yard. And he has this interesting way of solving crimes, you know,

but like he's able to figure it out off different clues and stuff, really think his way through it. And he's figured out this new way of solving crimes. And then during the movie, Owen Wilson uses a fake name because he's pretending he's royalty or something. And he sees some words on a, like a fire accident. or something that says Sherlock Holmes. So he uses that as his pretend name.

And then at the end of the movie, Artie decides to quit the police force. He says, I think I'm going to start writing some books. I hope you don't mind if I use your name Sherlock Holmes. Nice. At the end of the movie. Does he turn to the camera? Basically, winks at the camera. And then there's...

How recently did you watch this film? Because your recall is fantastic. I watched it like three weeks ago. Well, they're trying to open it up for a third movie. Is that what they were doing? I don't. Yeah, that's right. The next one is just about, well, the next one was Sherlock Holmes with Charlie Sching, Jr.

Of course, the one that we all remember. But they also, like, that wasn't enough for them. They also had this little kid who was sort of like, he was a bit of a scamp, and he sort of stole from Owen Wilson early in the movie. And then later on they were going to Hollywood, and they said to him, you could come along, but it's no place for a boy like you, Charlie Chaplin. and then he stowed away on their horse and cart and in the back and then he peaked out so the audience could see

and he'd got a little bit of soot on his upper lip to look like a Charlie Chaplin mustache. And that man went on to be Adolf Hitler. Yeah. They didn't say that exactly, but, you know, I think... It was implied. The subtext of such a deep film. So is that the... I mean, I don't want to steal your thunder.

Is that going to be a lot of what you're going to talk about? Arthur Conan Doyle was in no way a police officer. Really? No. Oh, that's weird. So they took a little bit of poetic. Croative license. Oh, dear.

Well, you could call it creative. You call it poetic. Can I call it a fairly shitty movie? There you go. All right. So we've got Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. The name was born on May the 22nd, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Scotland.

He's Scottish. There you go. Scotland Yard. Is that where he was born? Not in the yard. Well, he could have been bought it. There's no details of his birth. That hasn't specifically ruled out.

So let's just assume that that's... Anything I don't say, assume that's the truth. Okay. The Doyles, his family, were a prosperous Irish Catholic family. Charles Altamont Doyle, Arthur's father, was, according to Conan Doyle's official website, Arthur Conan Doyle.com, was, quote, A chronic alcoholic was a moderately successful artist

who, apart from fathering a brilliant son, never accomplished anything of note. Oh, that's a bit brutal. Feel the 150-year-old burn, Charles. What a smackdown. Absolutely smackdown. That's kind of like everyone, right? Like, no one really achieves anything of note.

No, but I did read somewhere else on the web that he used to steal money from his kids to, like pocket money to drink, and then if he couldn't afford alcohol, he would drink varnish and another quote, stumble around on the floor. So he doesn't sound like a great... Where else do you stumble around? I feel like, though, if you're going to... The floor was mentioned.

If you're going to be a good, a very famous writer, you should have an alcoholic father. Yeah, okay. I remember we talked about Mary Poppins and her dad was a chronic alcoholic as well? Yeah, he loved father. He loved it. Not Mary Poppins itself, but what's her name? P.L. Trembal. Pant old Pants Lady.

Pants Lady Trevins. We didn't make that joke at the time, didn't think so. That's very funny. That's very good. At the 8 of 22, Charles the alcoholic guy, he had married Mary Foley, who was only 17, and that's Arthur's mother. She was a gifted storyteller and often read to him growing up. And he thought that was a big influence on him becoming a writer later on. However, it wasn't an easy childhood.

As for them, there was little money in their family and even less harmony on account of his father's excessive and erratic behavior, probably induced by the varnish. Excessive behavior. Oh, yeah. I'm behaving excessively. Could you behave a little less, please? It's a little too much behaviour over there. Thank you. It's a seven-year-old telling their dad to calm down.

All right, dad. But after Arthur reached his ninth birthday, the wealthy members of his family, so if his uncle, stepped in and offered to pay for his studies. Arthur didn't want to leave his family. He was reportedly in tears all the way to England, where he spent seven years in a Jesuit boarding school. So there you go. But he loads the bigotry surrounding his studies

and rebelled at corporal punishments, which at the time were particularly brutal that were dished out to kids that were acting up and he was not into it at all. It's weird. That is weird. So weird. It's an odd ball. What a character. And it gets worse with this sentence.

During those grueling years, Arthur only seemed to have two moments of happiness. One was when he wrote letters to his mother. It was a regular habit that lasted for the rest of her life. Mummy's boy. He wrote over 1,500 letters to his mother. Jesus. Which is quite a lot. Imagine, though, if he lived in this day and age where you can text and call.

He'd be one of those guys constantly on the phone to his mummy. Oh, no, thank you. Excuse me, I've got to take this call. Hello, Mum. Yes, I'm doing well. He also practiced sports. He was very good at sports, mainly cricket, which he was also very talented. He discovered he was also a gifted storyteller and would tell our stories to entertain younger students.

He'd have big crowds gather around him, and he would sort of make stories up on the spot. What's that? like telling stories to crowds of people. Well, Matt and I wouldn't know, but you would. There you go. To crowds. Yeah, what did you have? 300 last night?

All right, Jess. No big deal. All right. He graduated in 1876 at the age of 17 and decided to add Conan to his full name, so that's when he started being Arthur Conan Doyle. But his first task as an adult was to sign his alcoholic father's

commitment papers to the asylum because he'd drunk himself into such disarray and illness that he had to spend the rest of his life in an asylum? First thing I did as an adult is registered a vote and get my driver's license. Oh, there you go. I'm yet to assign over my father to an asylum, but, you know, there's hope. What's his varnish drinking habit like? Not as bad as it's...

Not as bad. Not as bad as you would assume. Because you are a very good writer. You are. But you said before that you thought he might have been a detective. Jess, do you have any idea what career actually followed before he was around? An actor? Well, that's the only other.

I mean, he was an actor in the movie. No, I don't know. Well, Arthur decided to pursue it. Jim's mowing. Yeah, let's actually, let us have a guess. Can we have a clue and then some guess, we'll guess? I like guessing games. Oh, I don't want to, I'm trying to think of a clue.

That's not too give a, give a, give a, it's a... I wanted to say he was some sort of spy, but I'm thinking of... Factory worker? A very respected job? Banker. No, a banker. That's the... Respected.

Law? No. No, not lawyer. Oh, you said respected. Got him. Cop that. Certainly wasn't an accountant then. Fuck him.

