DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS: Accounts of alternate crime, mystery & thriller adaptations.🕵️‍♂️
- Thread starter WhovianHolmesianChap
- Start date
Peacock's Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen (2023-present)
(1 season, 6 episodes)
A Peacock Series
Executive Produced by Rian Johnson
Based on characters created by "Ellery Queen" (Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay)
CAST:
- Ellery Queen (Alfred Enoch): A budding writer, and keen amateur sleuth.
- Inspector Richard Queen (Alfred Molina): Ellery's father, a veteran of the NYPD.
- Nikki Porter (Alexis Louder): Ross's publicist, agent, and Ellery's reluctant fellow crime-solver.
- Sergeant Tom Velie (Donnie Keshawarz): Inspector Queen's dogged second-in-command.
- Barnaby Ross (Martin Sheen): A celebrated and bestselling mystery novelist, who takes Ellery on as a personal assistant.
Set in modern day?
Interesting casting but doing the stories in the era the books were written would open any number of issues
Wolfe on Four
Nero Wolfe (1999-2003)
(5 series, 29 episodes)
A BBC Radio 4 series
Dramatised from the novels by Rex Stout
SERIES ONE (November-December 1999):
The League of Frightened Men (2 episodes)
The Red Box (2 episodes)
Too Many Cooks (2 episodes)
Some Buried Caesar (2 episodes)
SERIES TWO (January-February 2000):
Over My Dead Body (2 episodes)
The Silent Speaker (2 episodes)
Door to Death (1 episode)
SERIES THREE (March-April 2001):
And Be a Villain (2 episodes)
The Second Confession (2 episodes)
In the Best Families (2 episodes)
SERIES FOUR (February-March 2002):
Disguise for Murder (1 episode)
The Golden Spiders (2 episodes)
The Black Mountain (2 episodes)
SERIES FIVE (August-September 2003):
The Next Witness (1 episode)
Christmas Party (1 episode)
Eeny Meeny Murder Mo (1 episode)
The Doorbell Rang (2 episodes)
CAST:
- Nero Wolfe (Richard Griffiths)
- Archie Goodwin (Michael Brandon)
- Fritz Brenner (Andrew Sachs)
- Inspector Cramer (Shane Rimmer)
- Saul Panzer (Stuart Milligan)
- Sgt. Purley Stebbins/Orrie Cather (Kerry Shale)
- Fred Durkin/Lt. Rowcliff (Robert Glenister)
- Carla Lovchen (Lorelei King)
- Lily Rowan (Sandra Dickinson)
- Lon Cohen/Theodore Horstmann (Toby Longworth)
- Marko Vukčić/Arnold Zeck (Philip Madoc)
- Nathaniel Parker/Edwin “Doc” Vollmer (David Timson)
Last edited:
Solar Pons
Solar Pons (2023-present)
(1 series, 6 episodes)
A BBC Radio 4 series
Dramatised by Bert Coules, from the stories of August Derleth
Starring Adam Godley as Solar Pons and Toby Longworth as Dr. Lyndon Parker
A new series from Radio 4, adapting the cult-classic adventures of "The Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street".
Driftless
Donor
I'm holding my copy of "The Exploits of Solar Pons" in my hands. They're pretty fair pastishe's of Sherlock Holmes.
Derleth was a prolific writer of Midwestern regional fiction, Lovecraftian horror, and the Holmes pastiche works. Mostly derivative, but very well done all the same.
I was in two minds as to whether to post it in this or my Sherlockian thread, but decided against it since it's not technically Holmes.
The Thinking Machine
(Spinning off of this...)
The Thinking Machine (1998)
(1 season, 7 episodes)
Syndicated
Based on the stories by Jacques Futrelles
Starring David Ogden Stiers as Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, and Matt Frewer as Hutchinson Hatch
A short-lived spin-off of the Mystery anthology Stateside Sleuths, and subsequently a minor cult favourite amongst crime aficionados.
