Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham.

And I'm so glad you decided to join me for today's lesson.

Now this is an exciting one.

Because today, we are going to be introduced to perhaps the most famous fictional detective of all time, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

I'm really looking forward to it and I hope you are too.

So let's make a step.

Today's lesson is called building knowledge of the historical context of Sherlock Holmes.

And it comes from my unit, called Sherlock Holmes, descriptive and letter writing.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to explain the historical context of Sherlock Holmes and explore the story, "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle".

Now when we read stories, it's often really helpful to understand the historical context, the historical background to the time period they're set in.

So that's what we do today in relation to its story about Sherlock Holmes.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Victorian era, private detective, first-person perspective and slum.

Well done.

So the Victorian era is the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901.

A private detective is someone, who does not work for the police, but whose job is to discover information about crimes.

The first-person perspective refers to the point of view where the speaker, or the narrator of the story is the I character, providing a personal account of events or experiences.

And a slum is an overcrowded city area where very poor people live.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We go to start off by exploring Victorian London and then we'll move on to reading "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", a Sherlock Holmes short story.

So in this unit, we're exploring the character Sherlock Holmes, one of the most famous private detectives in all of fiction.

And you can see an artist's impression here of Holmes with the pipe there and his sidekick, Dr.

Watson.

So the author of the Sherlock Holmes books is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who lived from 1859 to 1930 and he wrote four novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr.

Watson.

And the first Holmes' story was written in 1886, which is during the Victorian era.

And that's when Queen Victoria was the British monarch.

And she reigned, as we said, from 1837 to 1901.

And you can see an artist's impression of her here.

So most of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories were written in the time of Queen Victoria's reign in the Victorian era.

And obviously, that influences the things we see in those stories.

So we know that Sherlock Holmes is not a real character.

He's a fictional creation of Arthur Conan Doyle.

But based on this illustration of Sherlock Holmes, what would be your first impressions of this character? Pause the video and see how many impressions you can think of.

Have a go.

Well done, good thinking.

So maybe you said, "Hmm, he looks a bit old-fashioned, he looks quite wealthy, he looks fairly serious and smartly-dressed.

He looks kind of middle-aged.

He's slim, he looks quite elegant in that suit there.

He looks quite refined and also quite calm." So those might be some of the impressions that you had of Sherlock Holmes.

And as we read the story later, maybe some will be confirmed and some won't be.

Let's find out.

So the Sherlock Holmes' stories, as we said, are set in the Victorian era.

But the place they're set in is Victorian London.

So in the 19th century, which is the time from 1800 to 1900, London was the largest city in the whole world.

And it had over 5 million people at that time, which was five times as big as New York was then.

So it was the capital also of a huge empire, the British Empire, which at that point in time, covered nearly a quarter of the planet's whole land area.

And London was also the world's largest port with huge new docks for global trade.

So that's where we buy and sell goods from all around the world.

So there were many positive changes that happened in London during the Victorian era.

So if you've been living at that time, you might have seen the world's first mass transport system, which was the London Underground.

You might have seen the first ever tunnel under a large river, which was built in London in the Victorian times.

You might have seen in some areas, electric street lighting towards the end of the Victorian era.

And you might have seen the construction of famous museums, bridges and theatres.

So some big changes happening here and lots of building and construction going on of some very famous places.

So I'm going to show you now some London landmarks, which were constructed during the Victorian era, which you could still visit in London today.

We've got Tower Bridge, we've got the British Museum, a museum that has items from all around the world and we've got the Royal Albert Hall, a concert venue.

So the museum and the Royal Albert Hall there, would've been visited by wealthy Londoners in their leisure time.

So what does this tell us about life for wealthy people in Victorian London? Have a chat to the person next to you, or if you are on your own, you just have a think for yourself.

Well done, good ideas.

So maybe one thing you talked about was the idea that people must have had some leisure time if they were wealthy.

Because that would give them time to go and visit museums and art galleries and places like the Royal Albert Hall to watch performances as well.

Because you'd need some spare time after work to go and do that, wouldn't you? So if you're very poor and having to work throughout the day and late at night, you just wouldn't have been able to do that.

It also tells us these people had some disposable income, some spare money they didn't need to spend just on surviving.

They were able to spend on going to visit places like this as well.

So here are some statements about Victorian London.

Pause the video and decide if they're true or false.

Well, don't get thinking.

So A says, "London was a very large city during the Victorian era." Yes, it was the largest in the world with 5 million people.

B says, "Few changes occurred in London during this time." Now that's false.

