150 Fun Facts About Sherlock Holmes

Which author created Sherlock Holmes?

Doyle was a practising physician who wrote the first Holmes story while waiting for patients who rarely came.

In which year did Holmes first appear in print, in the novel A Study in Scarlet?

The debut attracted little notice; Holmes only became a sensation four years later when the short stories began.

Holmes's debut novel was first published in which magazine?

Only eleven complete copies of that issue are known to survive, making it one of the most valuable magazines ever printed.

Alongside four novels, how many Holmes short stories did Doyle write?

The short stories are collected in five books, from The Adventures (1892) to The Case-Book (1927).

Dr Watson was wounded while serving as an army surgeon in which conflict?

He was invalided home on the troopship Orontes and awarded a pension of eleven shillings and sixpence a day.

What wounded Watson at the Battle of Maiwand?

Doyle was vague about where the wound landed: it is in the shoulder in one story and the leg in another.

In Doyle's early plot notes, what was Holmes's companion called before he became John Watson?

Holmes himself was pencilled in as Sherrinford in the same notes before Doyle changed his mind.

Mycroft Holmes spends his hours at which Pall Mall institution, where members may not speak to one another?

Mycroft co-founded it, and it sits conveniently across Pall Mall from his lodgings.

Which drug does Holmes inject as a seven-per-cent solution?

Both of the drugs Holmes used were perfectly legal in Victorian England, though Watson called the habit his friend's only vice.

The Reichenbach Falls, where Holmes apparently plunges to his death, are in which country?

The nearby town of Meiringen opened its own Holmes museum in 1991, a year after London's.

Holmes says he flung Moriarty over the falls using which Japanese martial art?

Doyle apparently misspelled bartitsu, a real Victorian self-defence system that mixed boxing, cane fighting and jujitsu.

What nickname does Holmes give Professor Moriarty?

Doyle borrowed the phrase from a Scotland Yard inspector who had used it to describe a real thief.

Before turning to crime, Professor Moriarty held a university chair in which subject?

His later book The Dynamics of an Asteroid was said to be so advanced that no one in the scientific press could review it.

Which real-life criminal mastermind helped inspire Professor Moriarty?

Worth once stole Gainsborough's portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire and kept it hidden for a quarter of a century.

Where was Irene Adler, the adversary of A Scandal in Bohemia, born?

Some Sherlockians link her to Lillie Langtry, the Jersey-born actress and royal mistress nicknamed the Jersey Lily.

In A Scandal in Bohemia, what does the King of Bohemia hire Holmes to recover from Irene Adler?

The King fears she will send it to the family of his fiancée, a Scandinavian princess, and wreck the match.

After she outwits him, Holmes always refers to Irene Adler by which title?

She appears in only one story yet has become one of the most reused characters in Holmes adaptations.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is set largely on which English moor?

The story was serialised in 1901-02, before Holmes had officially returned from the dead, so Doyle set it earlier in his career.

Which journalist supplied Doyle with the legend and local colour for The Hound of the Baskervilles?

He explored Devon with Doyle in June 1901 and collected royalties worth over 500 pounds by the end of that year.

How much was Doyle paid for the full rights to his first Holmes novel?

He had asked for royalties and was refused, a decision the publisher must have regretted for the rest of his life.

Which story did Doyle himself name as his favourite Holmes tale?

He ranked The Red-Headed League second when The Strand asked him to list his twelve best in 1927.

In which 1903 story does Holmes reappear and reveal he faked his death?

It appeared first in the American magazine Collier's, a week before British readers saw it in The Strand.

What do Holmes fans call the years 1891 to 1894, when the detective was presumed dead?

Holmes claims to have spent the time travelling in Tibet, Persia and Sudan under the name Sigerson.

What occupation does the retired Holmes take up on the Sussex Downs?

He even writes a handbook on the subject, which he proudly shows Watson in His Last Bow.

Doyle said Holmes was inspired by which Edinburgh surgeon he had once worked for?

He was famous for deducing a stranger's trade and travels from a glance, and later wrote an introduction to a Holmes edition.

Which actor is credited with originating 'Elementary, my dear Watson' in an 1899 stage play?

