Dr. Watson Four" in which he was played by Ian Hunter. Athole Stewart played Watson in the 1931 film "The Speckled Band" Reginald Owen played Watson in the 1932 film "Sherlock Holmes" Warburton Gamble played Watson in the 1933 film "A Study in Scarlet" The series of Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson portrayed the doctor as a lovable but incompetent assistant. Some later treatments have presented a more competent Watson. Watson was played by actor André Morell in the 1959 film version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", wherein Morell preferred that his version
Dr. Watson radio opposite first Basil Rathbone, then Tom Conway as Holmes in the 1940s. Carleton Hobbs portrayed Holmes in a series of BBC radio broadcasts that ran from 1952 to 1969, with Norman Shelley playing Watson. Many of these were broadcast on Children's Hour. Of the many actors who have portrayed Holmes and Watson for the BBC, the Hobbs and Shelley duo is the longest running. In 1954, Sir Ralph Richardson played Watson in a short radio series on NBC opposite Sir John Gielgud as Holmes. Watson was also portrayed by English-born actor Michael Williams for the BBC Radio adaptation of