The Case of the Midnight Gramophone · Sherlock Holmes — The New Cases

This radio drama uses AI-generated writing, voices, music, sound effects and artwork. All spoken performances in this edition use ElevenLabs V4.

Two five-pound notes bearing one serial number land on the table at Baker Street, and a Cairo inspector wants Holmes in Egypt before the week is out. Who is flooding wartime Cairo with money that its own bank swears it never prints twice?

Read the story and the full transcript: https://matezz.com/episodes/the-case-of-the-midnight-gramophone-sherlock-holmes-the-new-cases/

🎭 Directed Edition — every role cast for this story and every line performed with full voice direction.

In the first week of September 1943, Baker Street lies under the blackout. Holmes shuffles patience cards while Watson struggles over a wedding reply. Then Inspector Kamal of the Cairo police, seconded to Army Liaison, arrives with an envelope and a request: Holmes and Watson are wanted in Cairo tonight. Someone has been working out of Shepheard's Hotel every night, and Army Liaison wants him identified within the week. Watson points out that Egypt is a closed fighting zone and that Whitehall has twice refused his travel permit. Kamal answers with two five-pound notes of the same printing that carry one serial number, from a bank that has never struck the same number twice. A car waits below, and a flying-boat leaves Poole at midnight. By one in the morning the pair stand at the night desk of Shepheard's, where Nadia, the night clerk, explains her dawn routine. She counts the takings, seals them in a canvas bag, signs the receipt and sends it to the bank. Holmes asks who else keeps that hour, and the names she gives are few. At the bank, the teller's tally brings a further complication. Who is feeding these notes into the hotel's takings?

From the series Sherlock Holmes — The New Cases: a real crime of the 1940s reimagined as a classic Sherlock Holmes radio mystery, performed by a full multi-voice AI cast, with sound design and a light score that stays under the story.

Loosely inspired by a real event of the 1940s. All names, characters, dialogue and events are fictional; the words, actions, motives and private lives of every character — including hotel staff, merchants, guides, boat owners, the investigators and the police — are invented for drama, and so is the solution of the mystery. Where a real city, state, public body or newspaper is mentioned, its part in this story is invented; the hotel and the banks named in it are invented too. This is a work of fiction, not a factual account of any real person or institution. No real person is portrayed, and no real individual, company or organisation is accused of any act shown here.

Setting: London and Cairo — September 1943.

Chapters:
0:00 Patience Cards in the Blackout
2:31 The Night Lobby at Shepheard's
4:04 Last Orders at the Bar
5:35 A Morning in the Counting Room
7:20 A Yard Full of Camel-Bells
9:10 Lanterns Along the Corniche
10:44 Evening Talk with the Night Clerk
12:10 Reports Gathered Before Dawn
13:40 Grey Light on the Water
15:22 Morning Papers at Headquarters
16:56 Smoke and Gossip After Midnight
18:35 Coffee on the Small-Hours Terrace
20:02 Back at Police Headquarters
21:30 A Ring of Faces by Lamplight
22:59 Home to Baker Street

#MonoNoirRadioDrama #SherlockHolmes #AudioDrama