The same play helped fix the curved pipe and dressing gown in the popular image of the detective.

On which date do many Sherlockians celebrate Holmes's birthday?

The year 1854 comes from His Last Bow, where he is described as sixty in 1914; the exact day is fan tradition.

Which building society at 221 Baker Street employed a secretary to answer letters to Holmes?

When the Holmes Museum was given the 221B address in 1990, the two sides argued for fifteen years over who should get the mail.

The American backstory of The Valley of Fear is loosely based on which secret society?

The novel's undercover hero is modelled on real Pinkerton agent James McParland, who infiltrated the group in the 1870s.

Doyle was commissioned to write The Sign of the Four at an 1889 dinner also attended by which author?

The same magazine editor left the Langham Hotel dinner with a promise of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Who played Dr Watson opposite Basil Rathbone in all fourteen of his Holmes films?

The pair also voiced the roles on radio in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1939.

How many Holmes films did Basil Rathbone star in between 1939 and 1946?

Only the first two, made at Fox, were period pieces; Universal moved Holmes into wartime present day to fight Nazis.

Which actor got top billing over Basil Rathbone in the 1939 Hound of the Baskervilles?

The film ends with Holmes calling for the needle, a drug reference that slipped past censors.

Jeremy Brett's Holmes series (1984–1994) was produced by which British television company?

It adapted 43 of the 60 stories and built a full-scale Baker Street set at its Manchester studios.

Who played Watson opposite Jeremy Brett in the first series before Edward Hardwicke took over?

Hardwicke stayed for the rest of the run and later joined Brett on stage in The Secret of Sherlock Holmes.

Before playing Holmes, Jeremy Brett played Watson on stage in 1980 opposite which Hollywood star?

That makes Brett one of the very few actors to have played both halves of the partnership professionally.

Which two writers created the BBC series Sherlock?

The idea took shape on long train journeys while both were writing for Doctor Who.

Which real-life couple plays Sherlock and Mycroft's parents in series three of Sherlock?

They are Benedict Cumberbatch's actual mother and father, so the family resemblance was no accident.

Who plays Jim Moriarty in the BBC series Sherlock?

He first appears at the end of the series one finale after posing as a shy IT worker.

Which Sherlock episode reworks the Irene Adler story, with the pictures held on a camera phone?

Lara Pulver's version of the character is a dominatrix trading in secrets extracted from powerful clients.

Exterior shots of 221B in the BBC series Sherlock were filmed at which London address?

The real Baker Street was too busy and had too many things labelled Sherlock Holmes that would have needed disguising.

Although set in London, the BBC series Sherlock was filmed mainly in which city?

The production shared its home base with Doctor Who, which the creators were also writing at the time.

How does Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock describe himself when accused of being a psychopath?

The line, delivered in the first episode, became the show's most quoted retort.

Who directed the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr.?

Neil Marshall was originally attached before the job changed hands in June 2008.

Robert Downey Jr. won which award for playing Holmes in the 2009 film?

The film also picked up two Oscar nominations, for Hans Zimmer's score and for art direction.

Who plays Professor Moriarty in the 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows?

In the first film the professor was only a shadowy voice, supplied by Andrew Jack.

Who plays Dr Joan Watson in the CBS series Elementary?

Her Watson is a former surgeon who eventually becomes a full detective partner rather than a chronicler.

Which actor plays Holmes in Elementary?

He and Benedict Cumberbatch had just alternated the lead roles in Danny Boyle's stage Frankenstein when both were cast as Holmes.

Elementary relocates Holmes from London to which city?

He works there as a consultant to the police after a stint in drug rehab following his fall from grace in London.

Which actress plays Jamie Moriarty, Holmes's nemesis and former lover, in Elementary?

The show's twist is that Moriarty and Irene Adler turn out to be one and the same person.

How many Sherlock Holmes stage, film, TV and print adaptations existed by the 1990s?

Guinness lists him as the most portrayed human literary character on screen.

Which Edinburgh chair-holder besides Joseph Bell is cited as an inspiration for Holmes?

Littlejohn held the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence.

Holmes claims his grandmother was the sister of which French artist?

