Has anyone else been watching this series on Britbox? It’s one-shots based on various fictional detectives in England around the time Sherlock was supposed to have been based. For example, there’s an episode based on a story by the Baroness Orczy, who wrote the Scarlet Pimpernel as well as short stories featuring a female detective named Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. Fascinating variety of stories.
I didn’t know it was on Britbox. I watched it when it was first broadcast (in the US) on PBS. They published a series of companion volumes with the original stories:
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
The Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Cosmopolitan Crimes: The Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
The series ran in the 1970s. I assumed they were doing these because they couldn’t get the rights to the Sherlock Holmes stories, for some reason.
Orczy also created the first armchair detective: The Old Man in the Corner.
Note that in the first Scarlet Pimpernel novel, his wife is the main character.
I remember the series when it first came out, and had read some of the stories in Ellery Queen’s 101 Years Entertainment anthology.