The masterful stories in this collection relate Holmes and Watson's involvement with the case of an eminent physiologist inexplicably savaged by his faithful wolfhound, of the priceless stolen Crown diamond found in the pocket of a peer, and of the mysterious figure who means to buy Mrs Maberley's house and all of its contents, whatever the cost, while Holmes himself tells the story of a Boer war hero set to inherit a fortune who mysteriously disappears from the family seat.

A rich American is murdered in mysterious circumstances in a manor house in Sussex, England. Sherlock Holmes, accompanied by Dr. Watson, is invited to help the investigation. Though Holmes solves the mystery at hand, his attention and indeed the mystery itself shifts to the coalfields of North America. The heart of the matter is corruption - the date is 1875. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle outs his finger with uncanny accuracy on civil corruption which so blighted North America in that century.

In these four tales from Sherlock Holmes's case book, we find the great detective summoned to investigate the mysterious bones which just won't stay buried at Shoscombe Old Place. We see him deducing why a hitherto devoted lion should have turned savagely on its keeper.

Horror legend Christopher Lee reads the disturbing Victorian ghost stories of writer M.R. James. A century ago, it was James's habit to read one aloud by candlelight every Christmas Eve to a select group of students in his study at King's College, Cambridge...

Clive Merrison stars as Holmes with Michael Williams as Watson in these 12 adventures from the unique, fully dramatised BBC canon of Conan Doyle's short stories and novels. The 12 dramatisations are 'The Illustrious Client', 'The Blanched Soldier', 'The Mazarin Stone', 'The Three Gables', 'The Sussex Vampire', 'The Three Garridebs', 'The Problem of Thor Bridge', 'The Creeping Man', 'The Lion's Mane', 'The Veiled Lodger', 'Shoscombe Old Place' and 'The Retired Colourman'.