With new songs from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

John Kearns is joining the Penny Dreadfuls team for a new Sherlock Holmes comedy play – with new songs from  Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

He will appear alongside  Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Margaret Cabourn-Smith in Sherlock Holmes And The Twelve Days of Christmas at the Birmingham Rep this winter.

The show was written by Reed and Ker, who is also the community director for Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Wrexham football team and regularly seen on their FX and Disney+’s documentary. 

 Ker said: ‘As diehard Sherlock Holmes fans, Dave and I are absolutely delighted to have tricked the Birmingham Rep into allowing us to write and star in a wildly silly Holmes and Watson adventure.  

‘ And to do it with such beloved friends and collaborators  is the stuff of dreams. Can't wait to don the deerstalker and become  Sherlock Holmes.'

Reed added. ‘Humphrey and I have been obsessed with the characters of Holmes and Watson ever since we met on a stage in Edinburgh some 20 years ago. We pastiched them in our first radio series The Brothers Faversham and crowbarred them into our turns on BBC Two improvised sketch show Fast & Loose. 

‘To now get to play them in earnest is quite honestly a dream come true. And to be joined by the cosmic comedic talents of Margaret Cabourn-Smith and John Kearns as Mrs Hudson and Lestrade is preposterous good fortune.

‘ I can’t quite believe it’s real, but barring being framed for a series of genuine murders and having to become fugitives from the law, it appears to be actually happening. I’m pinching myself daily. Incredibly exciting.’

Alongside Thom Tuck, Reed, Ker – and usually   Cabourn-Smith – are the Penny Dreadfuls  sketch comedy troupe, who have made a string of pastiche shows for BBC radio.  

Sherlock Holmes and The Twelve Days of Christmas is being directed by Phillip Breen with Becky Hope-Palmer. 

The description of the show reads: ‘It’s Christmas in Victorian London but in the West End - where dreams come true and nothing bad ever happens - a flurry of performers are suddenly dying mid-scene. Scotland Yard rules out foul play...  until the world’s greatest consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, discovers an intriguing link to The Twelve Days of Christmas. The game is afoot!  

‘Racing against the clock to save French hens, find gold rings and rescue Mother Goose, Sherlock plunges himself into mortal danger.  Will this really be the last stand for our hero or will his trusty sidekick Dr Watson and rival hotshot detective Athena Faversham ensure he lives to consume another Christmas Pudding...?  

The show will run at Birmingham Rep from Friday November 14 to Sunday  January 11.

Published: 20 May 2025