Shoscomb Old Place

I was the script editor for this series of Holmes stories which were originally planned for film. When it was realised that the series was going to go way over budget (under the previous editor and producer)I was brought inbecause I had a reputation for making series work on very tiny budgets. I joined when they had just finished the two episodes of "The Hound of the Baskervilles". They were already £250000 over budget and I was told to rescue that money over the remaining episodes of the series. This meant major re-writes of all the scripts but I had to get the writers to do them for free or allow me to do it so that the stories were told with the minimum of film (no more than three minutes per episode). Nearly all the writers agreed to either do it themselves or allowed me to. There were only two who raised objections.
One was Anthony Read who originally adapted Shoscomb Old Place. At the time I took over he was editor of a new series that was being developed about the oil industry. He initially said to me I could do what I liked with the script so I went ahead and completely rewrote it - he had taken the story, made a film adventure out of it which was impossible to bring into the studio. I returnedto the original story by Conan Doyle and set the whole thing in the house and the stables without any use of film. When Tony saw the script he hated it and took his name off it and reported me to the screen writers guild. When I was cleared of any malpractice he insisted his name went back on and when the episode won an award in Italy for its script he went and collected it. But that was the way of the world and the BBC. At The end of the series The Head of Series tried to blame me for the fact that the whole series cameinwith a final over-spendof £3000. I appealed to the DG that this was unfair and my contract was honoured. I worked for another two years for them and then nothing I submitted or suggested was ever accepted again. That is the story behind Peter Cushing's Holmes for the BBC and explains why when my contract finished I never worked in television again.