Oh man, I can leave you brought that up in front of yourself. Respected. A teacher. No. Doctor. He was pursued a medical career. That's right. This decision was influenced by Dr. Brian Charles Waller, a young lodger his mother had taken in to make ends meet.

That kind of makes sense. sense because a lot of Sherlock Holmes's, like the clues that he picks up on are kind of scientific and chemistry. And isn't the other guy a doctor? Yeah, Watson's a doctor. Is he a medical doctor? Yes. Or does he got like a doctorate in podcast like you were going to get?

He's a medical doctor. He's a real doctor, unlike I was going to be. So Dr. Waller had the guy that lived with his mother for a bit, had trained at the University of Edinburgh and this is where Arthur was sent to carry out his medical studies. So we've moved back to Scotland now studying. The young medical student met a number of future world-famous Scottish authors who were also at the uni at the time, and he was friends with J.M. Barry, author of Peter Pan,

and Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So they're all probably the three most famous Scottish authors of the day all hanging out at the same uni. As soon as you said Robert Louis Stevenson, I'm going to regret saying this. I sung it in my head, and then I was like, what song is that from? And then I sang the rest of it, it's from a tripod song. Oh, that's why is that a regret? Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe.

Yeah. Edgar Allan Poe was a big influence on Sir Arthur Cohn Doyle. He's early writing. A couple of years into his studies at the age of 19, Arthur decided to try his pen at writing a short story. So it always been good at telling these stories, but he'd never written anything down before. The result entitled The Mystery of Cecilovalev was actually heavily compared to Edgar

Allen Poe at the time. I was accepted into an Edinburgh magazine called Chambers Journal, and he published one other story that year. It was sort of a slow start, but he's got his first sort of professional writing job. His first go at writing was published and well received. That's good. It's real good. And he was also a big adventurer.

And when he was 20 years old, in his third year of medical studies, he had a chance for adventure that knocked on his door. He was offered the post of a ship's surgeon on The Hope, which was a whaling boat, about to leave for the Arctic Circle. I didn't put together whaling like the animal. I put it together like, ah! We really need a search and everyone's really sick. Sorry. She wails. That boat.

She wails. She wails. So this boat went to the shores of Greenland where the crew proceeded to hunt for seals. The young medical student. It's funny, because when Dave said seals, I was thinking, like, you know, in Tupperware or something, hunting for the things that keeps freshness in, you know, like seals? That's what I was thinking. Isn't that funny?

I'm going to regret saying that. Yes, you are, because the next sentence was, the young medical student was appalled by the brutality of the exercise hunting for these plastic seals. Was that your Jess Perkins' impression? That was not a good one. I'm pretty good. I generally speaking, I'm a great mimic, but... I was a little off that time.

I'm going to regret saying this. It's really fun to talk like that. It's fun being me, baby. I'll ask you not to you because otherwise the listener will have trouble differentiating between the two of you. I was watching the words come of your mouth, and I was thinking, what is this trickery? It's clearly Jess Perkins' voice.

All right, fair enough. I'll keep that down. But apart from the brutality of the seal hunting, he really enjoyed the camaraderie on board the ship and the whale hunt and everything, all this life had seen, sort of fascinated him. And he was later quoted. He said, I went on board the whaler, a big straggling youth.

But I came off a powerful, well-grown man. Oh, okay. So he felt like the Arctic had another quote, Awakened the soul of a born wanderer. That's so wanky. Waken the soul of a born wanderer. That's him. Hmm.

But adventure and travel is a big part of his life throughout the rest of his day. But he returned his studies in 1880 at the age of 21. He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree, which is like four years and you become a surgeon. I know, say, it's pretty good. It's not like that anymore. It was like 15 years. Yeah.

And on the occasion of getting his Bachelor of Medicine, he drew a humorous sketch of himself receiving his diploma with the caption, Licensed to Kill. Ah, Bond. Bond. Bond, like 70 years before Bond. Pre-Bond. Pre-bonding.

Pre-bondage. Hmm. That's when you get the moisturiser out. Is that pre-bondage? Make sure your skin is all supple before you get the bondage happening. Hey guys, time for some bondage. Well, let's get the pre-bondage happening. Pass me the...

Get the moisturiser out. The salvaline. Is that a thing? Salvaline. That doesn't sound like a real thing. Salvaline sounds like something that Doyle's dad would drink. Yeah. It sounds pet peevaline.

natural base. Solvaline. Solvaline. Solvaline, you know what I mean. No, that's velvillin. Valvolene. I think you have sorbeline? Sorbeline.

Mixed with Vaseline. Vaseline. Yeah, yeah. That's what you use before. I bondage. Vass. I don't know what you did go. Pass me the vasso.

Pass me the vaso and the sorbo. That's what I say. About to get some bondo on. Someone said to me pass me the sorbo. Imagine that I was talking about sorbet. Saw bay. No, that's totally different. Pass me the sorbo.

bay. That's what I say. Bondage. Which one's bondage? Some of me get tied up. Tired up. What was the option? What was the other thing going through your mind? I thought it was maybe the thing where you get, like, whipped.

What's that one? Was that S&M? S&M. Symphony and Metallica. No. Correct. All right. Continuing his adventuring, Arthur Conan Dolly's first employment once graduating uni was as a medical officer on a steamboat called a mayumba. That's a steamboat impression.

That was really good. Thank you. It's a battered old vessel navigating between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, so he's adventuring again, but he did not like Africa as much as the Arctic, and when he returned, he decided that's enough for me. He started his own practice in Portsmouth. He rented a house, but he was only able to afford to furnish the two rooms his patients would see, so they'd come in and it would look really nice, but then behind that it was a complete

empty house. But he was compassionate and hardworking in his early days so that by the end of his third year, his practice started to gain him a comfortable income. So he was making good money as a doctor. And during the next year, the young man divided his time between trying to be a good doctor and struggling to become a recognized author.

So we had a taste of being published, and he really wants to pursue that as well. In August of 1885, he married a young woman called Louisa Hawkins. Louisa, or Tui, as she was nicknamed? Tui. Do we? Don't hate it.

Don't hate it. Don't hate it. You know I love nicknames. Yeah. Where do you reckon that comes from, Jess? Louisa. Uh, okay, so it's probably not from her name. It's probably like some drunken party story.

She drinks Tui's red. That's what it is. Good on her. You reckon that's what it is? Is that where you're going? Yeah, yeah. Classic English eightings. I thought it might have been that she, like, had two of everything.

Old Tui. Old Tui. The ways, he travels in pairs. Maybe she's only a two out of ten. Oh. Oh, two out of five. That's probably it. Oh, that's better. That's a twice as good.