He never clarifies which Vernet: Claude Joseph, Carle or Horace.

Where does Holmes keep his tobacco at 221B Baker Street?

His cigars live in the coal-scuttle and his letters are jack-knifed to the mantelpiece.

Which two composers does Holmes enjoy listening to when relaxing?

He also plays the violin himself.

What astronomical fact does Holmes claim to be unaware of in A Study in Scarlet?

He says he will try to forget it as irrelevant to his work.

Holmes wrote a monograph on the Polyphonic Motets of which composer?

Watson calls it 'the last word' on the subject in 'The Bruce-Partington Plans'.

How many separate ciphers did Holmes analyse in his monograph on secret writing?

He calls himself 'fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing'.

Which story features Holmes recovering spent bullets for matching, years before police did so routinely?

Ballistic matching became regular procedure about 15 years later.

Which pistol did Watson probably carry as his old service weapon?

It was issued to British troops in the 1870s.

Which two combat sports did Holmes practise at university, per 'The Gloria Scott'?

He is also an expert singlestick player.

What does Holmes bend back into shape after Dr Roylott bends it in 'The Speckled Band'?

He remarks that his grip is 'not much more feeble' than the doctor's.

Doyle's 'baritsu' is a version of bartitsu, which combines jujitsu with what?

Holmes says he used it to fling Moriarty into the falls.

Which New York fan society was founded in 1934, the same year as its London counterpart?

The London society was later refounded in 1951.

What are Holmes fans traditionally called in the UK?

Americans say 'Sherlockians'.

Which 1893 story contains one of the closest approximations to 'Elementary, my dear Watson'?

Holmes says 'Elementary' after Watson cries 'Excellent'.

Where is Watson's war wound in A Study in Scarlet, before it migrates to his leg?

The Great Game tries to reconcile such contradictions.

The Great Game treats Doyle as what, rather than the author?

It applies biblical-criticism methods to the canon.

Which institution founded what is now the world's largest Holmes collection in 1974?

The Portsmouth City Museum holds a private Doyle collection.

A Holmes museum opened in 1991 in which Swiss town near the Reichenbach Falls?

The London Sherlock Holmes Museum had opened the year before.

Where in London is the pub holding memorabilia first shown at the 1951 Festival of Britain?

The London Metropolitan Railway also named a 1920s locomotive after Holmes.

A 2007 Holmes and Watson sculpture in Moscow modelled Watson's face on which actor?

The statue is titled 'Sherlock & Segar'.

Which 'story for which the world is not yet prepared' is mentioned in 'The Sussex Vampire'?

Pastiche writers love to flesh out such passing references.

Which old friend introduces Watson to Holmes in A Study in Scarlet?

Holmes was looking for someone to split the rent.

Who is the victim found in an abandoned Brixton Road house in A Study in Scarlet?

He was from Cleveland, Ohio.

In The Sign of the Four, Mary Morstan has received what by post every year for six years?

Her father Captain Morstan had vanished ten years earlier.

Which of these names is NOT one of the four in The Sign of the Four?

Abdullah Khan is the fourth; the map bears four small crosses.

Which doctor brings the Baskerville legend to Holmes in 1889?

The legend dates to the Civil War and Sir Hugo Baskerville.

Where had Sir Charles Baskerville amassed his fortune?

He was found dead in a yew alley with a look of horror.

Which pseudonymous double agent of Moriarty sends Holmes a cipher in The Valley of Fear?

The message warns of a plot against a man named Douglas at Birlstone House.

The Valley of Fear's backstory is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and which Pinkerton agent?

It was serialised in the Strand from September 1914 to May 1915.

What is the name of Helen Stoner's stepfather in 'The Speckled Band'?

He had killed his Indian butler in a rage.

What was Jabez Wilson paid per week by the Red-Headed League?

His job was to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Where did Doyle rank 'The Red-Headed League' in his list of twelve favourite Holmes stories?

It was illustrated by Sidney Paget in August 1891.

Which Poe story does the reasoning in 'The Dancing Men' closely resemble?

It is one of only two stories where Holmes's client dies after seeking help.

In 'The Blue Carbuncle', the gem is stolen from whose hotel suite?