The Thinking Machine (1998)
(1 season, 7 episodes)
Syndicated
Based on the stories by Jacques Futrelles
Starring David Ogden Stiers as Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, and Matt Frewer as Hutchinson Hatch
A short-lived spin-off of the Mystery anthology Stateside Sleuths, and subsequently a minor cult favourite amongst crime aficionados.
Nero Wolfe
(Spinning off of this...)
Nero Wolfe (1999-2000)
(2 seasons, 26 episodes)
Showtime
Based on the stories by Rex Stout
Starring Christian Slater as Archie Goodwin and Larry Drake as Nero Wolfe
The most successful spin-off of Stateside Sleuths, considered the definitive adaptation of Stout's works.
Nero Wolfe (1999-2000)
(2 seasons, 26 episodes)
Showtime
Based on the stories by Rex Stout
Starring Christian Slater as Archie Goodwin and Larry Drake as Nero Wolfe
The most successful spin-off of Stateside Sleuths, considered the definitive adaptation of Stout's works.
Driftless
Donor
Slater would have made a great Archie Goodwin! I've only seen Drake a few times and he was impressive then.
The Blue Cross (1963)
Val Guest directs this loose adaptation of G.K. Chesterton's classic Father Brown story for Hammer Films, although it's reworked into more of a light-hearted cat-and-mouse heist romp as opposed to a detective story.
Hercule Flambeau (Christopher Lee) is a charming gentleman thief and master of disguise, who commits several daring and high profile robberies. This gains the attention of the dogged, but opinionated policeman Inspector Aristde Valentin (Peter Cushing), who takes it upon himself to bring Flambeau to justice. Ultimately the chase brings the detective to England, where Flambeau intends to purloin a jewel-encrusted cross on its way to the Vatican. Into this affair, strolls a little mild-mannered priest (Miles Malleson) who will upend the outcome of the adventure in a way neither Valentin, nor Flambeau could have ever anticipated.
Thorndyke (CBS)
Thorndyke (2021-2023)
A CBS series
(2 seasons, 44 episodes)
Based on characters created by R. Austin Freeman
MAIN CAST:
- Dr. John E. Thorndyke (Chuku Modu): A mild mannered, yet brilliant English lawyer and forensic expert based in Washington.
- Kris Jervis (Natalie Morales): A newly appointed pathologist for the DC police.
- Nate Polton (Tony Curran): A chemistry expert, and Thorndyke's chief assistant.
- Lt. "Barney" Miller (Michael Weston): Head of the homicide division.
- Max Carrados (Chris McCausland): A blind English private investigator.
- Jay Parkinson (Malcolm Goodwin): Max's shrewd and observant carer, who acts as his "eyes".
- Louise Carlyle (Charity Wakefield): Max's business parter.
Tony Pros Cold War Generator has alternate endings and outcomes for 1960s/70s thrillers/mafia stories and even real life thrillers like Che Guevara.
See image for just one of the many of possible outcomes.
Link: https://perchance.org/cold-war-1970s-generator
See image for just one of the many of possible outcomes.
Link: https://perchance.org/cold-war-1970s-generator
Solar Pons
The Adventures of Solar Pons (1953-present)
(1 season, 39 episodes)
Starring Ronald Howard as Solar Pons and Howard Marion Crawford as Dr. Lyndon Parker
Based on characters created by August Derleth
A syndicated, US-French produced series adapting the Pontine canon.
(1 season, 39 episodes)
Starring Ronald Howard as Solar Pons and Howard Marion Crawford as Dr. Lyndon Parker
Based on characters created by August Derleth
A syndicated, US-French produced series adapting the Pontine canon.
Last edited:
I’d love a big screen adaptation of Christopher Fowler’s Roofworld, about a secret society on the rooftops of London (using zip wires, called runs, to get around) and a civil war between a drug addict ex-Doctor and an alchemist psychopath for control of it. Very cinematic, quite dark and gripping. If he wasn’t dead, I’d automatically cast Alan Rickman as the villain.
Driftless
Donor
Love the Pons idea and Ronald Howard portraying him, but the dates don't work if he's the lead actor. The numerous Pons stories would have been superb for a TV series format
I think you mean 1953 in place of the 53 Sherlock Holmes series
not 2023