THE GALLERY OF THE GREAT DETECTIVES (1954)

This is a 7-part German crime series by Peter A. Horn. In self-contained and unconnected episodes, the great detectives of crime literature solve various cases. Sherlock Holmes (Ernst Fritz Fürbringer) and Dr. Watson (Harald Mannl) start things off, followed by Auguste Dupin, David Wilson, Father Brown, Inspector Bucket, Sergeant Cuff and Hercule Poirot. Every episode of this early crime series in the early days of television was still broadcast live. It could hardly have been more irregular: it was broadcast in loose succession on different days at different start times in prime time, and the length of the broadcast varied between 25 and 50 minutes.