We said there were quite a few developments, like the electric lights, the London Underground and so on, which were positive developments for some people.

C says, "Very few of the developments made in Victorian London still remain today." That's false.

We said, you can go visit some of them today.

D says, "London was a trading centre for the British Empire." That's true.

It had these huge ports where ships would be coming and going from all across the British empire to trade goods around the world.

Really well done for getting this.

So we said that there were some very positive developments, particularly for wealthy people in Victorian London.

However, there was a huge contrast between the lives of the rich and the poor.

And millions of Londoners lived in poverty in overcrowded, bad-quality housing in slums. And we can see an artist's depiction of a Victorian slum here in London.

And you can see there, there's an awful lot of people there.

It's very overcrowded and the conditions don't look good, do they? And here's another artist's depiction of a slum from above and you can see how tightly-packed the slum housing would be.

And look at the pollution we can see in the sky there as well.

So the streets of these slums were often open sewers of human waste with criminals hiding in alleyways.

They were very unpleasant, overcrowded places for people to live.

And millions of Londoners would've lived in these conditions.

You can see it looks very different to the Royal Albert Hall and the British Museum that we saw before.

So what do these images tell us about life for the poor in Victorian London? And what features can you see of life in a slum like these? Pause the video and see if you can list as many features as you can that you can spot in these pictures.

Have a go.

Well done, great ideas.

Maybe, you said things like "There are crowded streets, closely-packed houses, the polluted air.

People here look dejected and miserable, don't they? They're wearing ragged clothes, it's dark and it's grimy and the people look thin and hungry." So those are just some of the experiences people would've had in these slums. It could have been a very unpleasant place to live, a lot of the time.

So when people visited Victorian London, they were sometimes very shocked by what they saw.

And one of those people was the American author, Jack London, who visited the slums of London in 1902, just after Queen Victoria died.

So he was very shocked by what he saw and this is what he wrote.

"Here and there lurched a drunken man or woman and the air was obscene with sounds of jangling and squabbling.

At a market, tottery old men and women were searching in the garbage thrown in the mud for rotten potatoes, beans and vegetables, while little children clustered like flies around a festering mass of fruit, thrusting their arms to the shoulders into the liquid corruption and drawing forth morsels, which they devoured on the spot." So why was this scene so shocking to Jack London and what impression does he give of what these slums were like? Pause the video and talk to the person next to you, or have a think on your own if you need to.

Good thinking.

Yeah, I think that Jack London was particularly shocked by what he saw of the people here, really desperately trying to get the merest scrap of food.

Particularly, he describes the children searching around in this rotten food, looking for scraps that are edible.

And the same with the old men and women searching in the garbage for food.

I think he's shocked that in a city like London, which we said was the biggest in the world, the centre of this whole empire, the poor people there were desperate for food, perhaps so hungry that they're forced to eat food, which is on the verge of being rotten, or is mixed in with other rotten food.

So he gives the impression of people being completely desperate, doesn't he, desperate to survive in these really unpleasant conditions.

So here's another extract from Jack London's account of how rooms are let or rented out to people in the slums. So I want you to see if you can explain the system he's describing.

Let me read it to you.

It says, "Beds are let on the three-relay system, that is three tenants to a bed, each occupying it eight hours, so that it never grows cold, while the floor space underneath the bed is likewise let on the three-relay system." Hmm, some tricky language there.

Pause the video and see if you can work out what is this system Jack London is describing for how beds were let out in the slums? Have a think.

Good thinking, well done.

So each bed in this case in the slums was rented to three different people, who slept in it in shifts of eight hours each.

So one person would have it for eight hours, then they'd get out of bed.

Another person would come in, they'd have it eight hours, get out of bed.

And the third person would come in and so on and so on.

And even the space underneath each bed was rented out in exactly the same way.

So it would've been a very unpleasant way to live, wouldn't it, to be sharing your bed with three other people over the course of the day? So Jack London again is trying to show us how shocking these slum conditions were in Victorian London.

Really well done for working that out.

Now one of the change that happened during the Victorian era in London was the foundation of the Metropolitan Police.

And that was one of the world's first police forces.

So it's founded in the Victorian era to police London streets.

However, crime was very common, particularly in the slums. So here are some of the crimes that were common in Victorian London.

Often children were made to pickpocket, which means to steal from people without them knowing and to steal from people's market stalls.

Mugging was also very common.

That's when you steal from someone violently in the streets by attacking them.

And garotting was a very feared crime as well.

That's when you strangle someone from behind with a piece of cord or a piece of rope perhaps.

