Salutations
all!
I am a really
big fan of the old Sexton Blake stories. He was a master detective that was
once described by Professor Jeffrey Richards as “the poor man’s Sherlock
Holmes”, but I’m not too sure about that. True, there are over 4,000 stories by
roughly 200 different authors – including Dorothy L Sayers who started her
career as a writer with Blake and Michael Moorcock who edited the library from
the mid fifties onwards and who also cut his writing teeth with Blake stories.
True, he does resemble an action hero version of the famous detective, but does
that mean he should be consigned as a knock off?
I think not.
Blake, though largely forgotten, has been part of probably the longest running
detective series ever and that’s excluding the silent films and sound movies,
the radio serial and the ITV television series in the swinging sixties. And
that’s not forgetting the line of comic strips in The Knock-Out Comic, Valiant
and Tornado.
The first Sexton
Blake story was The Missing Millionaire, written by Harry Blyth under the name
of Hal Meredith 20th December 1893.
His stories were
published in The Halfpenny Marvel, Union Jack, Detective Weekly, Penny
Pictorial – were he starred in numerous novellas – before moving over to The
Sexton Blake Library from 1915 until 1968. From then on, he became the lead in
a series of several standalone novels.
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| Sexton Blake Library |
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| Penny Pictorial featured Sexton Blake |
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| Union Jack featuring Sexton Blake |
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| Union Jack featuring Sexton Blake |
Sexton
Blake, the man
Blake went
through a variety of changes through his career. He started out as a gentleman
detective that was very popular in the late Victorian period. After the death
of Sherlock Holmes after falling over the Reichenback Falls, there was a demand
that publishers wished to fill.
But it was in
1919 when Blake entered his heyday that he became a more memorable character
thanks to his more action packed plots and memorable villains. This was an age
when we would see Blake take on Dr Satira –the evil mesmerist with his missing
link body guard; Count Orlock – genius and the world’s first test pilot; and
Monsieur Zenith – exiled prince, opium addict and albino who’s never seen out
of evening wear. He would even go up against AJ Raffles, the Master Cat
Burglar, first created by EW Hornung.
This was a
period when many of Blake’s writers had led lives worthy of a pulp fiction
hero. Blake would find plans for prototype submarines, be a survivor of the
titanic and take on slave traders in the jungle heart of the African
rainforest. But, when World War Two started, many of these authors would
enlist, leaving a small group of writers behind.
By 1955, a new
editor for Sexton Blake Library would see Sexton Blake updated once more. These
were stories for a new market. They were more contemporary, faster paced,
influenced by the American pulps like the Shadow and Doc Savage. In this phase,
he would become a more James Bond-ian figure, visiting many an exotic location.
It was only now that Blake would move from his Baker Street offices – see the
Holmes parody there? – to Berkeley Square and he would gain a secretary to aid
him alongside his indomitable sidekick, Tinker.
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| Sexton Blake |
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| Sexton Blake, Tinker and Pedro |
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| Sexton Blake |
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| Sexton Blake |
The
Sidekicks
In 1909 Blake
would pick up a street wise orphan and employ him as an assistant. Who,
throughout his career, would forever be known as Tinker. As well as keeping
Blake’s files and case paperwork in order, he would be accompanying Blake on
all his cases. He would become an integral part of the Blake plots that
regularly fought alongside the ‘guv’nor’. On occasion, he’d aid Blake in
escaping the wiles a villain in his slum lair or mansion retreat.
In 1905, Mrs
Bardell turned up and remained with Blake as his housekeeper. Her misuse of the
English language became an on running joke within the stories. Rather than let
her become another Mrs Hudson – Sherlock Holmes’s housekeeper – who would
remain at home providing tea, dinner and board, she received the spotlight in
two of Blake’s stories; one published in 1925 and the other in 1926.
The 1905 story
entitled The Dof Detective saw the introduction of Pedro the bloodhound. The
faithful but ferocious hound was originally owned by Rafael Calderon, the
ex-president of a South American State and was gifted to Blake for services
rendered.
That’s not
forgetting, Sir Richard Losely – explorer; Lobangu – baron and African tribal
chieftain; ‘Splash’ Kirby – the reporter who would spawn his own spin off
series; Ruff Hanson – American PI; and finally Detective Inspector Coutts,
Superintendent Venner and Chief Detective Inspector Lennard – all of Scotland
Yard.
One sidekick I
mustn’t fail to mention is another non-human associate – alongside Pedro – is
The Grey Panther, Blake’s bullet proof Rolls Royce.
Blake
Villains!
First
up in an early one. Its George Marsden Plummer, created by Ernest Semphill. He
was a crooked Detective Sergenat who went after Blake when he stood between him
and a fortune. Like with many of stories that he’d star in, he ended up in a
police cell, only to escape later in spectacular fashion. He would become one
of Blake’s arch-nemeses.
