An Interview with the Creator of Sherlock & Co. - Joel Emery

I'm not a huge fan of Sherlockian adaptations.  I'm not opposed to adaptations, though.  I am happy to check something out and see what creators are doing with Holmes and Watson, even if that means sitting through Holmes and Watson.  Most adaptations have some kind of spin to add to the Canon, and quite frankly, it's usually too much spin for me.  I prefer to stick to the source material most of the time and read scholarship around that.  

So when I heard people buzzing after the first episode of the podcast Sherlock & Co., I knew I would check it out, but wasn't in a big hurry.  John Watson returns to London after an injury and tries his hand at true crime podcasting, because everyone has a podcast now.  The premise sounded clever.  I figured I would think the show was fine, but something that ultimately wasn't for me.  Man, was I wrong.

Anytime I try a new show, I give it three episodes to find its groove before passing judgement.  Sherlock & Co. is one of the rare shows that had me sold by the end of the first episode.  The sound quality and acting is impeccable.  The plan is to modernize the entire Canon, and each case takes two to three episodes to complete, so the creators are playing a long game here.  There is a lot to enjoy in this show that I could go on and on about: John's abilities as a podcaster, "Mrs. Hudson," Archie, Mrs. Watson, etc. 

I'm a stickler for canonical fidelity, and Sherlock & Co. nails it.  But what I enjoy the most are all of the updates that keep these cases fresh.  How does "Thor Bridge" tie in to Instagram and and video games?  I won't spill the beans, but will tell you that it was done brilliantly.  And Baron Gruner?  Oh man, Sherlock & Co.'s version of him is unnervingly true to life and bothersome.

Now, when you hear, "modernize," comparisons to Sherlock and Elementary are inevitable.  I'm going to stake my claim right here and now and say that Sherlock & Co. is hands down better than either of them.  I strongly recommend anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes to check out Sherlock & Co.  Give it a few episodes and see what you think.  

So my mini-review here has all been a way to pave the road for an interview with the show's creator, Joel Emery.  Joel was happy to talk about his new project via email, and I think anyone who is already enjoying the show or is interested in it will enjoy what he has to say about his process:

How did you get into audio production?

I suppose, at this risk of sounding cynical about the media industry - we had no money or connections! So we needed a field of the industry that required neither of those things to get our work out there. Podcasting was and remains free for the most part and overheads are very manageable, so we put together a show that we had always wanted to do called The Offensive. It followed a fictional Premier League football team in a documentary style. It was very sweary, very coarse, a satire of the modern game and it ran every week for five years. It was obviously rushed together in our spare time, we cast hundreds of actors over that time and by the end of it we had acquired a bunch of skills that we threw into the next project and the next and the next. And now, thank god, we don't do it in our spare time - we do it for a living.

Americans don't naturally gravitate to audio dramas.  How would you sell this form of storytelling to those of us across the pond?

Neither do Brits I can tell you! Audio drama remains an acquired taste (I find anyway). We're often looking at ways into presenting stories that are audio dramas but ultimately don't feel like them. It often requires deconstructing the form a little and latching the shows onto a more recognised form. For example, John Watson is a true-crime podcaster, he constantly speaks to the listener and I will deliberately put together dialogue that reads as real as possible. He makes mistakes, he has technical issues, things crop up that he wasn't expecting, we're limited by his editing, his microphone coverage and so on. This, believe it or not, is familiar ground for the average podcast listener - and this vehicle is what we try and use as a gateway drug to audio drama. Yes it's an audio drama - but be assured we're doing everything we can behind the scenes to make it not feel like one. 

I would sell audio drama like this - it's great for improving focus. Lots of exercises out there to improve focus are boring and difficult, so if you want to work on how you consume media and flex your imagination muscles - do it with something that has a story, do it with something fun and interesting. Audio drama is right up there as a fun workout for your brain. I believe also colouring books are as well, but you're going to look like an idiot in public if you're doing that. Unless you're aged 7 and under of course.

With all of the characters out there, what drew you to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson?