And it was so feared that people began wearing special anti-garotting collars in order to protect themselves, including the police.

So walking the streets of London at night could be very unsafe indeed.

And people would avoid this whenever possible, particularly if they lived near to one of these slums. So Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional private detective, Sherlock Holmes was incredibly popular with the Victorian readers at the time.

So how could that popularity have been connected to the situation we've just read about in London at the time? Pause the video and have a think carefully.

Why would Sherlock Holmes have been so popular with these Victorian readers in London? Have a think.

Good thinking, well done.

So maybe, because crime was very common, people might have been very fearful of being in London.

And because of this, they might have enjoyed the idea of reading about a detective, who was able to solve crimes and make the city safer.

And people may have felt that the new police force, the Metropolitan Police, was failing to prevent all this crime.

And so the idea of a private detective, who's not a police officer, might have been appealing to them.

Because remember, the difference between a private detective and a police detective, is that one works for the police force and a private detective does not work for the police force.

They are employed by people to solve crimes that maybe the police haven't been able to solve, or maybe the police are solving different crimes instead of this one.

So you are asking a private detective to help you out instead of the normal police.

So let's do our first task for this lesson.

And in this task, we are just going to be talking, not writing.

So I want you to think about all the information we've learned about Victorian London.

And I want you to take on the role of either a wealthy Londoner or a poor Londoner.

And I want you to be preparing to explain in role what London is like for you.

I want you to think about the following things.

Where do you live and what's it like? How excited are you about all these new developments we've seen in London? How safe do you feel? And are you glad that you live in London? So think about all those questions.

I want you to speak in role.

So you're gonna say I as if you are the wealthy person or the poorer person in London and speak about your experience of living there, based on what we've just learned.

So pause the video and have a go at this role-play.

Well done, some brilliant acting, nice one.

So perhaps, you mentioned some of the following ideas when you were speaking in role.

Maybe, if you were the wealthy person, you said something like this, "Have you tried out the London Underground yet? It's just marvellous! And the new museums and galleries are simply splendid.

We're the envy of the whole world! Just be sure not to go out after dark." And maybe, if you're the poor person, you might have said this, "I share a bed with three other people, it's just disgusting.

I'm always hungry and I have to steal rotten vegetables just to survive.

And you have to watch yourself all the time, just to stay safe.

I wish I'd never come here." So hopefully, you shared in your role-play that the experience of rich and poor people in London at the time would've been hugely different.

They might have seen the city in completely different ways.

The people who lived in the slums, might never have seen some of those built buildings that we saw constructed earlier.

They might never have gone on the London Underground.

Because their lives would've been really restricted perhaps to the slums in which they lived.

Really well done for showing that through your role-play.

So we've learned something about Victorian London now.

So we've learned about the historical context to Sherlock Holmes' stories.

So now we're going to start reading one, "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle".

So we're going to be reading a version of a Sherlock Holmes short story.

Now we know the original story is written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I'm gonna be reading you a version of that story.

And it's called "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle".

And it was first published in 1892, so about 10 years before Queen Victoria died.

And the story written in the first person from the perspective of Dr.

John Watson, Sherlock's friend and his loyal sidekick.

And that means John Watson is taking on the I role.

So when we see I in the story, that means John Watson.

He's telling us his perspective.

It's in the first person.

And it starts with the two men as often these stories do, sitting in Holmes' study, his office room at 221B Baker Street in London, which is his home address.

And as we read the story, I want you to think about the characters that are introduced and the way that Holmes solves the case.

So I'm going to now read the story aloud to you.

If you'd like to follow along, you can either go and download a version of the story from the additional materials for this lesson, or you can read it from the screen if you prefer.

"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle".

"Peterson's discovery.

It was a crisp December morning in London and the city was blanketed in frost.

I was settled comfortably in Holmes' quarters at 221B Baker Street, nursing a warm cup of tea.

Across from me, Sherlock Holmes was examining a tattered hat with his usual meticulous attention.

Suddenly, Holmes, holding up the hat to the light, remarked, 'Watson, this hat tells a story.

It's the story of a man, who despite facing hard times, maintains a semblance of dignity.

Its size suggests a man of some intelligence, the wear indicates reduced circumstances and the attempts at maintenance show his pride.

' 'And how did this hat come into your possession?' I asked.

'It was brought to me by Peterson, my doorman,' Holmes began.

'He witnessed a scuffle in the street whereby a man was set upon by a gang of ruffians.

That man, the owner of this hat, lost it in the kerfuffle, along with a goose he was carrying.

Unfortunately for the goose, it ended up as Peterson's dinner.