A plumber named John Horner is wrongly arrested.

Who was the murdered trainer of the racehorse Silver Blaze?

Bookmaker Fitzroy Simpson was arrested for the crime.

Which butler is caught studying the Musgrave family papers in 'The Musgrave Ritual'?

The story is narrated by Holmes himself as one of his earliest cases.

Which missing man does Holmes investigate in 'The Man with the Twisted Lip'?

Watson finds Holmes in disguise in an opium den.

From which city was the fatal letter to Elias Openshaw postmarked in 'The Five Orange Pips'?

It bore the initials K.K.K.

Which shop first suffered a smashed bust in 'The Six Napoleons'?

Lestrade thought a Napoleon-hating lunatic was responsible.

Where was Arthur Cadogan West's body found in 'The Bruce-Partington Plans'?

Seven of ten secret submarine plans were on his body.

What rare disease does Holmes pretend to be dying of in 'The Dying Detective'?

Mrs Hudson says he had not eaten in three days.

How much does blackmailer Milverton demand from Lady Eva Blackwell?

Holmes offered £2,000, all she could pay.

Which young lawyer is accused of murdering builder Jonas Oldacre?

Oldacre had just made him sole beneficiary of his will.

Whose ten-year-old son disappears from the Priory School?

The German master Heidegger vanished with his bicycle too.

In which county are Holmes and Watson holidaying in 'The Devil's Foot'?

Explorer Dr Leon Sterndale is a cousin of the afflicted Tregennis family.

Holmes refuses what honour in June 1902, per 'The Three Garridebs'?

Doyle himself was knighted that year.

Which three stories are narrated by Holmes rather than Watson?

Watson does not appear in the first two.

What kills science teacher Fitzroy McPherson in 'The Lion's Mane'?

He screams the title words before dying, welts curving round his body.

How much did banker Alexander Holder lend against the beryl coronet?

The client was implied to be a son of Queen Victoria.

What was hydraulic engineer Victor Hatherley offered to inspect a press in Eyford?

Colonel Lysander Stark claimed it compressed fuller's earth.

The stolen naval treaty in Percy Phelps's case was between England and which country?

Phelps was Watson's former schoolfellow.

Which story is notable for Holmes's deduction proving wrong?

Doyle called it one of his sentimental pieces.

What does Susan Cushing receive in the post in 'The Cardboard Box'?

The parcel was sent from Belfast.

Which burglars does Inspector Hopkins blame for Sir Eustace Brackenstall's murder?

Lady Brackenstall says her husband was a violent drunkard.

Which Prime Minister brings Holmes the case of the stolen letter in 'The Second Stain'?

He comes with Trelawney Hope, Secretary for European Affairs.

Which diamond thief attacks a wax effigy of Holmes in 'The Mazarin Stone'?

The page boy Billy shows Watson the dummy.

Who hires Holmes to clear governess Grace Dunbar in 'Thor Bridge'?

He was a former senator from 'some Western state'.

Where had Professor Presbury secretly travelled in 'The Creeping Man'?

He returned with a carved wooden box and a changed personality.

Robert Ferguson's second wife in 'The Sussex Vampire' is from which country?

He believes she has been sucking their baby's blood.

What odd condition is attached to Violet Hunter's governess job at the Copper Beeches?

Jephro Rucastle raised the salary offer to £120.

In 'A Case of Identity', who is the vanished fiancé Hosmer Angel really?

He wanted to keep her single so he could use her income.

Sir James Damery's unnamed 'illustrious client' is heavily implied to be whom?

Baron Adelbert Gruner is the story's Austrian villain.

What is Josiah Amberley's former trade in 'The Retired Colourman'?

Watson notices him busily painting his own house.

Under what pseudonym did Doyle play goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club?

He also played 10 first-class cricket matches for the MCC.

Doyle's first published story, printed in 1879, was set where?

'The Mystery of Sasassa Valley' appeared in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.

Doyle served as ship's doctor in 1880 aboard which Greenland whaler?

He later sailed to West Africa on the SS Mayumba.

Doyle set up his first medical practice in 1882 in which seaside area?