Goalhanger Podcasts (the production company that owns the show) told us to! It was not something that occurred to us. I think for Sherlock outsiders it can often look like a very saturated market, we couldn't really understand why Goalhanger saw this gap to exploit. That was until Tony Pastor at Goalhanger showed me the full Sherlock catalogue, all those short stories that had basically been neglected by mainstream broadcasters and movie studios for an entire generation. After reading "The Red Headed League" we were completely on board. I think if you don't know the stories you always start with the characters. And what great characters. Watson is perfect for this form, a realist, an everyman story-teller, and Sherlock is the perfect counterweight to that.

What is the typical process of adapting a story for the podcast?

Read it about 4 times, listen to Stephen Fry narrate it a couple of times. I actually listened to I Hear Of Sherlock Everywhere with Raymond G. Farney and I ended up buying his book A Study In Sherlock and it's really handy as a writer as it works as Watson's casebook. It compiles each adventure into details, evidence, perpetrators, timeframes, locations, dates - everything just brought down to key points. All the while, even from the first reading, I'll be noting down how it would work in modern day, how it would work in audio and how we can add something refreshing as well. Also comedy, our show is a light comedy most of the time so I'm also looking for those moments. We're only a few weeks ahead of the latest uploaded episodes so we'll make sure the cast get the scripts at the earliest window possible. Once it's all edited together we'll talk about pickups, how clear is the mystery, how formed are the new characters for this story, what lines need to be tweaked etc.

(Joel appeared on episode 275 of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, and is definitely worth a listen.)

How do you decide the chronology of your stories?

It's a great question with a boring answer I'm afraid. Sherlock Holmes has a number of different types of story, and it was important for us that we presented that variation of form right from the off. If we had started with 4 murder cases in a row, we would have cultivated an audience that was expecting blood and guts. But a lot of the time Sherlock Holmes stories are characters needing something looked into, needing a problem solved. Sometimes Sherlock is just re-collecting a story. And that's the reason we started with "Illustrious Client" - there's a hint of a murder, but mostly it's something that needs to be solved. Then we did "Noble Bachelor," no murder, just intrigue. By the time we came to "The Problem of Thor Bridge" and for our first murder investigation, our Watson is terrified at the idea of being involved with something so unusual to his modern sensibilities, army surgeon or otherwise - so it gives us a little growth in that sense. And from this point onwards we're trying to show people who aren't familiar with the original stories just how varied Conan Doyle made these adventures. How they bounced around from all sorts of places, to all sorts of problems, from all sorts of villains and victims. It's not just about Moriarty vs Sherlock, there's so much out there so we just want to really keep them on their feet. It was a big decision at the time, to break the original order and actually ignore the chronology of Watson's accounts and to find our own route through the canon. We don't regret our decision at all, it is a lot of fun deciding the next place to go.

Which character is the most fun to write for?

Watson. 100% Watson. Sherlock Holmes is intellectually intimidating! Watson is brilliant too but Sherlock Holmes uses efficient, accurate language, his deductions are lengthy but precise and it can take me a while to put them together... yes I may be prouder of Sherlock's lines but Watson is definitely more fun. 

What is your favorite of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories?

Baskervilles I find really, really cool. The scale of it, branching out from something so small captivates me... But it's a different trip to Dartmoor that I prefer; "Silver Blaze" is the one I have enjoyed the most. I expect this to change, I'm constantly reading the stories, over and over. And I'm constantly reading analysis on the stories so I can absolutely picture myself falling in love with another adventure but that one is currently the leader of the pack for me. It's intrigue wrapped in fun and that's exactly what we like to get our hands on.

Can you give a hint of what's in store for Sherlock & Co. in 2024?

Well we're closing in on our first million downloads, so it looks like the show will grow from strength to strength. Maybe there will be some well-known voices, that's something we're looking into. For our super-fans we're putting together our fan club and subscriber-only content and getting merch designs off the ground. But as for the stories - I can definitely promise the novels, which one we'll start with.. we're not sure. But that's taking some of our focus now, how do we package them, how many parts do we release in order to tell those stories.. the list goes on! We're so fortunate to be working with this material and to be the biggest audio drama in the UK right now is reflective of our hard work, our amazing cast and Conan Doyle's flamboyant, brilliant, gripping adventures.