Slightly better. That's a four out of ten. Yeah. What if she's a two out of two? Oh, that's real. Now you're getting a really good territory. Which is a ten out of ten. Yeah.

Ah, you are good at math. No wonder you've got into Pathways. 100 out of 100 gateways. Gateway's, sorry. A gateway to success. Passways is like a Christian thing, I think. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if that was secretly a Christian thing that we were doing.

Yeah, probably. Did you go to a Catholic school? No, did you? Yeah, I did. I was thinking maybe it was some sort of Catholic thing. They sneak you in that way. Anyway, he married the leader. With the fun of maths.

They get you in the back door. To tempt you with the devil's numbers. Oh, imagine maths. It served me well. Tui was the sister of one of his patients that he had failed to save. Oh, Jesus. So he married her. Oh, fuck out.

Yeah, it's bad. That's taken your guilt to another level. And he did feel guilty that he was not able to save her brother. Brutal. Surprisingly, instead of going on a honeymoon with his young wife, he went on a tour of Ireland with the Stonyhurst Wanderers,

the school's old boys cricket team. So there you go. Sure. So, hey, look, I'll marry you and look after you, but I'm not going to honeymoon. I'm going on a boy's trip. Yeah. To Ireland.

Four years later, Arthur and Tui had their first child, Mary, and in 18902, their second child. Arthur. Wasn't his mother's name Mary? I think you're thinking of Jesus. It was Mary. I'm always thinking about it. named after his mother, that's right.

That's nice. And then they had another child called Arthur, who was nicknamed Kingsley. Oh. Oh, what? Because it was like Arthur Jr. Yes, so he gave him a different name. Kingsley. That's a bit cute.

Better name for a dog than a child. Why not just name him Kingsley? Yeah, that's a good point. Dave. Look, I'm not the man, the myth, the legend, that is Arthur Conan Doyle. Good point. That is very good point. I hadn't considered that.

I'm sorry, Dave. Thank you. Thank you. much. In March 1886, at the age of 27, Conan Doyle started writing the novel which catapulted him to fame. At first, it was named a tangled Skine, S-K-E-I-N, and the two-man characters were going to be called Sheridan Hope, Sherlock Holmes, and an Ormond Sacker. Horrible. For Dr. John Watson.

That does sound like, that's a random letter, jumble. Tui, think of a word. Sacker, perfect, it's in. It's in. I love you. It took a couple of years, but I love you. You're so good to me. God, I love you. I'm sorry, I killed your brother.

I'm sorry, I went on the cricket team. Wait, I said too much. Sorry, I didn't save your brother. Fuck, shit. Anyway, a cup of tea, or I'll get it. You sit down, you look comfy. Anyway, love you. It took two years.

Two years later, this novel was published in Beaton's Christmas annual, which is sort of a magazine type thing. That's where a bunch of stuff was published in those days in serialized form. under the title A Study in Scarlet which introduces us to the immortal now named Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson

so that was the first time he went with those names the first time He's an immortal is he Like a vampire I wouldn't be surprised If there is fan fiction Where he is a vampire Did you know that?

Who? Sherlock or? Yeah Sherlock Holmes Is immortal They've just said The Immortal Sherlock Holmes I was still talking about 130 years later Doyle was paid 25 pounds or about 5,000 US dollars in 2015 money for all the rights to the story.

But Conan Doyle wasn't even that impressed with his own work. He must preferred his next novel, Micah Clark, which have you heard of that? No. Which though well received, is now almost forgotten. There you go. This marked the start of a serious dichotomy in the author's life. There was Sherlock Holmes, who very quickly became world famous in stories its author considered at best commercial. and there are a number of serious historical novels, poems and plays

and even our sort of non-fiction stuff for which he expected to be recognised as a serious author but no one ever cared about as much as Sherlock Holmes. So the first home story, we'll say, was well received but it didn't make him that famous straight off the bat. That was nearly it for the character. He wasn't going to write another story, but in August of 1889, a guy called Joseph Marshall Stottet,

who's a managing editor of a successful magazine in Philadelphia, He came to London to organise a British edition of his magazine. He wanted some local writers to write for the magazine. He invited Conan Doyle for dinner in London at the Elegant Langham Hotel, which was later mentioned in a lot of Sherlock Holmes novels. The other writer he invited to the dinner party was the already famous Oscar Wilde. Ooh, I've heard of him. Heard of Oscar Wilde.

Physically, the men could not have been more opposite. Oscar Wild appeared to be a quote, Langdress Dandy. So he was a big guy. Whereas Conan Doyle, another quote, this is from his direct, his website,

which I'd be pissed if he said this 130 years after I'd, this happened to me. In spite of his best suit looked somewhat like a walrus in Sunday clothes. Sweet Jesus. You didn't have to mention his looks.

He's got like, if you see photos, I mean, he's got a big walrus style mustache. Oh, that's all right then. So despite being very opposite men, though,

Arthur and Oscar Wilde got on very faint. famously. And as a result of this dinner, Stodd up the magazine guide commissioned Doyle to write another Sherlock Holmes story, and he got wild to write his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oh. Which is a very famous work. So this dinner was very significant to 19th century literature.

The next book that Holmes was featured in was called The Sign of Four and elevated the popularity of the character. So now it's becoming world famous. In spite of his literary success, his medical practice, which was flourishing and doing quite well, and a harmonious family life with his kids, Doyle was very restless. So he decided, because he always won a bit of adventure, he decided to move to Vienna,

where he wanted to become an ophthalmologist. Oh, yeah. We've all, you know, we've all been there. That classic midlife crisis. Yeah, I had it early. I had it in my teens. I'm like, I went ophthalmology mad. I was like, I just ophthalmologized everything.

My whole bedroom was basically an ophthalmologist clinic. Do you know what an ophthalmologist does, Matt? No idea. You don't know, do you? It's an eye man. He became an eye man. I was an eye man. I was an eye man.

Yeah, right. But you didn't like living there, as you found Matt, after your rebellious teenage years, after you tore down those posters of eye diseases all around the wall. You replaced them with tism. Pism, yeah. Tism back up again. Of course, you are quite...

I mean, in the end, maybe that's why I like Tism so much, because all you can see is their eyes. They wear... They wear masks. And you're an eye man. And I'm an eye man. I've always been an eye man. What color in my eyes?

Blue. I'm going to say blue. Blue, green. Green. Yes. Fuck, I thought it was a 50-50 question. Then you threw green into the works. Well, you think there's only blue and brown options.

Yeah, I forgot about green. It's a bluey green. It's a bluey green. I'm also wearing blue, which makes them look bluer. This can all get cut. Dave's got beautiful baby blues. Beautiful baby blues. You've got good eyes too.

