Elementary..

“We were both so engrossed with Hound that neither of us wanted to think of doing another Holmes story immediately,”

says Egan. “That was put aside, and then, three years later…”

So now the actors are revealing The Secret Of Sherlock Holmes, recreating the role of the Baker Street sleuth and his faithful sidekick in a play by Jeremy Paul, promising that the true relationship between Holmes and his arch enemy, Moriarty, is finally revealed.

For Egan, the attraction wasn’t so much playing Holmes again as the part itself. “This is a two-hander and it’s nice to do plays where you can concentrate on the storyline and your partner. Being on stage all the time, although gruelling to begin with, once you come to terms with the play, you can relax and let the play take you,” he explains.

“The play changes depending on the mood of the audience and what your partner is serving up. You always play in similar territory, but how you reach places changes a bit.”

The Hound Of The Baskervilles production was very design-driven, he says.

“We used projected images, with very large screens that could show an interior or the moors. We sat at the front with scenes projected behind. If I turned round I couldn’t see the set and there were occasions when the set didn’t appear because the computer broke.”

The play was written as a vehicle for Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke following their success as Holmes and Watson on TV.

“In many ways it’s about them. Jeremy’s dead now, but it’s the relationship of a mad genius with a kind-hearted intelligent man,” says Philip Franks.

“The characters are written the way they played them, rather than how Basil Rathbone and others did. It goes into areas, really interesting areas, of truth and betrayal and loss. It doesn’t have to be Holmes and Watson, it could be any friendship really.”

EGAN didn’t feel the need to return to the Arthur Conan Doyle books because the play is very much a story in its own right. “We’ve done postshow question and answer sessions and a lot of the audience have said things like, ‘we didn’t know that about Holmes and Watson, it was fascinating’,” he says.

“The play is very much a psychological thriller about the Holmes/Moriarty issue with a very interesting turn in the second act, which I won’t reveal.”

He found it easier being Holmes, having playing him before. “There are elements of being a successful Holmes, such as authority and stage presence. There’s a dryness and cold intellect and sense of being removed from things.”

He has played young Sherlock Holmes in a radio series, as well as being asked to play him about five times, and Watson twice in the past. “But I think I’m more suited to Holmes than Watson,” he adds.

Franks – still remembered as Charlie in The Darling Buds Of May and a stint as Sergeant Raymond Craddock, in Heartbeat – is very fond of Watson. “He’s heart to Holmes’ head. If you read the stories he’s a very intelligent man, he’s Conan Doyle really.”

The recent Guy Ritchie film Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as the sleuthing pair, has reinvented the characters for a modern audience.

“Holmes and Watson are constantly going to be reinvented and explored,”

says Franks. “He’s hit on the central truth of the double act. You mustn’t feel hemmed in or weighed down by the past.

“I’ve returned to a character on stage before and played characters over a long period in TV. As for the two Holmes plays, I’m glad it was this way round. The Hound was a great big rollicking adventure with a lot of technology, this one has a lot more to get your teeth into. The fact that we know, like and trust each other on stage is a help.”

■ The Secret Of Sherlock Holmes: York Theatre Royal, March 23 to 27. Tickets 01904-623568 and yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

■ The Darling Buds Of May: today, ITV3, 2.35pm. The Jeremy Brett version of The Hound Of The Baskervilles is on tomorrow, 5.55pm, ITV3.