Sherlock Holmes

QUIZ

DETECTIVE

What's the truth about Arthur Conan Doyle?

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Credits

Created by AnnieArgelas. Ac-Aix-Marseille

QUESTION 1/12

Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle had an elaborate tattoo of his famous character on his left shin.

True

False

RIGHT!

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While Arthur Conan Doyle became rich and famous thanks to Sherlock Holmes, the writer came to despise his fictional creation. In a new three-part BBC series that's available now on BBC iPlayer, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle.

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QUESTION 2/12

Sherlock Holmes’ use of cocaine would not have shocked readers in the 1890s, as the drug was not actually illegal.

False

True

RIGHT!

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In the first episode, Dr Douglas Moore of Edge Hill University tells Lucy Worsley: “This is a way of introducing Holmes to us as someone who is absolutely obsessed with his work, the solving of cases.“It’s also quite important for what it would have suggested to a Victorian reader, because cocaine at this time is still a relatively new drug and it’s thought of as being a very high tech drug.” However, as cocaine came to be seen as more dangerous, Doyle wrote in a later story that Dr Watson had “gradually weaned him from that drug mania”.

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QUESTION 3/12

Arthur Conan Doyle played as a goalkeeper for Portsmouth AFC.

False

True

RIGHT!

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Modern-day goalies such as David James, Shaka Hislop and Will Norris have been following in the footsteps of Conan Doyle, who was a young doctor working in Portsmouth at the time. However, Arthur played under the fake name of AC Smith, and Lucy Worsley suggests that perhaps football didn't have the same upmarket image as some of his other hobbies. "Football was the sport of the working man, and maybe he used his false name in order to preserve his reputation as a newly-established family doctor,” she says. “I think that Arthur’s life as a secret footballer might reveal an awful lot about who he really was. On the one hand he had these crowd-pleasing instincts, but at the same time he had an enormous need to appear respectable.”

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QUESTION 4/12

Arthur Conan Doyle fought the Marquess of Queensbury in one of the first ever official boxing matches. The match at Lords Cricket Club was declared a draw.

True

False

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The modern rules of boxing were introduced in 1867 and named after the Marquess of Queensberry, but he never fought Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was a keen amateur boxer and in 1909, he reluctantly had to turn down an invitation to referee the world heavyweight title 'fight of the century' between James Jeffries and Jack Johnson in Reno, Nevada. Jeffries was the retired heavyweight champ, nicknamed the 'Great White Hope'; Johnson was the first black world heavyweight champion, and his defeat of Jeffries in the fight sparked US-wide race riots.

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QUESTION 5/12

Arthur Conan Doyle was a judge in the first ever bodybuilding competition in the UK.

False

True

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If Sherlock Holmes was about brains, this was all about brawn. In 1901, Doyle was a judge in the competition at the Royal Albert Hall to determine the ‘best developed man in Great Britain and Ireland’. Eighty men wearing leopardskin stood on pedestals and struck poses while their physiques were assessed.

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QUESTION 6/12

It took Arthur Conan Doyle six years to write his first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet.

True

False

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Doyle dreamt up the whole world of London’s most famous detective in just 30 days, all while sat at his desk in Portsmouth. He had grown up in Edinburgh, worked in a few English cities but had only ever spent a few weeks in London. To imagine the city's streets, the author pored over a Post Office map similar to the one pictured above. Can you spot the famous Baker Street?

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QUESTION 7/12

In an early draft of A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock was originally called Amon Holmes.

True

False

RIGHT!

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In early drafts of the book, Holmes and Watson were named Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker.Crime writer Saima Mir tells Lucy Worsley that when creating a character, sometimes the name you first come up with doesn't seem right once they become more fully formed. “Sherlock just sounds like such a hard strong name, whereas Sherrinford doesn’t sound like a safe pair of hands to me - I wouldn’t ask him to investigate anything,” she says.

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QUESTION 8/12

In the books, Sherlock Holmes never actually says, “Elementary, my dear Watson”.