And as you can see, Watson, the man's name, Henry Baker, is clearly visible here in the rim of the hat.

' Just then, Peterson himself burst into the room, noticeably agitated.

In his hand, he held a small, glimmering blue stone.

'Mr. Holmes, look what I found inside the goose!' he exclaimed, handing the gem to Holmes.

Mr. Baker's visit.

Holmes examined the stone closely.

'Ah, this is no ordinary stone, Peterson! This is the blue carbuncle recently reported stolen from the Hotel Cosmopolitan.

' I was already familiar with this series of events, which had been widely reported in the newspapers.

A plumber by the name of John Horner, had already been arrested for the theft after a hotel employee, James Ryder, had reported permitting him to enter the room from which the gem had been stolen, just before it had gone missing.

As Horner had previously been convicted of theft, the case had been a simple one, or so it seemed.

To find the hat's owner, Holmes placed an advertisement in the evening paper, asking for Henry Baker to collect his belongings from 221B Baker Street.

The next day, a meek, scholarly individual arrived at Holmes' apartment at the appointed time.

'Mr. Baker, we believe this hat belongs to you,' Holmes said, handing him the hat.

Baker, looking relieved, replied, 'Yes, that is indeed my hat.

I lost it along with my Christmas goose in a terrible ruckus on the street the other day.

I'm very much obliged to you,' Baker said, taking it.

'And my goose?' 'The goose I'm afraid is no longer with us,' Holmes explained, looking intently at the man's face for any sign of distress.

'But you may have this one as a replacement.

' Holmes handed Baker a large bird and the man thanked him warmly.

It was evident that Baker had no idea that the carbuncle had been contained within the animal he had lost.

That left us with one overwhelming question.

If John Horner had indeed stolen the carbuncle, why had it ended up inside a goose and how had that goose got into the hands of Mr. Baker? Surely, any thief worth his salt, would not have mislaid a priceless jewel in such a careless manner.

Holmes picked up his pipe and hat and headed for the door.

'Watson,' he cried, 'We must go back to the very beginning! I fear Mr. Horner may not be the criminal in this case.

' A chance encounter at the market.

With a little effort, Holmes was able to trace the goose Baker had bought back to a stall in Covent Garden Market.

We hailed a cab and rushed there immediately, the stench of the city streets thick in our nostrils.

Once there, Holmes and I spotted a burly, red-faced man, overseeing a stall of geese.

As we approached the stall, we saw a slightly-built man already arguing with the vendor, a Mr. Breckenridge, asking him the whereabouts of a goose with a bar on its tail.

'I sold those geese days ago, you fool.

It's no use asking me to find one now!' Breckenridge was shouting at the slight man, who stormed off in our direction.

Holmes and I exchanged a knowing glance.

I saw instantly that the same question had sprung into his head as it entered mine.

Why on earth would a man be so keen to find one particular goose, unless he knew that goose contained something extremely valuable? 'Perhaps we can help you to locate your missing goose, sir, 'Holmes said, stepping in front of the slight man with an air of supreme authority.

'But first, may I ask your name?' The man hesitated, then replied, 'John Robinson,' but his voice lacked conviction.

'Or is it Mr. James Ryder? It's no use pretending.

We are well aware of who you are,' Holmes said calmly, yet with an edge that made the man visibly shrink.

I must confess that at this point, I did not fully comprehend how Holmes had arrived at this conclusion.

But Ryder knew the game was up.

His facade crumbled.

'Please, Mr. Holmes, I can explain everything.

But not here, not in public.

' Ryder's confession.

Back in the subdued light of the sitting room at 221B Baker Street, James Ryder, looking every bit the defeated man, recounted the tale of his ill-fated venture with a tremulous voice.

'I had the stone, Mr. Holmes, the blue carbuncle,' Ryder began, his voice barely above a whisper.

'I had debts, crushing debts and no way to pay them, you see.

And knowing that John Horner had been convicted of theft in the past, I invited him to the hotel and then took the jewel myself, blaming him.

I knew that they'd believe he'd done it, given his past.

' 'Then,' he continued, 'Knowing that I could be searched for the gem at any moment, I thought to hide it in a place where no one would think to look.

My sister raises geese on her farm in Brixton and I thought it a stroke of genius to conceal the gem in one of the birds.

I selected one of my sister's finest geese, a bird with a distinctive black bar on its tail.

I fed the gem to the goose and prepared to take it home, safe in the knowledge that even if I were searched, no gem could be found.

' Holmes nodded, urging him to continue.

