Sherlock Holmes: The True Story

Join us on Far Future Horizons in celebration of Sherlock Holmes' birthday. The game is afoot as we go in search of the real life inspiration behind Arthur Conan Doyle’s - Sherlock Holmes.

A leading Nineteenth Century professor of medicine, Dr. Joseph Bell was a pioneer in a new science that later would be known as forensic medicine. Joseph Bell is the real life model for the greatest fictional detective in history. And it was he who inspired his student, Arthur Conan Doyle to create the world’s greatest literary legend of all time.

The Boldest Hoax

Group portrait of the Piltdown skull being examined. Back row (from left): F. O. Barlow, G. Elliot Smith, Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodward. Front row: A S Underwood, Arthur Keith, W. P. Pycraft, and Ray Lankester. Note the portrait of Charles Darwin on the wall. Painting by John Cooke, 1915

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode of the PBS documentary series NOVA. This instalment of NOVA concerns the infamous Piltdown hoax.

For decades, a fossil skull discovered in Piltdown, England, was hailed as the missing link between apes and humans. Entire careers were built on its authenticity. Then in 1953, the awful truth came out: "Piltdown Man" was a fake! But who done it? In "The Boldest Hoax," NOVA gets to the bottom of the greatest scientific hoodwinking of all time.

The Casebook of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Today on Far Future Horizons we present two real life crimes from the casebooks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Arthur Conan Doyle implemented the powerful tools of deduction in solving real crimes just as chilling and baffling as those investigated by his own creation Sherlock Holmes.


Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s two most infamous cases, involved tracking down a madman who mutilated horses and brought terror to a quiet, leafy English village, and the brutal murder of a wealthy spinster which led Doyle to expose corruption at the heart of Britain's justice system.

A Study in Sherlock

Today on Far Future Horizons we take a trip down memory lane as we view an entertaining retrospective of the many silver screen and television incarnations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary creation - Sherlock Holmes.