False

True

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The most famous line of Sherlock Holmes was not actually written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s not in any of the books, but arrived with the advent of Sherlock on film. It was coined in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first talkie version of Sherlock in 1929 with Clive Brook playing the famous detective.

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QUESTION 9/12

Arthur Conan Doyle fought in the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in the Boer War, a battle later depicted in the film Zulu. The character played by Michael Caine is based on him.

False

True

RIGHT!

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Doyle wanted to sign up to fight in the Boer War, but at the age of 40 he was rejected for being too old. Instead, he returned to his medical career and joined the unpaid staff of a private military hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa. In episode two, Lucy is given special access to the author's notebooks to try and find out if reality measured up to his expectations. “The Boer War clearly wasn’t the exciting Boys’ Own adventure that I think Arthur thought that it was going to be, and in his private diary he’s actually quite honest about that,” she says.

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QUESTION 10/12

Arthur Conan Doyle’s personal investigation into a real-life miscarriage of justice helped to change the law and create the Criminal Court of Appeal.

False

True

RIGHT!

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George Edalji, whose father was Indian and mother was English, was sent to prison in 1903 after being convicted of horse maiming.After a long campaign and three years in prison he was released, and Doyle became involved in exonerating the solicitor and getting him compensation. According to barrister Nneka Akudolu KC, the case highlighted how the appeals system was flawed. “People trusted Arthur Conan Doyle because of their affection towards the character he created, Sherlock Holmes,” she says. “In keeping Edalji’s case in the public eye, it increased the level of public disquiet, and therefore it brought about change - it was Edalji's case and three other cases that were pivotal in the inception of the Court of Appeal.”

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QUESTION 11/12

Arthur Conan Doyle believed he could talk to dead people.

False

True

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Doyle's first-born son Kingsley survived the First World War, only to be killed by the 1918 flu pandemic.Like thousands of other bereaved parents, he enlisted the help of a medium in an attempt to reach out to his lost child and became an evangelist for spiritualism.

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QUESTION 12/12

Arthur Conan Doyle was friends with the Russian mystic Rasputin.

False

True

RIGHT!

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This is false, but Doyle did have a famous friend in the illusionist and escapologist Harry Houdini, at least until the pair had a massive falling out. While the author was fascinated with the supernatural, Houdini was a famous sceptic. Doyle persuaded Houdini to attend a seance where he hoped the escape artist could make contact with his late mother. However, Houdini felt outraged by the event and the glaring mistakes he spotted. In episode three, actor and magician Nick Mohammed discusses this unlikely friendship and their eventual fallout.

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Case closed!

5-7 correct

2-4 correct

0-1 correct

10-11 correct

12 correct

8-9 correct

PLAY AGAIN?

10-11 Correct

Elementary

Your attention to detail is commendable, indeed much like Holmes himself. Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, detective and author, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him. Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on The Case Of Conan Doyle is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

8-9 Correct

A reasonable performance

You may have missed a few obvious clues, but even the great detective himself faced setbacks. Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, detective and author, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him. Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on The Case Of Conan Doyle is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

12 Correct

Elementary

Your attention to detail is commendable, indeed much like Holmes himself. Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, detective and author, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him. Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on The Case Of Conan Doyle is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

0-1 Correct

Elementary mistakes

You may have missed out on a few clues there, but you have the perfect chance to brush up on your knowledge. Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, detective and author, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him.Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on The Case Of Conan Doyle is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

2-4 Correct

Weak alibi

That wasn't an awful performance, but there are a few obvious loose ends to tie up. Fortunately, you have the perfect opportunity to brush up on your knowledge. Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, detective and author, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him. Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on The Case Of Conan Doyle is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

5-7 Correct

Weak alibi

That wasn't an awful performance, but there are a few obvious loose ends to tie up. Fortunately, you have the perfect opportunity to brush up on your knowledge. Over the course of three episodes, historian and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan Lucy Worsley investigates the extraordinary love-hate relationship between Holmes and Doyle, detective and author, in a unique parallel biography of Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him. Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on The Case Of Conan Doyle is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.