Waldo
the Wonderman – created by Edwy Searles Brooks in 1918 – started out as a
villain and ended up as a friend of Blake’s, helping him in several cases. This superman had tremendous strength and
could contort his body like Harry Houdini. It was also to his benefit that he
was incapable of feeling pain. Even after becoming shunning his master criminal
ways, he still stole money – but his victims were now blackmailers, swindlers
and other no good members of the underworld.
Other
desperadoes Blake encountered were Dr Huxton Rymer, Leon Kestrel, The League of
the Cobbler’s Last, the Three Musketeers, the Master Mummer alongside those
mentioned earlier, Monsieur Zenith the Albino and Dr Satira.
Like
Blake, the criminals he faced changed with time. After World War Two, his
opponents became more down to earth, despite the exotic locations. Their
motives became less fantastical; they Fu Manchu personas were no more.
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| Zenith, Blake's most long running nemesis |
Sexton
Blake at the Movies
From
1907, Sexton Blake hit the stage with The Case of the Coiners. There would be
several more plays but in 1909, Blake starred in his own movie. Called simply
Sexton Blake, it was 12 minutes long and was written, directed and starred
Charles Douglas Carlile.
Sexton
Blake versus Baron Kettler followed a few years later and a further 13 half
hour films were produced from 1914 onwards as silent movies, including The
Mystery of the Diamond Belt and Sexton Blake versus Mademoiselle Yvonne – based
on another of Blake’s sometime adversary, sometime ally from the Blake novellas
and short stories.
The
Silken Threads and The Clue of the Second Goblet were released from 1928 along
with four more silent films starring Langhorne Burton as Blake and Mickey
Brantford as Tinker.
These
were only the start. When the talkies started being fashionable in the ‘30s,
three more Blake films were released, Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor, was
based on one of the novella written by a Sexton Blake Library stalwart called
Rex Hardinge. Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle followed, based on another
story by another house writer called GH Teed. The film that capped off this
trilogy was Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror.
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| Lawrence Payne as Sexton Blake |
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| Lawrence Payne as Sexton Blake |
Radio
Serials
A radio series
started at the end of January 1939 on BBC Radio entitled Enter Sexton Blake
with George Curzon as Blake and Brian Lawrence as Tinker. Francis Durbridge of
Paul Temple fame adapted a following series that started a little before Easter
1940.
But it was in
1967 that the most famous of the radio serialisations started on BBC Radio 4.
With William Franklyn as Blake, David Gregory as Tinker and Heather Chasen as
Blake’s secretary, it aired every Thursday.
In March 2006,
following discussions between BBC radio producer Dirk Maggs – with a name like
that he could have had his own fictional detective series – and IPC publishing
director Andrew Sumner recorded a new pilot. This was a humorous take on the
old series with Simon Jones as Blake, Wayne Forester as Tinker and William
Franklyn returning as an ancient Blake in his final performance framing the
stories as memoirs from an old age.
As a result of
this pilot, a new six instalment series was commissioned. It was released on CD
by BBC audio books on 10th September 2009. This was accompanied by a
documentary, The Hunt for Sexton Blake aired before the series started on BBC
Radio 2.
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| Sexton Blake radio drama with William Franklyn |
On
the Television
Lawrence
Payne starred as Blake in the ITV series and was aired from September 1967 to
January 1971. In keeping with Sexton Blake tradition, Blake drove a white Rolls
Royce named The Grey Panther and had a bloodhound named Pedro. As with a number
of shows and films, Pedro was played by more than one dog. Interestingly,
during rehearsals, Lawrence Payne was blinded in his left eye by a rapier.
Unfortunately,
only the first episode is thought to exist of the 50 episode run, but there was
a six part series called Sexton Blake and the Demon God that ran from September
to October 1978 that starred Jeremy Clyde as Blake and Philip Davis as Tinker.
And
where is he now?
Michael
Moorcock used Monsieur Zenith the Albino as the base for Elric of Melnibone and
Zenith the Albino was a character in Moorcock’s Metatemporal Detective series
where the Sexton Blake character was renamed Seaton Begg – in the stories, Begg
was the famous detective that Sexton Blake was based on.
Now
there is a marvellous website by Mark Hodder, author extraordinaire who has
collected reviews and synopses of many of the Blake stories. He also goes into
each of Blake’s villains and allies into more detail. There is also an article
about Blake by Michael Moorcock. Visit his marvellous website, Blakiana here: www.mark-hodder.com/Blakiana
Several
reprints and some of the later originals can be found here on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3Asexton+blake&keywords=sexton+blake&ie=UTF8&qid=1433165123
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