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 cover |
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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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