Royal row over spoof Sherlock Holmes play in Leominster

Feb 14 2011 by Catherine Lillington, Sunday Mercury

SHERLOCK Holmes’s legal team have got into a right royal row over a spoof play featuring the fictional sleuth and a pair of Queen Victoria’s knickers.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Mysterious Case of the Queen’s Knickers, staged in Herefordshire, had to be re-written following complaints from Sherlock’s copyright holders.

The Victorian detective’s legal team were especially concerned at lewd comments in the play as the copyright holder, Andrea Plunket, is married to the Queen’s cousin the Right Hon Shaun Plunket.

The production, written by Richard Brookman, originally featured Queen Victoria “swearing like a trooper” because her underwear was laced with poison.

The play then showed Sherlock investigating who attacked the monarch’s pants, and foiling a plot to destroy the royal family and the cabinet with explosive Christmas puddings, aided by his sidekick Dr Watson.

Mrs Plunket’s mother bought the trademark of Sherlock’s creator Arthur Conan Doyle from his family.

Literary estate managers Jonathan Clowes, speaking on behalf of Mrs Plunket, said: “It was in rather bad taste – lots of swearing, and not maintaining the legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle.

“And considering Andrea is married to a family member of the Queen, it was distasteful. We took action against it and it’s not going ahead.”