Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady

Sat 24th May at 5.30pm
Movie icon Christopher Lee first played Sherlock Holmes in a curious German-French-Italian production filmed in 1962 – which he later described as "a classic example of having the right ingredients and coming up with a very unpalatable dish". Happily, his return to the role with Leading Lady was a much finer affair – a lavish tale following Holmes on the trail of murderers through Vienna (look out for an appearance by Sigmund Freud).

Christopher Lee, with his towering physique and intense eyes, makes a fantastic Holmes, while Patrick MacNee (yes, Steed from The Avengers) is a memorable Watson. In fact, MacNee had previously played the good doctor alongside none other than Roger Moore in the extremely unacclaimed 1976 movie Sherlock Holmes in New York. Dare we say that this time round it's a more successful pairing...?

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sat 24th May at 9pm
Slick new version of the most famous Holmes story of all – a gothic tale of a rural family terrorised by a demonic dog. This time round we have a young, athletic Sherlock in the strapping form of Australian actor Richard Roxburgh (if he looks familiar, you might recall him from Moulin Rouge and Mission Impossible II).

John Nettles and Richard E Grant are also in attendance, but perhaps the real star of the show is the hound itself, brought to scary life with state-of-the-art computer effects - although it wasn't so awe-inspiring during actual filming, when the demon dog was apparently represented by a tennis ball on a stick before the computer whizzes went to work. The Hound of the Baskervilles is probably the most frequently adapted of all Conan Doyle's stories – but could this be the definitive version? Watch it yourself and see…

Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victoria Falls

Sun 25th May at 5.30pm
In the original Conan Doyle stories, Holmes eventually retired from detective work to keep bees in the countryside. This story is set just before that, with the aging Holmes (Christopher Lee again) sent on a last mission for king and country (literally – it's the king who asks him to go).

His task is to retrieve a diamond from South Africa, and it proves a most memorable journey – not least because he crosses paths with another great literary character: Raffles, the gentleman thief. Interestingly, the Raffles stories were written by Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law, and – being a dapper, highly intelligent chap dedicated to skilful robberies – Raffles could almost be seen as an inverted version of Holmes himself. Should be interesting to see how the two get on.

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking

Sun 25th May at 9pm
Nobody can do "elegant and decadent" quite like Rupert Everett, and he certainly delivers on that score in this deliciously dark take on the Holmes myth. His Sherlock is a more enigmatic and introverted Holmes than you might be used to, which is rather fitting as this is a very sinister story indeed – involving a twisted serial killer stalking aristocratic ladies on the foggy streets of Victorian London.

As Dr Watson, actor Ian Hart is a solid, driven and heroic figure – a million miles from the bumbling, oafish sidekick of popular imagination. In fact, this Watson no longer even lives with Holmes, and their friendship isn't quite as warm as it once was. A sense of real menace oozes throughout it all, and no Holmsian should miss it.

The greatest detective that never lived

Track down some more clues about Mr Sherlock Holmes...