Restoration of Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases to premiere at the 68th BFI London Film Festival

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (9 to 20 October) in partnership with American Express is delighted to announce that this year’s Archive Special Presentation will be the restoration World Premiere of Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases on 16 October. 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.  

Featuring arguably London’s most famous literary character and presented in the dramatic Victorian setting of Alexandra Palace Theatre, the newly restored trio of episodes will screen with a unique live score. The Special Presentation celebrates a new partnership between the BFI and the Royal Academy of Music, with Joanna MacGregor conducting an ensemble of 10 young Academy players performing three newly commissioned scores composed by MacGregor, Neil Brand and Joseph Havlat.

The iconic screen Holmes of the silent era, 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 (1921), The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1922) and The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1923), plus two features, Hound of the Baskervilles (1921) and The Sign of Four (1923). Conan Doyle thoroughly approved of the first series to comprehensively, and closely, adapt his famous 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. 

The BFI’s Silent Sherlock restoration project has been made possible under a rights agreement between the BFI and The Really Useful Group and through generous support from Iron Mountain’s Living Legacy Initiative, which is Iron Mountain’s commitment to preserve and make accessible cultural and historical information and artefacts. The project reflects BFI and Iron Mountain’s shared goal to help preserve, and make accessible, our shared cultural and historical legacy for future audiences to engage with globally.

All 45 episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series and two feature films produced by the Stoll Picture Company (1921 to 1923), the rights of which were later acquired by the Really Useful Group as part of their acquisition of Stoll-Moss Theatres, are currently being restored at the BFI National Archive’s Conservation Centre by a team headed by Elena Nepoti, Bryony Dixon and Ben Thompson. Using a combination of the original negatives acquired by the BFI from Stoll Pictures in 1938, as well as later preservation masters, the team of 12 restorers working on these Holmesian mysteries have reconstructed the films to their original versions and reconstructed the intertitle design, where there have been missing or single frame intertitles to work from. In some cases, they have brought back the original tint colours as seen on first release and removed the effects of a century of wear and tear on these unique films.

Arike Oke, BFI Executive Director of Knowledge, Learning and Collections said: “Eille Norwood embodies the original tales’ Victorian sleuth, encountering Britain’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.” 

The 68th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday 9 October to Sunday 20 October, 2024. The full festival programme will be revealed on Wednesday 4 September 2024, with tickets on sale from Tuesday 17 September (BFI Members book early and American Express® Cardmembers).