LFF to screen restored Sherlock Holmes silents

Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes Photo: Courtesy BFI National Archive

The 68th BFI London Film Festival has announced its archive special presentation this year will be the world premiere of the restored version of Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases. It will screen on October 16 in the heart of the festival, which runs from October 9 to 20.

The LFF presentation is the inaugural programme from the BFI National Archive’s major new project, funded by Iron Mountain's Living Legacy Initiative, to fully restore Stoll’s epic Sherlock Holmes film series, starring Eille Norwood, Conan-Doyle’s favourite screen Sherlock.

A Scandal In Bohemia Photo: Courtesy BFI National Archive

The films will be shown at Alexandra Palace Theatre with a live score that celebrates a new partnership between the BFI and the Royal Academy of Music, with Joanna MacGregor conducting an ensemble of ten young Academy players performing three newly commissioned scores composed by MacGregor, Neil Brand and Joseph Havlat.

Eille Norwood still holds the record for having appeared in more Sherlock Holmes films than any other actor connected to the role on the big screen. He portrayed the famous sleuth in 45 two-reelers across three series: The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, The Further Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes and The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, plus The Hound Of The Baskervilles and The Sign Of Four.

Conan Doyle thoroughly approved of the first series to comprehensively, and closely, adapt his stories, and he particularly admired Norwood’s meticulous characterisation, observing, "His wonderful impersonation of Holmes has amazed me".

The LFF Archive Special Presentation features one episode from each of the three series: A Scandal in Bohemia, in which Holmes uncharacteristically falls for a woman; The Golden Pince-Nez, a classic example of Holmesian detection; and The Final Problem in which Holmes meets his nemesis, the sinister Dr Moriarty, with Cheddar Gorge famously standing in for the Reichenbach Falls.

Arike Oke, BFI executive director of knowledge, learning and collections said: “Eille Norwood embodies the original tales’ Victorian sleuth, encountering Britian’s Empire at its globe-trotting height while exploring 1920s London: that fertile ground of mystery and duplicity. Alexandra Palace, London’s grand iconic venue, is Sherlock’s contemporary. It’s the perfect setting to premiere the first titles in our mammoth multi-year restoration project, transporting audiences back in time with the Great Detective.”