He arrived with less than £10 to his name.

Which magician fell out with Doyle over the Cottingley Fairies and spiritualism?

Doyle publicly supported the fairy photographs, later shown to be a hoax.

Which speculative-fiction subgenre took its name from Doyle's 1912 Professor Challenger novel?

The Lost World introduced Challenger.

Which Napoleonic soldier starred in Doyle's humorous stories?

Doyle wrote in support of the British cause in the Boer War.

Doyle was elected captain of which golf club in 1910?

He lived at Little Windlesham in Crowborough from 1907 until his death.

Doyle's own account popularised the mystery of which abandoned ship, adding fictional details?

He wrongly claimed the ship was found in perfect condition with its boats aboard.

How many episodes of the BBC's Sherlock were made in total?

Four three-part series plus a 2016 special.

Which Sherlock character is a pathologist at Barts Hospital?

Louise Brealey played her.

Sherlock's producer Sue Vertue is married to which of the show's creators?

She urged Moffat and Gatiss to develop the idea before someone else did.

Which Sherlock role did the producers say was harder to cast than Sherlock himself?

Cumberbatch was the only actor seen for Sherlock.

Which mentalist featured in the first episode of Sherlock's third series?

Amanda Abbington joined as Mary Morstan the same series.

How many Emmys did Sherlock win at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards?

Cumberbatch, Freeman and Moffat all won.

Whose voice, from a 1966 recording, was used for Sherlock Holmes in The Great Mouse Detective?

He had died nearly 19 years earlier.

Which Doyle story mentions 'Basil' as one of Holmes's aliases?

Eve Titus's mouse detective Basil took the name from Basil Rathbone.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) was the first feature to include what?

Lucasfilm's Pixar group created the stained-glass knight.

Who wrote the screenplay for Young Sherlock Holmes?

Barry Levinson directed and Spielberg executive produced.

How old is Ian McKellen's Holmes in Mr. Holmes (2015)?

The film is based on Mitch Cullin's novel A Slight Trick of the Mind.

Who plays Holmes's housekeeper Mrs Munro in Mr. Holmes?

Milo Parker plays her son Roger.

Enola Holmes adapts novels by which author?

Millie Bobby Brown plays the teenage sister of Sherlock.

Roughly how many households watched Enola Holmes in its first four weeks on Netflix?

Netflix picked up the film's rights during the pandemic.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum's Georgian townhouse was built in what year?

It actually stands between numbers 237 and 241 Baker Street.

How long is the 1900 film Sherlock Holmes Baffled?

It was originally shown in Mutoscope arcade machines.

Roughly how many times did William Gillette play Holmes on stage over thirty years?

He also starred in a 1916 silent film based on his play.

Sidney Paget was one of how many children?

His brothers Henry and Walter were also illustrators.

Doyle specifically requested Paget as illustrator for which serial?

Paget had first been hired for The Adventures in 1891.

The star of fourteen 1939-46 Holmes films was born in 1892 in which city?

He was a two-time British Army fencing champion.

Which two swashbucklers did the fencing-champion star of the 1940s Holmes films teach swordplay?

He was a two-time British Army Fencing Champion.

In Nicholas Meyer's pastiche The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, who helps Holmes beat his cocaine addiction?

Framed as a lost Watson manuscript, the novel was filmed in 1976 and spawned six more Meyer pastiches.

In the 1984–85 anime Sherlock Hound, almost every character is depicted as what kind of animal?

A Japanese–Italian co-production, it featured Jules Verne-style steampunk gadgets, and Hayao Miyazaki directed six episodes before a dispute with the Doyle estate.

Who directed The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), starring Robert Stephens as the detective?

Written with I. A. L. Diamond, the affectionate parody contrasts the 'real' Holmes with the hero of Watson's Strand stories; Colin Blakely played Watson.

What is the twist in the 1988 comedy Without a Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley?

Kingsley's Watson invents the detective for his Strand stories and hires Caine's actor to play him to protect his medical reputation.

Hammer's 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles with Peter Cushing was the first version of the novel filmed how?

Terence Fisher directed, André Morell played Watson and Christopher Lee took the role of Sir Henry Baskerville.