'However, just as I was about to take the bird home, my sister distracted me.

All the birds looked remarkably similar and in my agitated state, I failed to notice the absence of the black bar on its tail.

I took it home, slit its throat and nothing.

' 'And by the time you realised your mistake?' Holmes asked.

'It was too late,' Ryder admitted, his voice tinged with despair.

'The bird was gone, sold to Breckenridge along with the others.

And with it, the blue carbuncle.

' The room fell silent as Ryder's tale came to an end.

Holmes leaned back in his chair, his face inscrutable.

The story was as remarkable as it was tragic, a man undone by his own cunning.

'I trust,' Holmes said, 'That you'll withdraw your witness statement against Mr. John Horner, so that he's released?' Ryder nodded sadly.

Holmes regarded him for a long moment, then nodded slowly.

'Then get out!' he cried.

And Ryder, eyes wide with shock, staggered from the room and we heard the jangle of the bell as he left the house.

Holmes turned to me, a thoughtful expression on his face.

'Watson, sometimes the law is not the only path to justice.

In Ryder's case, I believe his conscience, will prove a far more exacting judge than any court.

He shan't go wrong again.

'" I hope you enjoyed that story as much as I did.

Now we've only listened to it once now, so we won't know every single detail.

But let's see if we can test on the ledge a little bit of what we have listened to.

So first of all, I've got a description on the left of several of the characters and I'd like you to see if you can match each description to the character names on the right.

So pause the video and see if you can do that.

Well done, really good effort.

So A, the man who lost the hat and the goose was? Well done, Henry Baker.

B, "The man who was originally arrested for the theft," was, good, John Horner.

For C, "The man who actually committed the crime," was, that's right, James Ryder.

And for D, "The man who bought Holmes the hat," was Peterson, wasn't it, who was the doorman of Holmes' building.

Really well done for matching those up correctly.

Okay, let's try another one.

So true or false, "Holmes and Watson intentionally went looking for James Ryder at the market." Pause the video and decide.

Well done, that is false.

Now see if you can explain why.

Pause the video and decide which is the best justification for why that statement is false.

Well done, you're right, it's A.

So they went to the market, didn't they, to try and investigate, well, where did the goose come from, how did it get into Mr. Baker's hands? And while they were there, they overheard Ryder telling Breckenridge that he was looking for a goose.

And they realised then that he must be the thief.

Because why else would someone be going to the market, asking after a particular specific goose that they'd lost? So they deduced from that, from his behaviour that he must be the thief.

Really well done, hope you spotted that.

So let's do our final task for this lesson.

We've heard the story one time.

So we're ready to give our first impressions.

So I'm going to give you some questions and now you try to answer them in the grid.

So first of all, your likes, what did you enjoy about the story and which event was your favourite? So maybe you could say, "I enjoyed this and my favourite part was this." Then your dislikes, was there anything you didn't enjoy and did any characters annoy you? So maybe you could say, "I was unsure about this and I wanted to know more about this." Maybe you felt some details were missing.

And maybe you had some puzzles, so was there anything you didn't understand, or that you found strange in the story? So you might say, "I wondered this, or I don't understand why this happened." So pause the video and just note down, using these sentence structures if you like, your likes, your dislikes and your puzzles about the story, based on your first impressions, based on our first read.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, good effort.

So perhaps, you had some responses like these.

Maybe you said for your likes, "I love the way Holmes could tell so much about Mr. Baker, just from looking at his hat." I really like that too where he's able to deduce all those facts about Mr. Baker, just based on looking at his hat.

What about dislikes? Maybe you said, "I didn't think it was realistic that Ryder happened to be at the market at the same time as Watson and Holmes." So that was a big coincidence, wasn't it that they were there at the same time? And you might find that annoying in the story, or you might not mind.

It's up to your personal preference.

And as for puzzles, maybe you said, "I didn't understand why Ryder thought feeding the gem to the goose was a good idea." Maybe you thought that was just a silly thing to do.

Maybe you thought he could have hidden it in many other ways, other than inside a goose.

Really well done for noting down your first impressions of that Sherlock Holmes' story.

So let's summarise what we've learned in this lesson.

We've learned that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

And he featured in 60 stories published from 1886 onwards.

We learned that the stories are set in Victorian London and this was the world's biggest city at the time, a place of huge contrast between rich and poor and with high levels of crime.

We learned that "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is a short story in which Holmes solves the crime of a jewel theft.

Really well done for your effort in this lesson.

I hope you really enjoyed the story that we've shared together.

I'd love to see you again in a future lesson, goodbye.