In 1978/79 Michael Allen wrote two scripts for the American film producer and director, Sheldon Reynolds. These scripts were filmed (in Warsaw) as part of Reynolds’s 24-episode series featuring the famous Sherlock Holmes.
One of the scripts, an adaptation of Conan Doyle’s story The Speckled Band, was used by Reynolds as a pilot episode for the series. The second script was an original story entitled Murder on Midsummer’s Eve.
Among the other writers used on this particular Sherlock Holmes series were Anthony Burgess, Tudor Gates, and Harold Jack Bloom. Holmes was played by Geoffrey Whitehead, and Watson by Donald Pickering, with Patrick Newell as Inspector Lestrade. Further details can be found in Peter Haining's book The Television Sherlock Holmes, published by Virgin, 1991.
The 24 half-hour episodes were apparently never shown in the UK because a projected deal with ITV fell through. They were, however, shown in the USA.