You got beautiful blue eyes. My eyes are my best thing. Physically. Physically. You know, outside, if you were going to count other than metaphysical stuff, then it'd be like, you know, second or third. What's number one? My Brian. Name a metaphysical thing and I'll tell you.

Have you got toes that do strange things? Yes, I do. I had a sneaking suspicion. Doyle didn't like being an ophthalmologist. We didn't like living in Vienna overseas. He didn't like it there. So he returned to England to be an ophthalmologist on his own account. were according to his own biography,

not a single patient ever came through his doors. We set up to practice to be an eye man. No one ever came in, which as an eye doctor, he was very unpopular. But that gave him a lot of time to write because he could write all day long. No one. I've been setting up a business and no one ever comes in.

Yeah, no one bothers you. That's great. That sounds so good. You probably get so much work done without any work to do. It'd be great. Bloody hell. The dream. What a, like, that seems crazy.

An eye doctor. And also, he's quite a famous. author at this time, we will say, no one ever decides to visit or bother. Maybe it's too intimidating. Yeah. That does sound very weird. I mean, maybe people like, I'm a fan of your little books, mate, but I'm not going to trust you with my eyes.

I need them to see. He began writing short stories about Holmes in this now abundant extra time that he has, and they were published in the Strand magazine, which is very, very popular, these short stories. This collaboration lasted for decades and was instrumental in making the author. the magazine and the artist world famous. After nearly dying from the flu in 1891, Doyle decided that he'd been foolish to try and balance

a medical and writing career and gave up medicine for good. Wow. I'm going to be a writer now, even though he'd already been a writer because no one came to his doctor's practice. So yeah, when he... It's weird that he gave up medicine after he totally failed at it. No, yeah, it's not for me.

I think the people decided that, mate, already. Yeah, when no one knocked on your door in... It's like someone going... You don't fire me. I quit. Yeah, I think we fired you, buddy. Jog on. Jog on.

Usually it would be the other way around there, wouldn't it? You'd try your hand of being an author and then you're like, well, I've got to get a day job. But he quit the day job to do the very creative. That would very rarely happen. That you get rejected for something you've trained at university for four years. He's telling his parents. And like a well-sought-after career, too. I just want to be a doctor.

No one wants me. I'll have to be a world-famous, really rich. His parents like, look, we support you and your little doctor folly idea, but we want you to have a sensible backup plan being a world famous fiction writer. Come on, just create some sort of literary detective. Yeah. That's all I are. Just have a back.

Come on, have a backup. That for us. We just want a safety. Hey, you probably won't need it. You'll probably be really successful. But, you know, only one in one thousand doctors become wealthy from their profession. Look at the stats. Writers, that's a surefire thing.

Everyone needs a writer. Yeah. Everyone. See, I get what you were doing there because it's... It's the opposite of that. Yeah. We actually, the doctors have well sought after because everybody at some point in their life needs a doctor. Whereas writers, there's lots of those and not all of them are good.

Well, that's it. Yeah, I didn't really go. I knew it felt funny, but I wasn't sure why, so I appreciate you. Yeah, yeah, that's quite funny. Filling me in. Thank you. Thanks, Jess. I appreciate it too.

Good comedy. All right, let's talk about. Sherlock Holmes, who's created him, he's had him in two novels and started doing in short stories. Sherlock Holmes is known as a consulting detective, that's his title in these stories, and he was based upon Doyle's medical lecturer. So it was good that he went to university, otherwise he wouldn't have thought of it, a guy called Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell had amazing observational skills, and as well as being a great doctor,

he prided himself on being able to not only diagnose a man or woman's illness just by looking at them, but he'd also tell their nationality and the job they did. just from looking at them. Wow. Which, admittedly, in some cases, it's much easier than others. If you're coming in, you're dressed as the milkman, you're like, probably milkman. I've got a sneaking suspicion that you are a police officer.

Trying to trick me, I'm Joseph Bell. Or if you come in dresses and eye doctor, you're like, famous author. Famous, exactly. No one's seen you in years. But then Bell would later write to Doyle saying, you yourself are Sherlock Holmes, and you well know it. That's kind of beautiful. We put that back on him, saying,

there's just as much of you in there as there is as me. I think that's lovely. Doyle would say that detective stories at the time in the 1880s relied on chance to solve crimes, and this really pissed him off because often they'd come across a clue or take a chance. And he wanted reasoning and the observation that Dr. Joseph Bell used on his patients to be applied

to solving crimes and mysteries. And obviously, that's a staple 130 years later, but at the time, that wasn't being done. The books placed Sherlock Holmes' birth in the year 1854, which makes him five years older than Doyle himself. And Holmes first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate. His earliest cases, he pursued as an amateur,

came from fellow university students. That's really got his skills. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession, and he spent six years after university as a consultant before financial difficulties led him to accept A little old man called Dr. John H. Watson as a fellow lodger in his famous address. Hamish. Ah, I was going to ask if you knew.

Is that right? I think it's actually Horatio. It's Hamish. Horatio is a fantastic name. But it's Hamish. Hammer. And do you know... Hamer time.

Do you know their famous address where they shared a flat? 221B Baker Street, Bay. That is correct. 133 Porte Road East Bentley. Is that your child at home? No. It's a fictional address. It's actually in Bentley.

No, it's not in Bentley. It's 221B Baker Street, London, that's right. B Baker Street, like Humphrey B. Bair Baker Street. No, 221B. B Baker Street. What's the B stand for? B. Like flat B.

Barry Baker? Yes. Barry Baker Street, London. That's right. Okay. Okay. This is when the first public story, a study in Scarlet begins. So I don't know if you've seen the first episode of Sherlock, the BBC TV series,

which I think you have. Yeah, I have. No, I haven't. It also starts with them moving in together as the novel does. And it's bloody great. Should I watch it? Actually, the writers of the BBC series Sherlock, one of whom plays Mycroft. The writers of that series are very big Sherlock Holmes fans,

obviously, because they wrote a series about it. But I mean, like, they wanted to really do it justice. So the series is actually very close to the books, or it's a really good adaptation. It's just a great series. You're a big fan of that little, that little known series that you're really championing there. It's really good. In the books, Holmes works as a detective for 23 years with physician John Watson

assisting him for 17 of those years. And all but four of Doyle's 60-odd stories are narrated and told from the perspective of Dr. John Watson. So Watson's pretty much Holmes' biographer in the books. And in the series, John Watson has a blog about their... Oh, so it's set in the modern time. Yeah, it's it in the modern time. And he has a blog about it, so it started from his perspective as well. It's very clever.

