Minor Sherlock Holmes characters


This article describes minor characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and from non-canonical derived works. The list excludes the titular character as well as Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, Inspector Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, Irene Adler, Colonel Moran, the Baker Street Irregulars, and characters not significant enough to mention.

Inspectors

Inspector Baynes

Inspector Baynes of the Surrey Constabulary appears in the two-part story "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge", subtitled "The Singular Experience of Mr John Scott Eccles", and "The Tiger of San Pedro". He is the only official policeman in the books to have ever matched Sherlock Holmes in his investigative skills. He is described as a very heavy man with a "puffy" face, but very intelligent eyes. In this story, the reader finds that, despite working along different lines, Holmes and Baynes both arrive at the correct conclusion and solve the case at the same time. In fact, Baynes had misled Holmes, as he used a method similar to one that Holmes often used when he arrested the wrong man and provided inaccurate information to the press, to lull the true criminal into a false sense of security. Holmes congratulated Baynes, and believed that he would go far.

Film and television

  • In the 1988 Granada Television adaptation of The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge Inspector Baynes is portrayed by Freddie Jones.
  • In the Japanese puppetry television series Sherlock Holmes, Baynes is a pupil of Beeton School as well as Holmes and has a strong sense of rivalry against him. Baynes speaks in a precocious manner and provokes Holmes to find the truth of the disappearance of two pupils, Garcia and Henderson. After that, he provokes Holmes again by posting a message using the stick figures of dancing men in the school. Yōsuke Asari voices him.

    Radio

  • In the podcast series Sherlock & Co. Baynes is voiced by Freddie Cohen.

    Video games

  • A version of Inspector Baynes appears in the video game The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, in which Baynes is employed by Scotland Yard.

    Inspector Bradstreet

Inspector Bradstreet is a detective who appears in three short stories: "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb". Doyle described him as "a tall, stout official... in a peaked cap and frogged jacket". Sidney Paget's illustrations for the Strand Magazine depict him with a full beard. Beyond this little is revealed about him in the canon.
Bradstreet originally served in Scotland Yard's E Division which associates him with the Bow Street Runners, a forerunner of Scotland Yard. He claims to have been in the force since 1862 but in June 1889 Dr Watson writes he is in B Division to oversee "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle". According to Sherlockian author Jack Tracy, B Division was "one of the twenty-two administrative divisions of the Metropolitan Police Force. Its 5.17 square miles include parts of south Kensington and the south-western section of ".
In "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb", he accompanied Holmes to Eyford, a village in Berkshire. According to Jack Tracy's The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana, he was "assigned most likely to the central headquarters staff." Bradstreet is not a martinet; in "The Man with the Twisted Lip" he could have prosecuted the false beggar, but chose to overlook this action to spare Neville St Clair the trauma of shaming his wife and children.
He is also featured in M. J. Trow's series The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade.

Film and television

Inspector Tobias Gregson, a Scotland Yard inspector, was first introduced in A Study in Scarlet, and he subsequently appears in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" and "The Adventure of the Red Circle". Holmes declares him to be "the smartest of the Scotland Yarders," but given Holmes' opinion of the Scotland Yard detectives, this is not sweeping praise. In one of the stories, Watson specifically mentions the callous and cool way in which Gregson behaved.
Gregson first appears in A Study in Scarlet and is a polar opposite of another Yarder Doyle created, Inspector Lestrade. Lestrade and Gregson are such visual opposites, it indicates the barrier Doyle drew between them to emphasise their professional animosity. Gregson is tall, "tow-headed" in contrast to the shorter Lestrade's dark "ferretlike" features and has "fat, square hands".
Of all the Yarders, Gregson comes the closest to meeting Sherlock Holmes on intellectual grounds, while acknowledging Holmes's abilities. He even admits to Holmes that he always feels more confident when he has Holmes' aid in a case. Regrettably, he is bound within the confines of the law he serves, and the delay in getting his assistance turns to tragedy in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter". He also has some regrettable human flaws. During A Study in Scarlet, he publicly laughs at Lestrade's incorrect assumptions, even though he is also on the wrong trail.
Unlike Lestrade, Gregson overlooks the little grey areas of the law, and in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" overlooks Holmes's breaking of a window in order to enter a premises. The life of Mycroft Holmes's fellow lodger is saved by this minor criminal act.
Gregson last appears in Doyle's "The Adventure of the Red Circle" in events that happen in 1902 but are not published by Dr. Watson until 1911. In this story, Watson observes that:
Our official detectives may blunder in the matter of intelligence, but never in that of courage. Gregson climbed the stair to arrest this desperate murderer with the same absolutely quiet and businesslike bearing with which he would have ascended the official staircase of Scotland Yard. The Pinkerton man had tried to push past him, but Gregson had firmly elbowed him back. London dangers were the privilege of the London force.

Inspector Gregson has appeared in multiple pastiches written by other authors, including several short stories by Adrian Conan Doyle published in the 1954 collection The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, and the novel Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye.

Film and television

  • John Willard played Inspector Gregson in the 1922 silent film Sherlock Holmes.
  • In the 1945 film The Woman in Green, Gregson was played by Matthew Boulton.
  • George A. Cooper played Inspector Gregson in two episodes of the television series Sherlock Holmes in 1968.
  • In the Soviet television film series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Inspector Gregson was played by Igor Dmitriev.
  • Inspector Gregson was portrayed by Oliver Maguire in the 1985 episode "The Greek Interpreter" in the Granada Television series Sherlock Holmes.
  • A character named Captain Gregson of the NYPD appears in the TV adaptation Elementary, portrayed by Aidan Quinn. Originally he was to be called Tobias Gregson, after the character in the stories, but his name was changed to Thomas Gregson.
  • Gregson appears in the anime Moriarty the Patriot.
  • Gregson is played by Tim Key in the streaming television series The Irregulars.
  • In the TV series Watson, Gregson is mentioned as being Watson' main contact at Scotland Yard.

    Radio

  • Eric Snowden played Inspector Gregson in the episode "The Strange Case of the Demon Barber" in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
  • In the 1952–1969 BBC radio series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, Michael Turner voiced Gregson in the 1960 dramatisation of "The Greek Interpreter". He was played by Humphrey Morton in "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Red Circle". Geoffrey Wincott voiced Inspector Gregson in the 1966 dramatisation of "Wisteria Lodge".
  • Frederick Treves voiced Inspector Gregson in the 1974 BBC radio drama "A Study in Scarlet".
  • In the BBC Radio Sherlock Holmes series with Clive Merrison as Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Gregson was voiced by John Moffat in A Study in Scarlet, and by Ronald Herdman in "The Greek Interpreter" and "The Red Circle".
  • In Sherlock Holmes radio dramas on Imagination Theatre, Inspector Gregson is played mainly by John Murray.
  • Edward Harrison voiced Inspector Gregson in Sherlock Holmes: The Voice of Treason, an Audible Original 8-hour audio drama released in 2020.
  • DI Tom Gregson is portrayed by Ant McGinley in the podcast series ''Sherlock & Co.''

    Video games

  • Inspector Gregson appears in the video game The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel, and is briefly seen at Scotland Yard in the sequel The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo.
  • Gregson appears in two cases in the video game Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. III.
  • Tobias Gregson is the main police detective in the game The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, before being replaced by Gina Lestrade, a pickpocket based on Inspector Lestrade whom Gregson trained in detective work.