Radio Broadcast of The Engineer’s Thumb – May 17, 1960

“The story has, I believe, been told more than once …”

– The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb

Your editor has a fondness for Old Time Radio and from time to time, we are able to share recording of some of the older Sherlock Holmes radios that have a tie-in to numismatics. On May 17, 1960 the BBC broadcasted The Case of the Engineer’s Thumb featuring Carleton Hobbs as Sherlock Holmes and Norman Shelley as Doctor Watson.

The duo of Hobbs and Shelley would record 56 stories between 1952 and 1969. The first 18 episodes between 1952 and 1958 were recorded for BBC’s Children’s Hour, with the post 1959 episodes being recorded for an adult audience.

Hobbs has the distinction of being the only radio actor to portray Watson, Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle. A 1943 BBC broadcast of the Boscombe Valley Mystery had him as Watson and he would portray Doyle in a 1972 BBC dramatization of the George Edalji case.