BBC Radio dramatisations and readings of some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s other works – plus extracts from his letters and a bonus drama by Bert Coules

Arthur Conan Doyle is well known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote numerous works in which the great detective played no part. Included here are a selection of the best, ranging from science fiction to tales of supernatural terror and rip-roaring adventures set in Jacobean and Regency England.

Our collection opens with the first of three dramas featuring the hot-tempered, larger-than-life scientist and explorer Professor Challenger. ‘The Lost World’ stars David Robb as Challenger, he heads on an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon Basin. Following this drama we have two further dramatisations starring Bill Paterson as Challenger this time. In ‘When the World Screamed’, he sets out on a bold mission to be recognised by Mother Earth, while ‘The Disintegration Machine’ sees him investigating dastardly Latvian inventor Theodore Nemor.

‘The Captain of the Polestar’ drama tells the chilling story of a ship trapped in the Arctic, and stars Alec Heggie as Craigie, a man haunted by a strange apparition.

Also included are the short stories ‘Playing With Fire’, ‘How It Happened’, ‘One Crowded Hour’, ‘The Fall of Lord Barrymore’, ‘The Sealed Room’ and ‘The Lost Special’ (read by Edward de Souza, Sam Dale, Christopher Harper and David Schofield), and the fascinating series Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, in which Forbes Masson and John Dougal read extracts from his correspondence to his mother about marriage, fatherhood, killing off Holmes and going into politics. Finally, how the author ran for Parliament in 1900 and lost is explored in Bert Coules’ biographical drama Vote For Conan Doyle!, starring John Sessions.

First published 1883 (‘The Captain of the Polestar’), 1898 (‘The Sealed Room’, ‘The Lost Special’), 1900 (‘Playing With Fire’), 1911 (‘One Crowded Hour’), 1912 (‘The Lost World’), 1912 (‘The Fall of Lord Barrymore’), 1913 (‘How It Happened’), 1928 (‘When The World Screamed’), 1929 (‘The Disintegration Machine’),