The serialised detective drama Sherlock Holmes Untold reaches the beginning of the end in this week’s seventh episode, The Adventure of the Politician, the Lighthouse and the Trained Cormorant - Part One. 

Over the series, Doctor Watson (Richard Earl) has been on a train with prime minister Jasper Cranfield (Christopher Naylor) and his secretary Rosborough (Luke Barton), recounting cases from across the career of Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Briggs). But how do all these cases connect? 

Throughout them all, a sinister organisation known as the Lighthouse has been pulling strings. It’s 1913, and the world is rushing towards a great war, but another conflict has been going on in the shadows for decades – and it’s time for it to come into the light. 

Sherlock Holmes Untold is now available to purchase for just £24.99, exclusively here. This purchase will grant you access to all eight weekly episode downloads, as well as the complete serial as a box set download to own once all episodes have been released. 

The Adventure of the Politician, the Lighthouse and the Trained Cormorant - Part One 

On the Prime Minister’s train, as the world stands on the brink, Dr Watson’s stories are reaching their crescendo. Yet before then there is one more account to be revealed – the truth about the long and secret war between Mr Holmes and that tentacular organisation known as the Lighthouse! 

Sherlock Holmes Untold: The Adventure of the Politician, the Lighthouse and the Trained Cormorant - Part One guest stars Robert Whitelock as Anthony Kingsley, Timothy Bentinck as Mycroft Holmes, John Banks as Sebastian Moran, Phyllida Nash as the Dowager Countess of Tremayne, and Nicholas Boulton as Delamere and Langdale Pike. 

Writer Jonathan Barnes said: “This is the finale of our series, inspired by that famous reference in The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger, in which Watson says that attempts have been made to get at his treasure trove of documents concerning Holmes’ cases. 

“And he warns the reader – we know who is behind these attempts, and if they persist, the full story concerning the Politician, the Lighthouse and the Trained Cormorant will be released. And that’s always been extremely tantalising! 

“We’ve made this into the overarching story of Sherlock Holmes Untold, but particularly of these final two episodes. Although a lot of the stories so far have been quite small, quite domestic, it’s important to end on a larger canvas.” 

Lead actor Nicholas Briggs added: “In the last two episodes, Holmes is really trying to get to the nub of the whole mystery. What he normally does is delve into the depths of society and pretend to be a cab driver or a newspaper salesman. But this time he has to go to the upper classes, and he finds, because he’s dealing with scandal and the last thing people of great reputation want is for their reputations to be ruined, all the doors are barred.” 

There will be an ‘after show’ discussion for this episode in this week’s edition of the Big Finish Podcast, due to be released on Friday, with producer and presenter Iain Meadows joined by special guests Jonathan Barnes, Nicholas Briggs and Luke Barton, as well as Steve Wallace and Mark Jones from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. 

Next week on Sherlock Holmes Untold, the series reaches its dramatic conclusion, and on the eve of war, a decades-long conspiracy is revealed, in The Adventure of the Politician, the Lighthouse and the Trained Cormorant - Part Two. 

Sherlock Holmes Untold is now available to purchase for just £24.99 as a series of digital downloads to own, released weekly exclusively from www.bigfinish.com.

All the above prices (including pre-order and multibuy bundle discounts) are fixed for a limited time only and guaranteed no later than 31 January 2026.