But you said not all of them. Who did the other ones? Who narrated the others? There's a couple told from Holmes's perspective. Just to mix things up a little bit. Was it totally different, the writing style and stuff in those ones? Well, yeah, the perspective's completely different. He's more, he's crazy, right?

He's a drunk. What's the first person more than a third person? He's not a drunk. Well, I will. Let's get into this. Watson describes Holmes as a bohemian in his habits and lifestyle. Of course, Holmes is famous for smoking a pipe. But he occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially in the absence of stimulating cases,

because he wants to keep his mind going. He uses cocaine and morphine. He injects them both, which were both legal in London at the time. I haven't seen all of the BBC show. Does he use any syringes? No, I don't think he does in the BBC one. In the American one, Elementary, he is... recovering addict.

And that's how Watson, Joan Watson, Lucy Lou, comes into his life because she's, he's, like, sponsor. So she's, like, there to make sure that he doesn't, you know, go back to the drugs, but then sort of helps him in his crime solving. I already dislike that plot.

That sounds like, they've just tried to... Because they've got a woman in there? In the BBC one, I don't think there's... It just sounds like the carer thing. Yeah. But in the BBC one, I think they allude to the fact that he may have... you know,

being susceptible to that sort of thing in the past, but I don't think he uses it at all. Right, well, he does a little bit in the books, and so he's obviously struggling financially, that's why he gets to Watson in the first place. But he, by the end of his career, he's worked for a lot of powerful people, including the monarchs of Europe,

and so he's quite wealthy when you retirees because he's been paid a lot of money. Holmes has many skills and uses amazing disguises to conceal his identity. He's a great actor as well. and we'll what's in first describe Holmes' skill in the first novelist study in Scarlet

and he actually has a list of of these things he has a his knowledge of literature is nil knowledge of philosophy nil knowledge of astronomy nil

knowledge of politics feeble knowledge of botany variable but good when it comes to opium knowledge of geology practical but limited tells at a glance different soils from each other.

Getting better. Knowledge of chemistry, profound. There we go. He's very good to chemistry. Knowledge of anatomy, accurate but unsystematic. I guess that... That's coming from a doctor. Dramatic.

Are you just saying words that rhyme with words now? I'm feeling a bit weird. Knowledge of sensational literature, immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetuated in the century. That's all right. Into some pretty graphic stuff. plays the violin well. He does, yep.

He's an expert boxer and swordsman. Very much depicted in the... Brogdena Jr. He also fights with a walking stick a few times in the books. He has a good practical knowledge of British law.

There you go, number 11, just to make sure that he is... I mean, why did he go through those things at the start that he had no knowledge of? Just to give you an idea for this character. Like, he is not interested

in anything that isn't relevant to... Right. Yeah, so he's... But it's like it's one of those people... It's one of those people that's like a genius when it comes to some things. AFL football, nil. Like, why didn't he mention, uh, like you mentioned botany? Why didn't he mention, you know, like, uh, biology?

Oh, biology wasn't around in the 1800s. Well, great. Don't get sassy with me. I'll sass if I want a sass. Matt. I'm from sassafras. When it comes to Matt, number one, sass immense. I was wondering, um, does he have like, because he's sort of like a,

a weird old school superhero, right? Sort of. Yeah, I guess so, yeah. Does he have like an arch nemesis? Oh, definitely. And I'm about to talk about it. It's his arch nemesis, like, it's something like Rick Moraitis, right? His name is Professor Moriarty.

Yes, I knew it. So back in the real world, Arthur Conan Doyle is, he's bored of Sherlock Holmes, and a few times he toys with the idea of killing off the character, but his mother sends letters saying, don't do that, all of England will crack it hard.

And he says, all right, I want to kill him. But in 1893, he's very, very impulsive, Arthur Conan Doyle. He decides to kill off Sherlock Holmes just two years after becoming a professional writer. So not very long. And now it's a world-famous character. In the short story, The Final Problem, published in December 1893, Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, plunged to their deaths at the Rikenbach Falls in Switzerland,

which is a real place that Doyle had visited. And as a result, there was a big outcry. 20,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions to the Strand magazine. Oh, shit. So big financial repercussions for the magazine especially. That is amazing. But Doyle was happy, now freed from his medical career, and from fictional character that oppressed him

and overshadowed what he considered to be his final work. He amends himself in even more intensive activity. So he started writing heaps and heaps and heaps. This frenzied life may have explained why the former physician didn't notice the serious deterioration of his wife's health. Oh. That's very good. By the time he finally became aware of how sick she was, Tui was diagnosed with tuberculosis. No, Tui.

She was only given a few months to live, but Doyle sprang into action, and due to his care, she was able to live for many more years. So he moved around to different climates, which sounds really good. But writing incessantly, looking after Louisa, no longer a wife, but now a patient. and then losing his father who finally died in the sanatorium, deeply troubled Conan Doyle. It may have been his resulting depression, which caused him to become more and more fascinated by, quote, life beyond the veil.

He had long been attracted to spiritualism, but when he joined the Society of Physical Research, it was considered to be a public declaration of his interests and his belief in the occult. More on that later. More on that later. Bit of sizzle. That is good sizzle.

But so he's now looking after his wife, but his marriage isn't going so well. It's widely debated as to whether he acted on his feelings, but Doyle fell in love with another woman. A lady called Jean Lecky shortly before his wife's death. But Tooie's not well, don't be that guy. And Gene Lecky's 14 years, he's junior. During that same time, Conan Doyle wrote a play about Sherlock Holmes's he wanted to shore up his bank account, so to speak. He was struggling a little bit for money. The play opened in London was critically panned, but it was a huge.

financial success, so he's got some more money rolling in. Sweet. Then in 1899, the Boer War started in Southern Africa and he had declared to his horrified family that he was going to go and volunteer. Having written about many battles without the opportunity to test his skills as a soldier in his own eyes, he wanted to prove himself, he felt that this would be his last opportunity to do so. But not surprisingly, being somewhat overweight and at the age of 40 he was deemed unfit to enlist.

Huh, funny that. Instead, he volunteered as a ship's doctor and sailed to Africa. So we really wanted to get there. During the few months he spent in Africa, he saw more soldiers and medical staff die of typhoid fever than of war wounds. So, yeah, he was made a knight for his work on a non-fiction pamphlet regarding the Boer War. He was made a knight. So you know how he's called Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

It's not because of Sherlock Holmes. It's because of a pamphlet. Because of a pamphlet he made on the Boer War. What the fuck? Well, it's all, like, the whole night system's a load of shit, right? We've talked about this in the past, I think. Like, it's like, um, a lot of musicians and stuff are, they've knighted for their charity work. Yeah, but it's really because they're the Beatles or whatever, right?

