What happens
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take up the case of Professor Moriarty, a criminal mastermind linked to blackmailers at Chetwood's home in St. John's Wood. The Mercury Theatre on the Air presents Orson Welles's radio adaptation of William Gillette's play, based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, broadcast on September 25, 1938. Holmes visits the house, meets Alice Faulkner and confronts the blackmailer James Larabee about letters held by Chetwood. Holmes stages a false fire to recover the letters from a chair, then returns them to Miss Faulkner. Later, Larabee receives a message offering the letters for sale, and Moriarty's plans against Holmes begin to take shape.
London in the 1880s, including Baker Street and a house in St. John's Wood
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, Alice Faulkner, Chetwood, James Larabee, Johnson, Foreman
Listen for: Holmes's deductions from small details, and the false fire he sets to recover the letters
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.