A brand-new comedy-whodunnit has landed at Birmingham Rep for the festive season. Penned by and starring Humphrey Ker and David Reed, Sherlock Holmes And The Twelve Days Of Christmas is certain to entertain audiences with its playful investigations of murders most foul in Victorian London’s theatreland. What’s On recently caught up with Humphrey and David to find out more...

A festive spectacle full of surprises that will keep audiences guessing to the end. That’s how the writers of Sherlock Holmes And The 12 Days Of Christmas - currently showing at Birmingham Repertory Theatre - describe their brand-new play.

And Humphrey Ker and David Reed have not only written the show - creating a totally new adventure in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate a mysterious killing spree in London’s theatreland - they’ve also taken the lead roles!

“Dave and I first met in Edinburgh in about 2001,” explains Emmy and Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning writer Humphrey. “We were immediately drawn to each other because of a shared love of gothic, of Sherlock Holmes and a bit of Dickensian fun.

“We ended up performing in a sketch team together called the Penny Dreadfuls for about five years, which was all driven by melodrama. This show feels like a return to our roots - but much fancier because we made our props out of cardboard [back then] and now an incredibly skilled team are working on the show.
“This show is very silly, it’s very joyful, it’s packed to the gills with unabashed Christmas cheer; there are dancing Christmas puddings, there are small Victorian urchins, there are all the things we think of when we think of Christmas.”

And, of course, it also brings to the stage Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary investigator.

“Sherlock Holmes is really the model for every great detective since,” Humphrey continues. “Whether it’s Broadchurch or Poirot or Jack Frost in A Touch Of Frost, it’s the notion of someone who is almost superhuman finding the truth. And that’s very reassuring. We live in a world where justice isn’t always served, but when we go on these journeys with great detectives, the goodies triumph and the baddies get their just desserts.”

David believes it’s the unlikely partnership of Holmes and Watson which draws us in: “At the centre of it all you’ve got this lovely double act. I think part of the longevity of the characters is that you’ve got Watson alongside Holmes at every step, and he’s the audience’s way in. We are seeing Sherlock through Watson’s eyes.

“There’s a timeless quality to Holmes’ character. It’s that impervious spirit of investigation but also being cantankerous at times and in some ways deeply limited. I love the idea that he has this encyclopaedic mind in things like chemistry, but then there are subjects he just has absolutely no interest in.”

Humphrey has appeared in Apple TV’s Mythic Quest, NBC’s American Auto and BBC’s Daddy Issues, as well as being a panellist on Have I Got News For You and 8 Out Of 10 Cats. He is also former executive director and now community director at Wrexham Football Club, and has featured in four seasons of the hit Disney Channel series Welcome To Wrexham.

David has written shows including The Penny Dreadfuls Present Macbeth Rebothered, The Odyssey and The Curse Of The Beagle for radio. He appeared in BBC’s Daddy Issues and It’s Kevin & The Wrong Door, and wrote and performed in the comedy play Guy Fawkes, which premiered at York Theatre Royal.
For their new show, the duo were determined to take the spirit of Conan Doyle’s tales but write an adventure which would keep people guessing.

“We wanted to create an entirely new mystery so that even the most hardcore fans of Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t know what was coming,” says David. “There are lots of references people will recognise, and hopefully we’ve done a pretty faithful interpretation of them: the pipe, the violin, the magnifying glass, Dr Watson’s revolver on a piece of string.

“We also wanted it to have one foot firmly in the tradition of a British Christmas show, so it’s got plenty of ingredients of pantomime or A Christmas Carol or any of these wonderfully rich Christmas shows that people love to go and see around this time of year.”

And for David and Humphrey, those very British Christmas traditions also include the ‘murder-mystery’ - as Humphrey explains: “There’s always a Peter Ustinov Poirot on TV, and we love the sort of classic high-production Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle adventure - that’s what we’re trying to capture the spirit of.

“My wife is American, and she was delighted to discover that no UK Christmas is complete without someone being hit over the head with a lead pipe - as long as it’s only on the telly!”

A Birmingham Rep production, the show features new songs by musical theatre legends Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, bringing an added dynamic to the show.

“Our template for it was the pantomime,” explains David, “where you have about five or six numbers so that certain scenes are ramped up or elevated above the dialogue. So you’ve suddenly got this swell of positivity, or this swell of evil from the villain, and we’ve done very much the same thing with this.

“The songs are bringing a bit of variety, a bit of punch and a touch of class; they elevate it. All the songs are so catchy - we’ve had them stuck in our heads for months now! They’re fantastic, and it’s an incredible privilege to have these songs.”

The duo are delighted to be premiering Sherlock Holmes And The 12 Days Of Christmas at Birmingham Rep, says Humphrey: “The principle we settled on was, let’s go somewhere that the show is going to be appreciated; where it’s going to be an event in some ways. Birmingham was top of our list. They read the script and loved it. And that got more exciting when we realised the many connections between Sherlock Holmes and Birmingham: Arthur Conan Doyle did some of his medical training here; you’ve got Baskerville House next door; and you’ve got Sherlock Street too.”

David says the show pays homage not just to Victorian melodrama but also to the world of the stage: “It’s a love story to theatre because it’s set in the West End at Christmastime, so Holmes and Watson circle around every kind of show you could possibly want to see. They interact with opera singers and Shakespearian actors and pantomime characters; there’s even a pantomime horse that they talk to at one point!

“I think Sherlock Holmes And The 12 Days Of Christmas has a bit of everything you might want in a Christmas show. There’s a rollickingly good plot, thrills and spills, an actual whodunnit that will keep you guessing and chatting with your friends in the interval, and bucketloads of laughs. Our primary goal has been to send people away tickled and happy.”

Sherlock Holmes And The 12 Days Of Christmas shows at The Rep, Birmingham, until Sunday 18 January.

By Diane Parkes