I think that this is a similar case. This must be a really amazing pamphlet. Oh, yeah, yeah, he had some sweet clip art on there. I was going to say, there's a picture. Wow. Well, the prince who knighted him was rumoured at the time had knighted him because, it was rumoured that he was a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and he hoped that by knighting him that he would inspire him to write more Sherlock Holmes stories.

Why not just say, hey, can you write some more Sherlock Holmes stories? It's me, a member of the royal family, do it. I'll night you if you do. Not united anyway, hopefully you'd do it just in case. Yeah. Doyle returned to England and didn't start writing in. He ran for Parliament. Oh my God.

But he was not elected. This guy would be so frustrating to be friends with all married to. Why doesn't he have a bio? pick. Sounds like a great movie. He sounds exhausting. He definitely is. He sounds like Forrest Gump or something.

He's done a bit of everything. Although Forrest Gump is lovable. Yeah, and he did well. In 1901 after an eight-year hiatus, Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back in the novel, The Hound of the Buscavilles.

And it was a massive success. But in his personal life, writing, looking after Louisa, seeing Jean Lecky, the other lady, as discreetly as possible, playing golf, driving fast cars, floating in the sky in hot air balloons, flying in

early archaic and rather frightening aeroplanes, spending time on muscle development, as bodybuilding used to be called at the time. Muscle development. Doyle was active, but not really contented. I was surprised when we said fast cars.

I didn't realize fast cars were around. Well, he was, without ever having driven one before, because he was quite wealthy at the time, he's one of the first people in England to ever buy a car. Wow, that's amazing. Just because he had money that splashed around. And he competed in a couple of rallies as well, really early on, like in 1911, really early on.

Yeah, it's sick, I guess. But it's not enough for him. He's lingering deep desire for public service made him go for a second attempt at politics in 1906. But even despite his fame, he lost the election once more. Geez, they don't like anything about him apart from one of his characters. Like, come on, just keep doing Sherlock. It's all we want. The character he doesn't like,

It's the only thing anyone likes of it. That would be so frustrating. It would be hard. Especially, yeah, and also you're, that's the thing that's paying for all your other stuff as well. Yeah, so you've got to keep doing it. Keep doing it to pay for your adventures. After Louisa died in his arms on the 4th of July 1906,

Doyle slipped in a debilitating state of depression lasting many months. But finally, after nine years of a secret courtship, Doyle married Gene Lecky, very publicly in front of 250 guests, a year later in 1907. They had three children adding to his two from his first marriage. So five children all up.

Then the First World War broke out in 1914 and being the adventurer he offered to enlist but being 55 years old at this time he was too old. That's my fucking year. You were too old at 40. No, and it was 15 years and he's like, I'll do it. He got married in his mid to late 40s, remarried, and then had three more kids.

Yeah. What a lie. I know, he's always going. He was told to me that he was too old, but when the Navy lost more than a thousand lives in a single day, his brilliant mind, never at rest, Doyle made suggestions to the War Office to provide inflatable rubber belts and inflatable lifeboats,

which subsequently saved a lot of people in the war. What the fuck? He invented those? Well, he suggested that they would really help out. Most government officials found him irritating at best. One of the exceptions was Winston Churchill. who wrote back to him and thanked him for his ideas. Far out.

I find him irritating. You find him irritating? He's just annoying. He does feel like an annoying. He's a mama's boy. Oh, he's a mama's boy. Imagine though, if you're sort of in a circle of friends that he's kind of a part of. And you're like having a nice party at somebody's house.

And then he turns up, you're like, fucking daughter's here. He's one that comes along as a package deal. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, oh. I hate this package deal, guys. I just wanted Oscar Wild to come and he bought his mate. Yeah, hey, Arthur, good to see you, man. Okay, you're talking.

You're already talking. Kind of like this podcast and me. Well, I'm a fan of the guy. I think he's just got a thirst for life, which he showed again when he was writing a book which was going to be called the British Campaign in France and Flanders about World War I. He was given permission to visit the British and French fronts in 1916, and the author was never able to forget the horrors of what he saw. So he went to war, but he just wasn't shooting. As I mentioned earlier, following the death of his wife in 1906,

and then the death of his son Kingsley, during the First World War, who'd been part of it, and then developed an illness and died. Oh, no. And the deaths of his brothers, his two brothers-in-laws and his two nephews. Oh, geez. A lot of people, sadly in England, a lot of people, young men died in the First World War, obviously.

He sank into a deep depression. He found solace supporting spiritualism and its attempts to find proof. of existence beyond the grave and it became obsessed with it. So I said more on the occult, and here it is. Whilst researching the topic of fairies, he came across some pictures belonging to a family in Cottingley, which is in rural Yorkshire,

which are known to history as the Cottingley Fairies. These images seem to show several small fairies dancing in the presence of two teenage girls. Conan Doyle championed the photos as evidence that fairies existed and eventually included them in a 1922 book, The Coming of Fairies. Is it porn?

Possible. Decades later, the two girls in the photos admitted that they were obviously fake, but Doyle at the time was obsessed with it. He spent close to a million dollars. Sorry? A million dollars promoting the book, The Coming of Fairies, to try and prove that fairies existed. Oh, my God.

It sounds, so the girls in the photos were like, Nah. They're like, oh man, like, we thought it was a bit of fun. I feel so bad. We really didn't think anyone was actually going to, oh my God. Take this seriously. No, it's clearly. Another guy that invented Sherlock Holmes spent a million dollars.

I can't say that it's fake. He's exhausting. Absolutely. Fairies. What a time to be alive where you could believe that fairies were real. Or was it seen as been a bit? It was seen a bit, but some people were really interested. in proving that existed.

This is only the 1920, so in a century that we have all been alive in. It's not that, it's not like it's 2,000 years ago when people haven't seen anything. That's amazing. I can't believe.

This is like a medical man, very famous. He's intelligent. Really intelligent. In some ways. Also very dumb. But I know people like that. Very dumb.

In 1919, a magician who was famous at the time stayed to seance at Doyle's flat in Bloomsbury. Doyle attended the same. seance in his flat, obviously, and declared the clairvoyance to be genuine. Doyle was friends for a time also with Harry Houdini, I'm sure you've heard of the American magician, who was the most famous magician probably ever, who himself became a prominent opponent of the spiritualist movement. He would obviously do these magic tricks, but then he would say,

hey, it's all a trick, and anyone who says that it's not a trick is a liar. Wow. Although Houdini insisted that spiritualist mediums employed trickery and constantly expose people as frauds, because he's a magician. edition, he would explain how they were doing it. Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers and was hiding something. Houdini performed an impressive trick at Doyle's home. Houdini assured Doyle that the trick was pure illusion, and that he was trying to prove a point to Doyle not endorsing the phenomenon.

