The Hound of the Baskervilles

Episode number 2 of Series “Nightmare: the birth of horror”.
Touted as being the greatest detective story every written, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s horror story is also famous for being the novel that brought the resurrection of Sherlock Holmes, and the beginning of the commercialisation of his most famous detective. Killed off in “The Final problem” in 1893, Holmes met his fate after falling into a waterfall chasing his nemesis, Moriaty - neither body was recovered. Years later, Conan Doyle became interested in folklore surrounding the legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles: Sir Hugo and his hounds of hell, punished by a fierce dog for attacking a young woman, his family fated to misfortune forever after. The only man up to the task was Holmes, and the claim was made that the Baskerville investigation was an old case rediscovered after his death. This program in “Nightmare: the birth of horror” series examines the locales, literature and country folklore that influenced Conan Doyle when writing the novel - significantly, the only one to demonstrate his interest in the natural and the supernatural world. Provides depictions of Holmes across print and screen, and what Professor Christopher Frayling believes makes the book a classic.