Sherlock Holmes early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times. Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen U.S. films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures) from 1939 to 1946, and in "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on the Mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946 (before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway). While the Fox films were period pieces,
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes of every story in the canon between 1989 and 1998. "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", a new series consisting of original stories written exclusively by Bert Coules was then commissioned, but following Williams' death from cancer in 2001, he was replaced by Andrew Sachs. The episodes of "The Further Adventures" were based on throwaway references in Doyle's short stories and novels. The complete canonical run is available on CD and audio tape. "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is also available on CD as four box sets each containing four episodes. BBC Radio 2 also broadcast in 1999 a