He was saying, hey, I'm doing this to prove to you that it's fake. But Doyle refused to believe that it was a trick, and the two very publicly fell out with each other. Oh, God. So, Doyle was like, no, you're lying, mate. You are hiding magic for me. So he's a bit not quite right. Well, I think... That took you way too long to say.

He's had a lot of death in his family, and I think it's sort of sort of sending him. Don't stand up for him. He's an idiot. Well, I think he's to sort of... No, I've turned on him, he's an idiot. Lost it a little bit. Yeah, don't turn. I've turned.

That's not like you. Doyle continually praised and championed famous mystics who were repeatedly exposed or publicly admitted that they were frauds. So his image is not looking too good because he keeps saying, no, Matt Stewart, he's definitely magical and then you come out two weeks later and say, no, I'm not. It was just a trick. It's a trick. It's just a show. It's a trick. That's what he would say, though, isn't it? He doesn't want you all to know. Exactly.

That's sort of the attitude he had towards Houdini here. After 1918, because of his deepening involvement into the occult, Conan Doyle wrote very little fiction, writing arduously about spiritualism. instead. So he was a hard worker he would write dozens of books about spiritualism. Subsequent trips to America, Australia and to Africa accompanied by his wife and three

children were also on spiritual crusades and to give public talks. Oh boy. On spiritualism. He's become the worst. As years went by, having spent millions of dollars or millions

of pounds in the pursuit of his dreams, Conan Doyle was faced with the necessity to earn more money. He published books about his other famous character. Have you heard of Professor Challenger? No. This is a famous novel called The Lost World. I do know, I recognise the Lost World.

But not from Jurassic Park. Oh, that's what I was thinking. He wrote 12 more short Sherlock home stories. He wrote 12 more short Sherlock home stories in the 1920s for more money. But people increasingly talked about how they were not as good as they used to be. And he would publicly say, publicly say, Hey, when I first started doing this, no one knew the kind of character he was, and now people started guessing the endings and stuff,

because once you've written 60 short stories, it's sort of hard to keep thinking you've twists. Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930. He was holding a flower all the time. What kind of flower? I'm afraid I don't know. Sunflower. Let's go with sunflower.

He collapsed in his garden, clutching his heart with one hand and holding a flower in the other. His last words do were his wife. He whispered to her, you are wonderful. Great final line off. That is a lovely laugh. It's bloody, bloody nice. Now I'm back on board.

He's great. And this is how I came onto the topic. And I can't confirm nor deny this. But I remember my family went to England when I was about 11. Did you do this also, Jess? Because we apparently go on the same holiday. No, I had to wait until I was 23 and purchased my own ticket. Oh, they're good.

No, well, I was very fortunate enough to have a family holiday paid for by my mum's uncle died and left money. and he always loved travel and he left money saying, go travelling. Spend this on travel. That's lovely. Yeah, that's nice. And we went to, we saw where Sherlock, I mean, Arthur Cohn, Lord, pardon me, he was confused with Sherlock Holmes throughout his whole life

and that pissed him off to great, to great extent. And we saw the grave where Conan Doyle was buried, which is very exciting for my mum, my mum, who's a big mystery fan, and her father also a big, big mystery fan. But at the time, I remember there was a tour guide and they told us that there's this big rumor that because of his spiritualism, he was actually buried vertically standing up rather than lying down.

I couldn't find any way, there's rumors online, but I couldn't find any way that confirmed nor deny that. That's so weird. What does that do for? Just better feng shui. I don't know. Maybe you'll come back to life or something. I don't know.

I just always remember that, and I always thought that was quite strange, and that's sort of what got me onto the topic, because I remember that he went up a little bit crazy later in life, So I just wanted to research that. And we come to the end of the show with some fun facts. Yay! You don't always do fun facts. I know, but there's a real treat.

There's a few here. First of all, we'll do some Doyle fun facts and then some Sherlock Holmes fun fact. Great. The ones about Arthur Conan Doyle was that he was very into sport as well as his adventuring. So we have some sporting fun facts about Arthur Conan Doyle. Because he was a sporting pioneer. He was first as a motorist. I reported before that he bought a car before he could even.

and drive. And that rally I talked before 1911, he went on the Prince Henry Tour, an international road competition, organised by then Prince Henry of Prussia to pit English cars against German ones. So there you go. He did a lot of, he entered a rally before he could even drive. Conan Doyle was also on a famous cricket team with some other famous people. Peter Panrata J.M. Barry was on the cricket team.

Winnie the Pooh creator, A.A. Mill. Oh, cool. So he also took a first-class wicket as a bowler, and the scalp of none other than a, which is a very famous cricketer, W.G. Grace. Do you know who that is? Do you know who that is? Legendary cricketer. He bowled him out in a first-class match. That's ridiculous.

So he's really good. Under-ace, the pseudonym AC Smith, the writer played as a goalkeeper for an amateur football side, Portsmouth Association Football Club, a precursor to the modern Portsmouth FC. I've seen them play live. There you go, so he was on a very early version of their team. Really?

God, he's a busy guy. He popularized skiing in Europe. Okay, see this is what people got done pre the internet You know, like they just did shit with their days This guy sounds like the most ridiculous bullshit person ever I don't believe in him He's not real He's more fictional than Cheryl Ocone

He moved to Switzerland in 1893 Like did you say invented schemes No, he didn't even He'd be it popularised it amongst He invented the moon I'm drawing a line there He moved to Switzerland 1893 The mountain air was good for his wife

To his health Sure He mastered the basics of skiing With the help of some locals Who had taken up to practicing the sport After dark To avoid To avoid being teased by the townsfolk

Who made fun of them What? Doyle was the first Englishman To document the thrill of skiing He wrote You Let Yourself Go Getting as near to flying as in any earthbound man can.

In that glorious air, it is a delightful experience. Doyle correctly predicted that in the future, hundreds of Englishmen would come to Switzerland for the skiing season, which they now do. Wow. There go. He invented skiing. He practically invented skiing among English people.

All right, then we have Sherlock Holmes Fun Facts. Yes. Let's see how many of them I know. So there was four novels in 56. 56. 506. Yes, I am Sean Connery. And Cohn and Doyle.

He wrote four novels and 56 short stories starring Sherlock Holmes. That's a lot. These are the more fun facts. Sherlock Holmes Museum is actually on Baker Street in London, and it is officially listed as 221B Baker Street. So if you write a letter, it will go there. But it is, in fact, 239 Baker Street. Disappointing.

Because that's the building they could get, but then the mail people, because it's such a tourist attraction, change the address. So if you go there, it's 237, 221. 239. It's very very confusing. But when Doyle chose the address, 221 didn't even exist at the time. So he created it as a fictional address. He just chose a number out of thin air.

Imagine if it was just 221 Baker Street. It really needs the B. The B sounds cool, doesn't it? 221B. Even though that obviously means it's like what a sublet. Yeah. And it is. They've got Mrs. Hudson downstairs. She's delightful. That is true.

Shillac Holmes is never described as wearing a Deer Stalker Hat, even though you all know him as a deer stalker. He was described as wearing a hat, but he's pictured in official illustrations that would go on the magazines and stuff with the deer stalker, so that's where that image came from. But speaking of the images, Sidney Padgett drew most of the illustrations of Holmes

that accompanied the short stories that Holmes appeared in, so he'd go on the magazine that have a picture of him. But Sidney got the job by chance. Doyle sent a letter to his brother Walter, who was also an artist, asking him to do the illustration. Sydney opened the letter by mistake, but still took the commission. Nice.

And to make things worse, he based his illustrations on his brother Walter. Oh, brutal. So he stole his job, then drew his brother. Not nice. Holmes often said in the books, Elementary and My Dear Watson, but never elementary, my dear Watson together. Ah. There you go.

Sherlock Holmes used fingerprints to identify an assailant before any real police force in the world did. Oh, that's cool. Apparently not. Look at Matt's face. Not impressed at all. It's very cool. He practically invented fingerprints, man. No, that's very cool. All the kids are doing it now.

Guinness World Records list Sherlock Holmes as the most portrayed movie character in history. I thought it's just like when he said most betrayed. I was like, well, okay. Portrait. Portrait. Do enunciate. As of 2012,

Sherlock Holmes has appeared in 254 films. I'm going to read a list to round things off of people that have played Shula Crimes, and it's quite the list. Obviously, we have Charlie Sheen Jr. Yes. Also known as Robert Danny Jr. We have Robert Danny Jr. He also played Charlie Chaplin. He did too.

There you go. That is true. Benedict Cumberbatch, of course. Ian McAllen's had a go. Of course he has. He'd be great. Michael Kane has had it. Oh, no.

I don't know how to think about that. Hello. The Lamborghini, Dan. Elementary, my dear. You're only meant to blow the bloody doze off. Michael Kay. He does quotes from his other movies. All right, Batman.

All right, Master Wayne. Master Wayne. Also, having you go, imagine these people. We've got Christopher Lee. Oh. We're good. Roger Moore. Oh, so.

Okay, yep. John Cleese. Oh, no. Dr. Who's Tom Bow. Baker, Christopher Plummer. Baker Street. Comedian David Mitchell. Australian Richard.

Yeah, David Mitchell. He'd be a pretty good one. Oh, okay. Still sketch. Same with John Cleese then? Or was he on stage? He was in like a mini-movie thing, yeah. A mini-movie?

Australian Richard Roxburgh. Oh, yeah, he'd be good. Peter O. You guys watch Rake? Yeah, the Rake guy, that's right. I love Rake. I can love it. He was a great, Sherlock.

Peter O'Toole. Peter Cook, the very famous community. Orson Wells And my favourite I thought most surprising Leonard Nimoy Was it in space? Sherlock in space.

It was called Sherlock in space I found that very amazing to imagine Leonard Nimoy So that is the end of my episode on Arthur Conan Doyle Raconteur, adventurer, skier Spiritualist, writer Philanderer possibly

I-Man Did you say that? Iman, of course It's the most famous role I and man, obviously, also played by Charlie Shane Jr. It all comes together. It all comes together. So there you go.

That is him and Sherlock Holmes. That was great, Dave. Real good. As always, because you do the best ones, even though you're not the best person. Well, thank you very much. I hope that was okay. Yeah, I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes is just cool. Yeah.

It's just a cool. Well, I'm going to have to, is it going to be too much of a commitment for me to start watching the TV show? No, not at all. It's amazing. No, because there's not that many of them. I mean, they're long. Well, they're like movie-length episodes, but there's only three episodes a season. Oh, okay.

I could do that. How many seasons? Three. Oh, three? Sweet. And also that extra movie that I haven't seen that they did. I haven't seen that either. I think there's a fourth.

But yeah. Brilliant. Right. Yeah, it's really great. And Martin Freeman is an excellent Watson. I really like him as Watson. And like there's times where somebody calls Sherlock a psychopath and he's like, high-functioning sociopath, because that's what he is.

He crazy. He crazy, but he cool. He's crazy, but cool. Man, he's so, so cool. Awesome. Thank you so much for listening ladies and gentlemen. If you did enjoy the show, we haven't said this in a while, but if you want to review us on iTunes,

that helps us, I don't know, get up in the ranking so more people can discover us. Man, there's been some fucking funny reviews. Oh, and also it makes us smile when there's some hilarity that goes into the review. It's really funny ones. Appreciate that, all the five-star ones especially. Yeah, we appreciate the five-star more than the two-star ones. one. Yeah, that probably went without saying.

Yeah, if you're going to give us a two-star, fuck off. What if you just... How have you come this far? You've listened to an hour of us talk. Yeah, just fuck right off. Just furious the whole way through. Oh, God. When I get to the end of this hour, I'm going to give this two stars.

Just don't. Just fuck off. I really can't reiterate that enough. She can't. We don't want you. Fuck off. Great. I feel like antagonising someone who's already prepared to give you two stars, probably just results in a one-star review.

Give us one, then, you shithead. I don't care. I do care. I don't. I don't. I don't care. I don't care. No, I do.

I'm delightful. I'm somewhere between the two of you. You care a bit? Care a bit. Alright. That's cool. You are cool. You are cool.

But you can also get in contact with us via Facebook. People have been starting messaging the page, which is cool. Do you go on. You can also email us, do go on pod at gmail.com. And you can get on Twitter and tweet about or at the show at Do Go on Pod. You can make some suggestions for us what we're going to talk about. what we're going to talk about. We genuinely enjoy hearing from you guys.

Yeah, it's cool. It's real cool. We've been out and about during the comedy festival. I've met a couple of people just on the street flowering. That was very nice. Very nice. But, yeah, don't miss out. We'll be back next week with an episode from you, Matthew.

I hope you got your topic ready to go. Yeah, well, I'm going to go to a week. I'll figure it out. You work it all out. Well, we'll see you then, and goodbye. I'm going into the hat. That's where I'm getting it. Oh, yeah.

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